User Growth Practices and Data Strategy for Taobao Live App (DianTao)

This article shares the user growth practice of the Taobao Live app (DianTao), describing its business background, industry challenges, and the data‑driven strategies employed to increase user acquisition, retention, activation and recall.

Business background and industry challenges – DianTao is Alibaba’s official live‑streaming app, integrating short‑video and live commerce. The market faces three major challenges: economic pressure and budget tightening, intense competition from platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu, and traffic constraints due to its Alibaba‑origin label.

Data strategy and capability design – The growth problem is split into user acquisition (new users) and retention (keeping users). A four‑stage user lifecycle is defined: acquisition, onboarding, growth, and churn. Corresponding data capabilities are built for each stage, including attribution, channel evaluation, audience targeting, bid optimization, and funnel analysis.

User acquisition – Core capabilities cover attribution, channel evaluation, audience segmentation, bid and creative optimization, and viral growth mechanisms (DPA+RTA, referral incentives). Strategies aim to improve both scale and quality while controlling cost.

User onboarding (acceptance) – A funnel visualizes the path from exposure to download and in‑app usage. Advanced abilities such as scene reconstruction and dynamic routing allocate traffic to the most suitable landing pages, improving short‑term retention.

User activation – Focuses on long‑term retention and value through activity segmentation, targeted re‑engagement, audience targeting, bid optimization, and channel de‑duplication. Relationship mining is used to boost participation in social “hire‑to‑work” features.

User recall – Involves defining churn, predicting pre‑churn users with models, and intervening with personalized incentives. Post‑churn recall combines outreach and onboarding techniques, leveraging dynamic routing and differentiated treatment.

Overall, the case demonstrates how a data‑centric approach can address growth constraints in a competitive e‑commerce live‑streaming environment.