The Imperative for Change
The Chinese market has become increasingly pivotal for Christie's, highlighting the need for solutions that go beyond traditional boundaries. Historically, Chinese art enthusiasts and collectors faced hurdles in participating fully in global auctions due to geographical distances and language differences. These challenges not only limited their access but also hindered their ability to engage seamlessly with Christie's offerings.
Recognizing these obstacles, Christie's saw an opportunity to create a platform on WeChat that could bring the excitement of global auctions directly to Chinese buyers, fostering a more inclusive and interactive experience.
The Transformative Solution
To address these issues, we support the creation of Christie's Live Auction WeChat Mini-Program which features a completely refreshed design for the user interaction experience. It aligns more precisely with the usage habits of Chinese users.
Christie's auction buyers exhibit strong preferences regarding the category, age, and author of the auction items. We have integrated the behavioral data generated by users in the Mini-program with the user data in the Christie's CRM system to construct a personalized recommendation system, allowing users to directly view the auctions and lots relevant to them on the homepage of the Mini-program.
Users can engage in all auctions of Christie's globally via this mini-program, even encompassing video live bidding. Hence, extremely high demands are placed on the real-time nature, stability, and security of the system. Additionally, we have established a Christie's exclusive AI translation model, enabling non-Chinese contents to be translated instantly and accurately within the auction and lot browsing interface.
To ensure the high-speed and stable nature of the service, we have collaborated with Alibaba Cloud to establish a local copy in China. In the process of content localization, technologies including GenAI are utilized to effectively address the challenges presented by language and cultural differences through intelligent algorithms and localized processing, ensuring that users can smoothly obtain information. At the same time, a WeChat ecosystem is constructed by leveraging WeChat official accounts, WeChannel, and WeCom to realize the interconnection of multi-channel content and user data. Leveraging with Alibaba Cloud to guarantee the stability of the system, and with the assistance of technologies such as GenAI to achieve precise localized processing and the WeChat ecosystem to achieve efficient interaction, these core technical advantages provide robust support for Christie's services, enabling it to better serve Chinese customers and demonstrating significant competitiveness at the technical level.
The Business Impact
With the launch of this digital platform, Christie's aims to empower Chinese collectors and art enthusiasts by breaking down geographical barriers and democratizing access to global art and luxury items. Beyond enhancing market reach and competitiveness, this initiative is poised to deepen engagement and strengthen Christie's presence in the vibrant Chinese market. By fostering a more connected and interactive auction experience, Christie's anticipates fostering stronger relationships with its audience, driving increased participation in global auctions, and solidifying its leadership in the digital transformation of the auction industry.
In 2023, Christie’s WeChat Mini-Program had won the Red Dot Design Award, for the recognition of its excellence in Interface and User Experience Design.
