URUMQI — For about nine hours a day, Altyn Magzina sells clothes to customers through livestreams from Horgos, a border city in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region facing Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh livestreamer runs the business with a Chinese partner and says she sells at least 300 items a day, giving her an income about 10 times what she earned trading goods back in Kazakhstan.

Magzina is among over 300 foreign livestreamers now working regularly at the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center. Another 100-plus Chinese hosts are also based there, according to the center's management office.

A long-standing trade gateway, the county-level city under Xinjiang's Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture was approved as a national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone in November 2022, and is now part of the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The city currently has 45 cross-border e-commerce companies, according to the municipal commerce bureau. Its cross-border e-commerce turnover reached 30.97 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) in 2025, up 288.9 percent year-on-year. The figure stood at 18.41 billion yuan in the first seven months of this year.

Warehouses, logistics firms, online platforms and product selection centers have grown alongside the livestreaming business. Products moving through the system include household goods, small appliances, clothing, tools and auto parts, with sales reaching more than 30 countries.

At a cross-border e-commerce incubation center, Kazakh host Valeriy Bolotov prepares neck massagers, artificial intelligence translation earphones, wearable devices and other products before going live. Bolotov once ran a brick-and-mortar shop in Almaty, Kazakhstan's commercial hub, selling products such as honey and fresh food. As online shopping caught on with Central Asian consumers, he spotted a business opportunity selling Chinese products online, drawn by their variety, quality and fast cross-border delivery.

He moved to Horgos and began using his existing customer base and social media accounts to sell Chinese products. Since then, he said, his business has expanded beyond Kazakhstan to reach markets such as Russia and Uzbekistan.

That is where hosts like Jamalov Abdulzakir come in.

The 29-year-old Kazakh, who previously studied in China and speaks fluent Chinese, now works as an overseas business manager at a cross-border e-commerce service company. He also takes part in livestream sales, product promotions and business matchmaking between Chinese and overseas traders. Foreign hosts can pitch products in Kazakh or Russian and answer viewer questions in real time, helping Central Asian shoppers better understand their purchases, he explained.

For some merchants, livestreaming is also bringing in wholesale business. Tang Yanlin, a vendor based at the Yiwu trade mall inside the cooperation center, said her shop regularly hires Kazakh livestreamers. Its clients have grown from mostly retail buyers to a mix of retail and wholesale customers. Some Uzbek traders even use livestreams to connect with suppliers and negotiate bulk purchases.

Those sales also rely on reliable deliveries to shoppers across Central Asia. Horgos pools port infrastructure, logistics networks, product supplies and talent in one location, while foreign livestreamers help sellers match goods with overseas demand.

XINHUA-CHINA DAILY