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interface news reporter | she xiaochen

interface news editor | song jianan

after experiencing the war of words with simba and the "meicheng mooncakes" incident, it may be difficult for "crazy little brother yang" to continue being "crazy".

on september 18, there were a series of new developments in the mooncake incident involving the three sheep live studio.guangzhou huadu district market supervision and administration bureau issued a report on the situation involving meicheng mooncakesit said that guangzhou meicheng food company has obtained a business license and registration for the sale of pre-packaged foods. in addition, guangzhou meicheng technology company has obtained a business license and food production license. the quality management system and production process environment meet the requirements, and no illegal activities have been found so far.

at the same time, the guangzhou huadu district market supervision bureau sent letters to the municipal supervision department where the live broadcast platform is located and the municipal supervision department where the live broadcast e-commerce company is registered, requesting assistance in the investigation. the relevant situation needs to be further verified.

on september 17, the market supervision and administration bureau of hefei high-tech zone, anhui province, also issued a report stating thata case has been filed to investigate three sheep network technology co., ltd. for suspected "misleading consumers" during live broadcasts, and the case will be handled in accordance with the law based on the results of the investigation.

the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" incident is the latest public opinion storm encountered by the three sheep company where "crazy little yang ge" works. the contradiction directly points to the hot-selling products sold by the anchor. it was revealed that the brand of mooncakes has no stores in hong kong and the actual operator is a guangzhou company.

after the incident, on september 1on the evening of the 4th, the live broadcast room of the three sheep company stopped selling meicheng mooncakes. on the evening of september 17, the main account of the three sheep company, "three sheep network", which has been broadcasting daily for many years, stopped broadcasting, butsome accounts are still broadcasting live normally, such as "crazy three sheep" and "crazy yang xiaoyang".

as of press time, three sheep has not yet made an official response to this matter.

in addition to the mooncake incident, many products in the three sheep live broadcast room were frequently questioned by the outside world within just one month.

on september 18, moutai responded to the moutai liquor identification incident in xiao yangge's live broadcast room, saying that kweichow moutai has not cooperated with any third-party identification agency to identify moutai products. previously, according to guangzhou zhongjiu testing and identification co., ltd., since september 11, a total of 460 bottles of moutai born in the year of the rabbit purchased by consumers in the three sheep live broadcast room have been tested, of which 154 bottles did not meet the characteristics of genuine products. most of them were "uncapped" wines, and some had fake caps, fake spray codes, and replaced inner cores.

earlier,around the topic of selling hairy crabs, lu wenqing, co-founder of three sheep, and simba, the anchor, had a four-day "war of words" in the live broadcast room. simba said in the live broadcast that he was reported by xiao yangge's team when he was selling hairy crabs, and accused xiao yangge's team of having problems in quality inspection, after-sales service, and compensation attitude.

founded in 2021, the three sheep group was founded by "crazy little brother yang" and others after he became famous. in three years, the company has rapidly expanded into a large live broadcast organization with more than 3,000 people. now, with the increasingly fierce competition in the live broadcast e-commerce industry and the exponential expansion of the company's size, the three sheep has to face unprecedented business challenges.

top anchors frequently engage in verbal battles

the "war of words" between the three sheep and simba was the fuse for a series of recent disturbances.

the dispute over hairy crabs not only attracted consumers' attention to the products in the live broadcast room, but also prompted other top anchors to join the war of words.

on september 11, luo yonghao, the host of "make friends", posted a message, sincerely apologizing to consumers who bought the counterfeit brand "fendi casa mooncakes" and promised compensation, but at the same time pointed out the "compensation" issues of other live broadcast rooms and specifically named yu minhong of oriental selection.

the most fundamental reason behind the frequent "war of words" is still competition.

simba and xiao yangge are both top anchors on short video platforms. the former started on kuaishou, while the latter became popular on douyin. both have grown rapidly in a short period of time and have many similarities in their business models. jiaogepengyou, who broadcasts live on multiple platforms, is also among the top anchors.based on the sales volume and company size statistics in 2023, the china internet network information center divides the mcn agencies involved into three echelons. the first echelon includes meiwan, xinxuan, three sheep network, yaowang technology, dongfang zhenxuan and make friends.

