Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
50 viewers is a busy shoe store
Foot traffic
Twitch treated a stream under a thousand viewers as non-economic, because entertainment runs on CPMs. Commerce has different economics, and 30 to 50 people in a stream is more foot traffic than most stores ever see.
Low-intent shopping
Most shopping is low intent. E-commerce is about 30 years old and has never exceeded 20% of US retail spend. People go to the mall with a wedding coming and nothing to wear, and wander to find out what they want. The value of the store is the person who runs it, who has taste, curates a selection, offers customer service, and dresses a window.
Live and agents
Live commerce brings the scale and convenience of the internet together with that social experience of physical shopping. AI agents suit high-intent errands such as light bulbs, air filters, a particular cable, or black shoes delivered by Thursday. Retail is a seven and a half trillion dollar industry in the US, so there is room for both.
How do CPMs make small streams look worthless?
CPM stands for cost per mille, the price an advertiser pays for a thousand ad impressions. A stream with a few dozen viewers can only show a few dozen impressions at a time, so its ad revenue is tiny whatever the CPM. A sale works differently, because the revenue comes from the item bought. That is why a small audience can earn little from ads and still make money through commerce.
How old is online shopping really?
In August 1994 a customer bought a Sting album through the web site NetMarket, widely cited as one of the first secure online retail transactions. Amazon opened for business in 1995, and so did eBay. The US Census Bureau has tracked e-commerce as a share of retail sales since 1999. Over those decades the share has risen steadily but has stayed well below half of total retail.
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