Traders Are Paying Close Attention As Farmers Become Live-Streaming Stars
- Video clips on Kuaishou monitored for tips on sentiment
- Streaming app startups are latest booming tech business
A farmer walks through a rice paddy in this aerial photograph taken on the outskirts of Wenzhou, China, on Friday, Oct. 26, 2018.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Streaming apps have taken China by storm with short videos of dancing teens, lip-syncing and all kinds of weird antics. Now traders are using them to predict the future of grain prices.
For example, a farmer in the rural northeast is using his phone to film trucks lining up to load mounds of golden corn. Some 2,000 miles away in his Shenzhen office, Honda Wei watches attentively, scrutinizing the producer’s excited utterances and images of his fields for clues on supply and demand.