How Alibaba Scaled Live Streaming Across Apps with an Open Platform Architecture

Live Streaming Open Design

On May 17, 2020, Alibaba launched the first domestic live streaming program “Towards a Better Future,” using cultural e‑commerce to boost domestic sales and support SMEs during the pandemic.

The Taobao Live technical team built an open platform (ALive) supporting SDK, Weex, and mini‑program integration, enabling simultaneous broadcasting on multiple platforms such as Taobao, Youku, Alipay, and the high‑commission alliance, achieving over 20 million viewers and 128 million sales for the Nio ES6 session.

Architecture Overview

Basic Capability : Media foundation including player, low‑latency channel, and bidirectional communication, implemented differently per platform.

App Layer : Weex container, message channel, lifecycle management; mini‑program layer provides same‑level rendering and runtime APIs.

Live Container : Defines component rendering rules, common APIs, and message distribution.

Material Integration : Supports second‑ and third‑party components, handling initialization, building, iteration, and deployment.

Open Delivery : ALive platform reviews and publishes components; Taobao flow syncs directly, while mini‑programs require separate review.

Mini‑Program Open Technology

We focused on improving performance in the Taobao app environment, abstracting the live container, and providing rich container capabilities. The optimal solution for external apps is the mini‑program approach due to its lower integration cost and flexibility.

Mini‑Program Open Process

Key steps include defining official plugins, official components, second‑party components, and future third‑party plugins, then building a mini‑program instance via cloud construction or IDE, and finally binding it to ALive for multi‑platform delivery.

Mini‑Program Design

The design consists of a live plugin, a cross‑platform communication layer using @alipay/armer-x, custom mini‑program components, and the generated mini‑program instance.

<live-room onConnectEmitter="onConnectEmitter" />

Developers import the emitter with:

import { attachEmitter4C } from '@alipay/armer-x';
Component(
  attachEmitter4C({
    // ...
  }, { rpc: true })
)

Results

In April, the Alipay mini‑program supported customized components for finance, insurance, lifestyle, and merchant live streams, driving significant user growth. The Baichuan mini‑program extended the reach to third‑party apps such as High‑Commission Alliance and Flower Birthday Diary.

Future Outlook

Upgrade mini‑program open process to full engineering automation.

Upgrade Taobao environment to Rax 1.x and align with mini‑program DSL.

Build a full‑link open solution covering producer, broadcaster, and consumer sides.

Explore media‑technology mini‑programization using WebAssembly for playback, low‑latency channels, and streaming.

Planning Rhythm

Taobao Live mini‑program completed.

Taobao ecosystem open + mini‑program upgrade in progress.

Full‑link open for production side.

Media technology mini‑programization with WASM.

Conclusion

Thanks to all partners who co‑built the mini‑program live streaming open platform; interested developers are welcome to join.