Impacts of product presentation duration on livestream efficiency: evidence from the largest Chinese livestream platform

Purpose Product presentation duration (PPD) is a critical decision factor in the evolving livestream business model, yet its effects on livestream efficiency are not well understood. This paper aims to study the causal impact of PPD on livestream efficiency in the livestream shopping context. Design/methodology/approach In collaboration with a leading TikTok livestream agency, the authors use a control function approach to investigate the effect of PPD on livestream efficiency, while exploring the underlying mechanisms with a fixed-effect model. Findings The authors find that PPD has an inverted U-shaped relationship with livestream efficiency. For hedonic products, the turning point occurs later than for utilitarian products. In addition, higher live streamer competence shifts the turning point to the right, while increased live comment volume moves it to the left. The analysis of live commerce videos using the Alibaba commercial application programming interface (API), combined with large language models examining streamers’ spoken content, reveals that as product presentations progress, the streamer’s spoken word count and information volume per minute increase, suggesting an informative effect. However, product clicks decrease and negative comments increase, indicating a weariness effect. Research limitations/implications The findings’ generalizability is limited by data from one platform. Diverse data sources could enrich future research. Practical implications The authors offer actionable insights for live streamers, firms and platforms to enhance sales performance. Originality/value Drawing on signaling theory, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to scrutinize the direct impact of PPD on livestream efficiency and identify the boundary conditions affecting this relationship.