A livestreaming event entitled Discover Hangzhou kicks off at the China (Hangzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone Aug 18. [Photo provided to ehangzhou.gov.cn]

Livestream e-commerce is prospering in China, especially in Hangzhou, where the industrial giant Alibaba is headquartered. Though its cross-border sector is still little known to the public, a group of people have been working hard on the business.

Anita, a 24-year-old Spanish woman, is one of them. On a Monday morning in August, she hosted three livestreams from 9am to 12 pm, the time when night was falling in the United States, introducing viewers across the Pacific to bedding products, bikes and sunscreen masks.

Unlike Chinese hosts who usually take part in every process of a livestream, from selecting goods to rehearsing scripts, foreign hosts mainly need to have an understanding of the goods and narrate in a fluent and interesting way. They seldom chat with viewers, let alone gossip.

Before becoming a livestream host, Anita had been running a gym in China for four years and her experience as a host has even attracted the attention of her hometown media.

"Here in China, we have Viya and Li Jiaqi as top hosts, while in Spain it's totally vacant so I saw it a good chance to get a head start," Anita said.

Anita is one of 20 hosts employed by Wotokol, a multichannel network company for cross-border e-commerce businesses. According to Lin Ya, manager of the company, part-time hosts can earn about 3,000 yuan ($438) for each live show, while fulltime hosts like Anita can receive more.

"Competition will certainly get fiercer in the cross-border livestream e-commerce industry, but we are prepared and want to share our mistakes and experience with more people," Lin said.