'Home appliance queen' urges greater innovation

Known as China's "home appliances queen", Dong Mingzhu, the chairwoman and president of Gree Electric Appliances, is always ready to accept new challenges.

The 65-year-old entrepreneur jumped on the livestreaming bandwagon recently when the company's offline sales were severely hampered by the COVID-19 outbreak. On May 15, she made huge sales of 703 million yuan ($98.6 million) while livestreaming on the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.

Dong, also a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress, tried her first livestream on April 24 on the online video platform Douyin. However, her debut was not a success, due mainly to slow internet and her being unfamiliar with the format. She made only 220,000 yuan in sales that night.