in the face of the big promotion in september, the products of various anchors have a high degree of overlap. according to the data from cicada cube, in august 2024, the top three sales in the food and beverage category of douyin weresnacks/nuts/specialties, wine/beverages, dairy products/coffee/cereal/mixtures. unlike mcns like meiwan that started from the vertical beauty track, anchors such as luo yonghao, simba, and xiao yangge havethere is greater competition for seasonal products such as hairy crabs and moon cakes.

from the consumer's perspective, verbal battles may help supervise products, but this is not a long-term solution.

special researcher of china internet network information center, senior partner of shanghai hansheng law firmli min said that simba's arrangement of compensation can be seen as a public relations strategy to enhance its own commercial interests, but there are still legal issues that need to be handled with caution.

first, simba arranged 100 million yuan to compensate the consumers of three sheep, which was a voluntary performance. assuming that three sheep really needs to compensate consumers, simba's behavior is a third-party debt assumption. although this behavior was not agreed by three sheep, according to the civil code, debt assumption does not require the consent of the debtor.

secondly, the debt should be transferable, and there should be no situation where the nature of the debt determines that the debt cannot be transferred, the parties agree that the debt cannot be transferred, or the law prohibits the transfer of debt. therefore, if the liability of three sheep involves administrative penalties, simba cannot compensate consumers on behalf of three sheep.

li min said that simba arranged 100 million yuan to compensate three sheep consumers. if there is damage to the business reputation of competitors, or attract consumers through unfair means, it may violate the anti-unfair competition law.the relevant provisions of the law constitute unfair competition.

the growing crisis of trust

at present, the results of a series of investigations on three sheep products have not yet been fully announced, but the crisis of trust in this company and even the live broadcast industry is intensifying.

according to chanmama data, in the past 30 days, except for september 17, the average daily live broadcast of "three sheep network" reached 1.651 million viewers, and the average daily sales were 1 million to 2.5 million yuan. on september 1, it reached a peak of 7.5 million to 10 million yuan, and on september 16, sales dropped sharply to 100,000 to 250,000 yuan.

data from third-party platforms show thatin the past 90 days, the number of fans of xiao yangge's douyin account has dropped by 3 million, and the number of fans of three sheep network's douyin account has also dropped by more than 200,000.

the sharp decline in the number of fans and sales is only the superficial impact of a series of recent public opinion events. on the merchant side, the negative effects on product cooperation will be more far-reaching.

a businessman in the food industry told jiemian news,the slot fee of sanzhiyang is relatively high. considering the large number of orders, the company needs to prepare stocks, but sanzhiyang cannot guarantee the quantity, "it is easy to be stuck with goods." due to the recent frequent negative news about the company, the company will not consider cooperation.

according to several merchants, the pit fee of three sheep is between 200,000 and 400,000 yuan, which is on the high side because they have more traffic and a lot of say.

on social media, an account claiming to be "shuyang guochao mecha company" issued a notice in an official name, saying that due to the various negative issues exposed by three sheep recently, in order to maintain the reputation of its own products and protect the rights of consumers, it decided to terminate all business cooperation with three sheep. although the authenticity of the announcement has not been verified, in the context of the suspension of the main account, how to deal with the relationship with the merchants has become a major problem facing three sheep.

unlike the early top anchors who only relied on the live broadcast business, three sheep company had multiple layouts at the beginning of its establishment. in a short period of time, the company startedthe live streaming slicing business of the “zhong xiaoer” platform, xiao yang’s selected operating business, etc.

du gang, ceo of three sheep company, also told interface news that in the future the company will focus on expanding its supply chain and brand operations business.the company’s official website shows that by the end of 2023, there were more than 10 talents with over 10 million yuan under sanzhiyang.

but xiao yangge's influence is still the core pillar of the company's business expansion. when many negative events affect the anchor's credibility, it is time for sanzhiyang to slow down and re-organize the company's development path.