Kuala Lumpur, February 9, 2021 – In the lead-up to the upcoming Chinese New Year festival, Mr. Syed Mohamad Fairus Shaik Ismail, Consul of the Trade Section and Mr. Wizani Rosmin, Consul of the Tourism Section from the Consulate General of Malaysia in Shanghai on February 7 took users of Alibaba’s travel platform Fliggy on a journey of Malaysia’s cultural treasures including tourist destinations and cuisine.
The event was livestreamed via the Fliggy platform from a Malaysian-specialty restaurant in Shanghai and across two hours, attracting more than tens of thousands of viewers as they get their minds and palates ready for Chinese New Year celebrations.
Created as part of a ‘Live Embassy Open Day’ series by Fliggy in collaboration with embassy/consulate general officials from February 4 to 7, the livestream events were designed to allow Fliggy users to experience travelling around the world and experiencing foreign cultures without physically going abroad. Besides Malaysia, other countries featured in the series include Belgium, Rwanda and Thailand.
In the spirit of Chinese New Year, during their livestream appearance, Mr. Syed Mohamad Fairus Shaik Ismail and Mr. Wizani Rosmin shone the spotlight on some of the unique Chinese New Year dishes in Malaysia. Highlights included the preparation and meaning behind the Yee Sang and salted-egg fried prawns.
The two-hour session also highlighted quintessential Malaysian delights such as the ever popular Musang King durian, in addition to other Malaysian specialty products hosted on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms including ZEK salted crackers, Mamee Instant Noodles, Gold Choice White Coffee and Spritzer mineral water.
During the livestream, viewers were also given a presentation on popular tourism destinations in Malaysia, its cultural elements as well as various celebrations and festivals, geographical features and other unique attributes, to attract Chinese travelers to visit Malaysia once international borders are opened. Malaysia is a favourable travel destination for Chinese travelers as they can communicate easily since Mandarin is widely spoken in the country. The event also highlighted how familiarity with Malaysia has grown amongst Chinese consumers through the Alibaba platform and its global eWTP initiative.
With global travel and offline retail at a standstill in many parts of the world, livestreaming has become a mainstream channel for overseas brands and merchants to maintain a link to the China market. Fliggy’s Chinese New Year livestreaming series is the latest example of Alibaba and partners using livestreaming to help overseas destinations and products stay top-of-mind with Chinese consumers.
Malaysia is a key market in Alibaba Group’s globalisation strategy and the company remains invested in contributing to the country’s growing digital transformation while empowering local SMEs and digital entrepreneurs as part of its eWTP initiative.
