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summary:

now, the once ubiquitous xiao yang has almost disappeared from the internet, and almost all of the top anchors under three sheep have stopped broadcasting. we feel it is necessary to continue looking for xiao yang. as we were about to publish this article, we finally got the latest news. a person close to three sheep told us that "the results of the investigation into three sheep will be released soon, and everything will be clear by then."

produced by phoenix technology's "eye of the storm"

author: dong yuqing

editor: yu hao

zhang qingyang disappeared from the internet. meanwhile, more and more people were being drawn into the three sheep mooncake controversy.

september 25,an internal chat record of three sheep was circulated on the internet. the notice required internal employees of three sheep to remove all videos related to li xiaona.

picture｜from the internet

li xiaona is a senior student with 150,000 followers on her personal account. she signed a contract with three sheep at the end of august 2024 and started working in zui ge's live broadcast room in early september.in a live broadcast before selling mooncakes, she was asked by the company to play the role of "a beautiful brand owner" because of her beautiful appearance. she once said in the live broadcast, "everyone knows that our meicheng mooncakes are high-end mooncakes in hong kong and have been selling well for 20 years."

picture｜from the internet

on the eve of mid-autumn festival in 2024,the hong kong brand meicheng mooncakes that were popularly promoted in the three sheep live broadcast room attracted attention because they were similar to the well-known hong kong brand maxim's mooncakes and were suspected of false advertising.after the "mooncake incident" was filed for investigation, the hefei municipal supervision bureau called li xiaona to assist relevant departments in the investigation.

according to li xiaona, the night before the investigation, the legal department of three sheep called her and instigated her not to say that she was the company's female anchor during the official investigation of the mooncake incident, but to say that she was the brand owner of meicheng mooncakes, and to say that the exaggerated statement of "selling well for 20 years" was something she said unintentionally or accidentally.

li xiaona is unwilling to do as the company asks her to do, as she thinks the company wants her to take the blame.

on the evening of september 24, she released a video crying about the company's refusal to terminate her contract and asking her, a new employee who had just been employed for a month, to bear all the responsibilities. she said she was under tremendous pressure every day.

picture｜li xiaona released a video crying about the company refusing to terminate her contract

we contacted a person who was acquainted with li xiaona, who said: "we haven't been able to contact li xiaona since last night." in addition, he also said, "a brand that three sheep had previously cooperated with had commissioned an agency to recruit models to disguise themselves as people from the brand."

in the second quarter of this year, we decided to try to interview xiao yangge, but it was not easy to find xiao yangge at that time. it was not until simba provoked the war and the mooncake incident that the difficulty reached its peak.

we contacted the relevant business manager of the three sheep team, but he refused repeatedly.the last time we contacted each other, he said to me, "it may be difficult recently. you know, we are in the middle of the storm."

it is actually not difficult to know where brother yang is physically. since he founded the three sheep group in 2022 and purchased an office building in hefei, he has almost always been in hefei.

picture｜from the internet

however, xiao yangge is not from hefei, but from lu'an, anhui. his partner lu wenqing is from anqing, anhui. du gang, the current ceo of three sheep group, is an old acquaintance of lu wenqing and is also from anhui. he joined in 2021.

in cyberspace, xiao yangge is always everywhere. he has 120 million followers on douyin, which ranks him among the top ten celebrities.the business model he relies on most is to increase his popularity through short video slices that can be seen everywhere, which is like a kind of distribution. e-commerce distributes goods, and brother yang distributes content.

but xiao yang himself has almost never appeared in media reports. so far, he has only accepted a video interview with an internet celebrity. in the short 22-minute video, they talked about several core figures: a 9,000-person editing team, 200 million in taxes, and 100 million fans. these words are both true and false. for example, when talking about the first time he made 100 yuan, xiao yang said that he only took 55 yuan and kept the remaining 45 yuan for tax. the audience left messages in the barrage,“this place is so fake”。

a reporter from a beijing-based magazine visited the three sheep group in hefei twice and tracked down brother xiao yang several times. "brother xiao yang would not accept interviews." the reporter later only interviewed three sheep group ceo du gang. "brother xiao yang and du gang are both quite humble in private. i have seen brother xiao yang bow to his fans."

in the real and virtual worlds, brother yang is both mysterious and ordinary.

xiao yang ge in the eyes of 120 million fans

crazy little brother yang, whose real name is zhang qingyang.

his famous work was released in april 2016. a video of using firecrackers to blast ink earned him 600,000 followers. he and his brother zhang kaiyang, who also shot most of xiao yangge's early videos, finally decided to go the funny and prank route.

in 2017, a few more characters were added to xiao yangge's videos, including big brother yang, little yang's wife, and big and little yang's parents. the themes began to revolve around tricking brothers and showing affection. this was the acting path that xiao yangge had found with great difficulty, and his fans began to grow steadily in the past few years.

