以AI为增长抓手 快手818“宠粉节”启动

This article breaks down Kuaishou E-commerce’s full-cycle policy for the 2026 818 Fan Appreciation Festival, launched on August 3. Built around the theme of "Genuine Fan Care, Real Low Prices", the campaign delivers tangible benefits for both general users and small business operators.

1. Basic event details: The festival runs from August 4 to August 28, divided into preheating, official event, and result announcement phases. It features inclusive activities such as open streaming for all users and daily flash sales, with general users eligible for platform-provided product subsidies and genuine low-price discounts.

2. Practical takeaways for ordinary operators: Both individual streamers and small and medium-sized merchants can join the low-barrier Black Horse Leap Program and扶摇 Fuyao Program. Leveraging the platform’s upgraded AI capabilities, participants gain intelligent support for product selection, content creation, and ad placement, plus dedicated traffic support. This lowers operational barriers and trial-and-error costs, making it easier to grow followers and boost GMV.

The policy adjustments for Kuaishou’s 2026 818 Fan Appreciation Festival bring multiple benefits and strategic insights for brands operating on Kuaishou E-commerce.

1. Marketing strategy alignment: The platform has shifted its incentive focus from short-term transaction volume to long-term follower growth and user retention, which aligns perfectly with brands’ goal of building long-term user assets. It offers full-funnel support covering everything from product sourcing to conversion and content creation to follower growth, enabling brands to run end-to-end operations smoothly.

2. Tiered support for different business scales: Top brand streamers can take on combined challenges ranging from 2 million to 50 million yuan in incremental GMV and 50,000 to 200,000 new followers, with corresponding traffic and other support from the platform. Small and medium-sized brands can also join low-barrier support programs to achieve breakthrough growth from zero to 1 million yuan in GMV.

3. Strategic trend insight: Kuaishou is currently moving away from pure price competition to pursue AI-driven, refined operational endogenous growth. Brands can align with this direction to meet consumer demand for authentic low-price offers and build long-term sustainable growth.

Kuaishou’s newly released 818 Fan Appreciation Festival policy outlines clear opportunities and directions for sellers across all tiers.

1. Clear policy breakdown: The festival runs from August 4 to 28 across three phases, with tiered tasks structured for different seller levels: top sellers can pursue combined incremental GMV and follower growth challenges, while small and medium-sized sellers can access the low-barrier Black Horse Leap Program and Fuyao Program, which are designed to help small sellers scale from a few thousand followers to 1 million yuan in GMV.

2. Defined growth opportunities: The platform has boosted support across product subsidies and traffic allocation, and upgraded the AI capabilities of its Magnet金牛 (Cili Jinniu) ad platform with three new AI products. It also offers three layers of traffic support for first-launched marketing materials, helping sellers lower placement barriers and trial-and-error costs, and transition from experience-driven to data- and AI-driven operations.

3. Key opportunity note: This promotion focuses on driving healthy growth during the traditional off-season for e-commerce. Sellers can leverage the event to build long-term user assets and capture AI-enabled dividends to improve operational performance.

Kuaishou’s 2026 818 Fan Appreciation Festival initiative brings actionable insights and new business opportunities for e-commerce-enabled factories.

1. Accessible business opportunities: The platform’s low-barrier support programs for small and medium-sized merchants create a low-threshold entry point for factories running owned-brand direct streaming or D2C operations. Factories can leverage platform product subsidies and traffic support to grow GMV while building follower bases and user assets. The campaign’s inclusive玩法 also spreads the promotional burst across regular operating nodes, making it ideal for factories to build their user base steadily.

2. Insights for digital and e-commerce transformation: Kuaishou has positioned AI as a core enabler for operations, with AI covering the full funnel from product recommendation, content creation to ad placement optimization. Factories can use these AI tools to lower operational barriers, reduce trial-and-error costs, and shift from experience-driven operations to data- and AI-driven processes that boost efficiency.

3. Alignment for production strategy: The campaign’s focus on "real low prices" reflects strong consumer demand for high-value, cost-effective products. Factories can adjust their product design and production strategy to launch more high-value offerings that match market demand.

Service providers can identify new industry trends and emerging business opportunities from Kuaishou’s strategic adjustments for the 2026 818 Fan Appreciation Festival.

1. Key industry trends: The live streaming e-commerce sector has moved beyond the era of competing purely on price and chasing short-term GMV, and is now shifting toward long-term healthy growth. AI has become a core enabler for both merchant operations and platform growth, with full-funnel AI empowerment as a clear industry direction.

2. Core pain points for clients: Small and medium-sized merchants have long struggled with high entry barriers for campaign participation and high trial-and-error costs; experience-dependent operations also deliver inconsistent results, which discourages many small merchants from joining large promotions. Merchants broadly demand lower operational barriers and access to targeted traffic support.

3. New service direction: Service providers can build new offerings around the upgraded AI capabilities of Kuaishou’s Cili Jinniu platform, developing tailored services for small and medium-sized merchants covering product selection, content creation, and ad optimization. This helps merchants make full use of Kuaishou’s AI tools, capture the promotional traffic dividend, and align with the platform’s long-term growth strategy.

Kuaishou’s adjusted strategy and new玩法 for the 2026 818 Fan Appreciation Festival offer valuable operational and strategic insights for other platform operators.

1. Core merchant needs: Merchants at different tiers have distinct needs: top merchants need supporting resources to hit incremental growth targets, while small and medium-sized merchants need low-barrier access, low-cost operational tools and traffic support. Across the board, merchants prioritize lowering operational barriers and building long-term user assets over chasing only short-term transaction volume.

2. Kuaishou’s innovative approach: Kuaishou has adopted a tiered task system to meet the needs of both top and small merchants, positioned AI as a core empowerment tool, upgraded ad product capabilities, spread promotional energy across regular operating nodes, and shifted incentive focus from short-term GMV to long-term follower growth and retention. This is a deliberate exploration of a growth path that avoids pure price competition.

3. Operational takeaways: When running large promotional events, platforms can move away from homogeneous price competition and pursue an endogenous growth path built on refined operations and technology-driven enablement. Tiered operations can serve merchants across all segments to drive platform-wide growth, and can also stimulate healthy growth during the traditional off-peak season for e-commerce.

The strategic adjustments Kuaishou has made for the 2026 818 Fan Appreciation Festival reflect new shifts in the live streaming e-commerce industry, offering a fresh case study for industry research.

1. New industry shifts: The live streaming e-commerce sector has exited its initial traffic红利 era, and the old growth model driven purely by price wars is no longer sustainable. The industry is now entering an endogenous growth phase powered by refined operations and technological progress, with platforms shifting their operating goals from chasing short-term GMV to building long-term user assets and sustainable business growth.

2. Exploration of a new business model: Kuaishou has tested a new model centered on AI-powered full-funnel empowerment for merchants, tiered operations for different business sizes, and using large promotions to empower daily operations. AI tools lower entry barriers for small and medium-sized merchants to enable inclusive growth, and the initiative validates the feasibility of a growth path that avoids price competition.

3. Research implications: This strategic adjustment represents an innovation in the live streaming e-commerce promotion model, providing a new sample for research into platform strategic transformation and industry growth direction, and offering an empirical case for future research on industry policy and development trends.