Bargaining in Chinese livestream sales events

Abstract

In this study, we examine practices of bargaining in Chinese livestream sales events. In such livestreams, the host, usually an Internet celebrity, invites a company representative to advertise a product for the customers who are usually fans of the host. Following the promotion, the host is expected to bargain with the seller to reduce the price of the item for the customers. We approach livestream bargaining as a ritual practice in which ostensible aggression is tolerated. We capture the conventional interactional features of bargaining as strategies. We also compare livestream bargaining strategies with face-to-face ones, which allows us to capture how cyberspace affects Chinese bargaining practices. Our outcomes fill a knowledge gap because in pragmatics little attention has been devoted to bargaining in Chinese livestream sales events, even though bargaining is an important tradition in Chinese social interaction.