picture｜crazy xiao yangge’s douyin video screenshot

the turning point of his fate came in june 2019, when he registered lu'an daxiao yangge e-commerce co., ltd. (which has been cancelled).the place where the video was released shifted from kuaishou to douyin, which seemed to have unlocked the password for traffic and gradually led him to the top of the influencers list.

by march 2022, when most people were still immersed in liu genghong's achievement of gaining 30 million fans in half a month, some people suddenly discovered that the number one internet celebrity on douyin had changed hands - crazy xiao yangge, a relatively unfamiliar name, who seemed to be an amateur. but in fact, fans were no longer unfamiliar with him.

he was a typical internet-addicted teenager, very young, only in his early 20s, a bit "suicidal", and a prankster. his hair was a bit long for a boy, as if he could get a perm at any time. he was very thin, with small eyes, a straight nose, and dark skin.he is like a friend around everyone. more importantly, if he were placed in a crowd, he would definitely be very inconspicuous.

picture｜from the internet

"xiao yang's early videos were really funny, and you can tell he put a lot of effort into making them," said a netizen who has been following xiao yang since 2020.he has many classic works such as "stepping on girlfriend's lipstick and being chased", "internet addict teenager having power cut off". there are many classic symbols in these videos, such as prank props that are far larger than the actual size of the objects, constantly reversed plots, and xiao yangge himself who was pitted badly.

a person who has had contact with the management of three sheep said, "brother yang in the work is quite consistent with his real life. he has wild imagination and a flamboyant heart. in fact, he is greatly influenced by the movies of stephen chow and chow yun-fat. he is very much a small-town youth. this is not a derogatory term."

young brother in the eyes of industry insiders

when brother yang first started to become popular, many people were looking for him.

these people had clear goals. they wanted to sign a contract with brother yang, establish a cooperative relationship, and make money together. at the time, lu wenqing was just one of the choices among them.

in the end, brother yang chose lu wenqing, who was born in the 1980s, "because they have similar values," a person close to three sheep told me.

picture｜lu wenqing the picture comes from the internet

but in fact, lu wenqing and xiao yangge are nothing alike in appearance. lu wenqing looks like a middle-aged man who is a bit fat, wearing slightly gentle glasses, and looks a bit like a programmer. his previous entrepreneurial experience was in e-commerce, mainly engaged in store hosting and website optimization, but soon, these very different people became friends.

xiao yang's elder brother zhang kaiyang once said, "in ancient times, there were three sworn brothers in peach garden, and now there are three of us brothers." he refers to zhang qingyang, zhang kaiyang, and lu wenqing.

in this way, the three sworn brothers from anhui set up their headquarters in hefei. in march 2021, hefei three sheep network technology co., ltd. was registered in hefei high-tech zone, and the three sheep group became a business card of hefei.

in 2022, the news that three sheep bought a building in hefei high-tech zone for 102 million yuan caused a sensation on the internet.but according to china entrepreneur magazine, hefei's support for xiao yangge goes beyond that. "many state-owned capital companies in hefei are supporting xiao yangge to do e-commerce."

however, as the scale of the three sheep company continues to grow, brother yang's ambitions are no longer limited to hefei.

starting from 2023, three sheep opened branches in suzhou, hangzhou, haikou, beijing, xiamen, hong kong and other places, and also went overseas to countries such as singapore and indonesia. the business scope also began to expand from e-commerce to short dramas and electronic music festivals. as three sheep became bigger, more and more people began to seek cooperation with three sheep.

xiao yang in the eyes of opponents

since the core business of three sheep is still live streaming and selling goods, the people who come to brother yang the most are those who want to sell goods.

however, those who find them are usually small brands. "for example, apple and xiaomi phones will not look for people like xiao yang to promote their products," professional counterfeiter wang hai told phoenix technology."the logic of live streaming sales is to exchange quantity for price, exchanging quantity for discounts and then consumers benefit equally. however, big brands have strict pricing system requirements, just like apple would never sell mobile phones at 20% off."

photo｜professional counterfeiter wang hai

this is a very simple truth. the popularity of live streaming is largely due to its low price. however, if a product is not only cheap but also requires the anchor to share a large proportion of the commission, such a product can only be second best."brother yang can only sell meicheng, not maxim's, that's the reason."

wang hai is a professional counterfeiter. in 2020, he targeted the live streaming industry, mainly by receiving consumer leads and obtaining information from industry insiders. in 2022, he targeted the three sheep team, and when xiao yangge became the most popular person on douyin, he pointed out that "the wall-breaking machine and meat grinder sold by xiao yangge had false power ratings."the three sheep official has not responded to this matter, but in the douyin crazy xiao yangge’s favorite list, he liked many videos opposing wang hai’s anti-counterfeiting efforts.

