(Yicai Global) June 1 -- Apple’s first livestreamed sales event kicked off on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s platform Tmall yesterday ahead of a mega online shopping festival during which the US tech giant is preparing to offer substantial discounts on its main products to drum up sales in the China market.

Apple went live on Tmall at 7 p.m. China time last night, touting 24 of its latest products including the iPhone14 Pro, Apple Watch and AirPods, sister platform Taobao said today. Some 1.3 million viewers tuned in and the studio garnered 300,000 likes. But the four sales hosts did not mention prices or discounts and most of the time was devoted to pre-recorded footage of product features and user instructions.

The live event was a prelude to what the California-based firm is offering in the 618 Shopping Bonanza scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. that night on Tmall. The company has prepared 550,000 iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Maxes, 190,000 iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pluses and more than 50,000 iPhone 13 and 13 minis for sale during the e-gala.

During the festival, Apple is offering discounts of CNY1,500 (USD211) on the iPhone 14 Pro, it is reducing the price of the iPhone 14 Pro 128G and the iPhone 14 128G by CNY1,000 and that of the Apple Watch Series 8 by CNY400, according to info on its Tmall store.

Apple's profit in the second fiscal quarter ended April 1 slumped 3.4 percent from the year before to USD24.1 billion while revenue dipped 2.5 percent to USD94.8 billion. Apple's China sales, which includes the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, tumbled 2.8 percent to USD17.81 billion.

No dates have been given yet for Apple’s next live sales event on Tmall, but this could be a new growth point for the US tech giant as it seeks to better tap the Chinese market.

Editor: Kim Taylor