picture｜list of some of crazy xiao yangge’s likes on douyin

this was not the only time the two sides fought each other. in september 2024, wang hai wrote again,the "original cut beef roll" sold by "crazy little brother yang" in early 2024 for 89.9 yuan per 4 catties was actually spliced ​​beef.in july 2024, the supplier of the beef, hubei xianduoyu network technology co., ltd., an affiliated company of xianduoyu, was fined 500,000 yuan by the market supervision bureau of qingshan district, wuhan. three sheep did not respond publicly to this.

picture｜from the internet

“there is indeed a blind spot in the supervision of live streaming sales. the separation of sales and delivery means that regulatory authorities may not know where these products are sold and shipped, which requires cross-regional collaboration,” said wang hai. “we have even received reports from industry insiders that some live streaming rooms are selling ab goods, sending real products to big cities and fakes to small cities.”

“so why do these product makers insist on cooperating with live streaming to sell goods?” in response to my question, wang hai used the four words “drinking poison to quench thirst” to describe it. “small factories have no room to survive, so they will resort to fraud and false propaganda, but the anchors should always have the ability to distinguish. they make the most money, but take the smallest risk.”

"isn't this a liar?" wang hai said.

what wang hai said makes sense. the era of big anchors is passing, and the reason behind this is largely because the products, services and after-sales service in the live broadcast rooms cannot keep up.

"you don't have quality inspection, you don't have after-sales service, you don't have an attitude of compensation, and you don't have an attitude of taking responsibility. all that's left is hype." even simba called out to brother yang in the live broadcast room.

find zhang qingyang

i'm afraid more and more people are looking for brother yang now.

according to incomplete statistics, since the war with simba broke out, there have been a total of 109 hot searches on weibo related to the three sheep.a friend in the same industry told me that the media were all looking for the pr team of three sheep, “some people said they don’t have a pr team at all”. however, we did contact the pr director of three sheep group, but he repeatedly declined. when we mentioned interviewing brother yang, he also said “i’m afraid that’s unlikely”.

behind this incident, xiao yangge has not made any official statement in any official occasion. now, he seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. a person close to three sheep said that they will not make any statement before the official investigation results come out.

just like the situation that has been played out countless times before, on september 18, guangzhou huadu district market supervision and administration bureau issued a report on the situation involving meicheng mooncakes. hong kong meicheng food group has registered "meicheng", "hong kong meicheng mooncakes", "meisun" and other trademarks approved for mooncake products in hong kong, and authorized the trademarks to guangzhou meicheng food company for use. no illegal behavior has been found in guangzhou meicheng food technology co., ltd., one of the manufacturers of "hong kong meicheng mooncakes".

on september 17, the market supervision bureau of hefei high-tech zone issued a situation report on the "hefei high-tech release" wechat public account, and initiated an investigation into three sheep network technology co., ltd. for suspected misleading consumers during live broadcasts.

picture｜from the internet

on the monthly list of douyin fans who lost followers according to xin dou statistics,crazy xiao yang ge ranked first, losing 3.5489 million followers in the past 30 days.

many people visited hefei and found that everything was "business as usual" at the headquarters of the three sheep group. the parking lot was still full of cars, there were still anchors going for interviews, and the office building was still full of busy employees.

in fact, in this public opinion storm, brother yang was also hiding behind. the person who had a direct conflict with simba in the live broadcast room was lu wenqing. the three sheep team has a clear division of labor. brother yang and brother yang are responsible for content, attracting fans and selling goods, lu wenqing is responsible for strategic planning and maintaining external relations, and du gang is responsible for the company's daily operations and execution.

commenting on the three sheep incident, china national radio said, "the fact that there are no issues with product quality does not mean that there are no issues with the anchor's sales. it also does not mean that 'three sheep' can ignore consumers' legitimate return requests and continue to get away with it by playing dumb."

on the evening of september 25, li xiaona, a newly signed anchor of three sheep, cried during the live broadcast, "i don’t want to take the blame for the three sheep.”according to her statement in the live broadcast, she received a call from the market supervision department on the evening of september 19, asking her to cooperate in the investigation of the mooncake incident.at the same time, three sheep asked her not to say that she was the anchor of three sheep when cooperating with the investigation, and the live broadcast was suddenly cut off in the middle.

a person who knows li xiaona told us that she is currently unavailable. "previously, some brands would commission agents to find internet celebrities, models, etc. to guest-star in the livestreaming room," the person said. in addition, a video posted by li xiaona on september 2 showed that she had sold mooncakes during the mid-autumn festival with zui ge, a host under three sheep.

picture｜from the internet

now, the once ubiquitous xiao yang has almost disappeared from the internet, and almost all of the top anchors under three sheep have stopped broadcasting. we feel it is necessary to continue looking for xiao yang. as we were about to publish this article, we finally got the latest news. a person close to three sheep told us that "the results of the investigation into three sheep will be released soon, and everything will be clear by then."