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sun guidong, chief reporter of peninsula media

in order to open up online channels, mr. zhou, who works in the supply chain in yantai, contacted the anchor of the "taiyuan lao ge" team, a top internet celebrity anchor on kuaishou with more than 80 million fans. in the four months before and after, he successively booked many anchors and spent more than 8 million on various expenses such as booking. the live broadcast transaction data showed more than 37 million, but the final transaction was only more than 9 million, and the number of refunds was nearly 80%. among them, many people directly returned after purchasing 99 orders, and the refund rate of some higher-priced categories reached 84%. i thought that cooperating with the top internet celebrities would be a great fortune, but the company's capital chain broke and closed down due to huge losses. the relevant person in charge of the anchor team said in an interview that there was no agreement on the transaction volume in the contract they signed, so there was no motivation to brush orders, and it was not ruled out that someone was making trouble.

records of funds zhou shenghui transferred to internet celebrity live broadcasts.

millions of big vs bring products

the actual transaction amount of 27 million is only 4.88 million

zhou shenghui has a supply chain company in yantai, whose products include mobile phones and daily necessities. previously, he basically used offline channels. with the rise of online celebrities bringing goods, sales of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan in a live broadcast can easily be achieved. he also wants to try to cooperate with big online celebrities to seek breakthroughs.

in august 2023, he contacted the popular anchor "xia ning" on the kuaishou platform. zhou shenghui said that "xia ning" is an anchor of a company under the team of "taiyuan lao ge", the top popular anchor on kuaishou, with more than 20 million fans.

"their starting price for cooperation is very high. it costs 3 million to book a whole venue for a month." zhou shenghui said that at that time the other party took out the previous transaction volume, and the monthly sales volume was more than 20 million. even after deducting the booth fee, personnel expenses, etc., the profit was still good.

afterwards, he signed a cooperation agreement with the anchor "xia ning", and the two parties agreed to live broadcast and sell goods for one month, a total of 30 shows. however, after a few shows, other small anchors were asked to bring goods. "one has more than 100,000 online users, and the other has more than 10,000. the difference between the two is too big." zhou shenghui said that they did not pay the fees all at once, and paid 1.4 million in september. after that, the anchor asked for another 1 million in the name of a kickback.

due to unsatisfactory sales, the other party proposed to make up for it. in october, they paid another 1.3 million to let two other anchors bring goods. in the end, the transaction volume in two months was more than 27 million, but when the final transaction was completed, it was found that it was only 4.88 million. zhou shenghui said that he had a lot of goods at the time, and the team was busy and had no time to look at the detailed data. however, their gross profit margin was just over 20%. counting labor, travel expenses, etc., this live broadcast lost more than 3 million.

backend data shows that many people made instant returns after purchasing 99 items.

after buying 99 orders, the system crashed

merchants questioned whether they were scammed by "brushing orders"

zhou shenghui said, "they think i don't know the business, that's why the return rate is so high." so, ge guangbei, the younger brother of "taiyuan lao ge", contacted them and said that they didn't make money from the last live broadcast, and this time they could sign a contract with the big account "taiyuan lao ge" to do a live broadcast. "i was a little hesitant at the time, but the big account has 80 million fans, and i believe it will definitely turn around." zhou shenghui said that in early december 2023, they contracted the "taiyuan lao ge" account to do a live broadcast with goods, with a private fee of 1.6 million yuan plus a deposit of 200,000 yuan.

after waiting for more than ten days, the big account still didn’t arrange for them to bring the goods. later, they couldn’t wait any longer, so they contacted manager wang, the person in charge of beijing siheyi cultural media co., ltd., and contracted the anchors yang ziyi and erniu under the company to perform one show each, for a total of 500,000, but in the end they didn’t sell many.

after that, under the negotiation of manager wang, they found another anchor "shang tong" under their company for a special show in thailand in january. at that time, the other party said on wechat that the goal could be to sell 100 million and the profit could reach 20 million. "we regarded this live broadcast as a life-saving straw, and booked a villa in thailand, a driver, security and translators for the anchor in advance. there were more than 20 anchors and performers alone, and the cost exceeded 1.3 million." zhou shenghui said that the cost of this private show was 2.5 million, but the anchor privately asked for a kickback of 500,000 yuan. the "taiyuan lao ge" account that was scheduled did not broadcast live, and the other party counted the 1.8 million that had been transferred as the cost of this private show without negotiation.

however, the "shang tong" team only stayed in thailand for about 10 days before returning to china on the grounds that the government did not allow them to broadcast, and the initial rental fees for villas and vehicles could not be refunded. "after returning to china, the other party promised to make up for two more live broadcasts. this round of live broadcast sales showed that the live broadcast transaction data was about 10.6 million, and the final transaction was about 4 million," said zhou shenghui.

for these rounds of live broadcasts, zhou shenghui paid a total of about 8 million yuan in service fees and benefits, which did not include the travel expenses of the staff. "we often have to travel with the anchors to guangzhou, linyi and other places, which costs hundreds of thousands of yuan. this does not include the goods we contacted suppliers to prepare in advance, many of which have already passed the shelf life."

because of the high expenses, his company's capital chain was broken and went bankrupt. "the most direct loss is the service fees, and the loss of products expired due to advance stocking has not been calculated yet." zhou shenghui said that after many negotiations with the other party, 600,000 yuan was finally refunded.

"at the time, i just felt that i was unlucky. later, i saw that yantai merchant wang cui also asked the 'taiyuan lao ge' team to bring her goods, and she suspected that she had been scammed by 'brushing orders'." zhou shenghui said that when he saw that the two people were in the same situation, he checked the background data and found out that there was something fishy. "many orders were bought at the highest setting of 99 orders in the system, and then the orders were returned. some were returned after the goods were shipped."

"isn't this a scam? if they had discovered this data in advance, who would have repeatedly asked them to live stream?" zhou shenghui said that he had reported the case to the local economic investigation department in yantai, and the police have accepted the case. "i think the other party should refund the fees and compensate for the corresponding losses, and bear the corresponding legal responsibilities."

yantai police case acceptance notice

dialogue with internet celebrity companies>>>

there is no fake order behavior, or someone is making trouble

on september 25, the reporter contacted the assistant of the anchor "shang tong". the assistant said that they had signed a live broadcast sales agreement with mr. zhou, and because the sales volume did not meet expectations, they also conducted a compensation live broadcast. moreover, the two parties also refunded 600,000 yuan through negotiation. regarding the behavior of some people buying 99 orders and then returning the order, the assistant said that they can guarantee that there is no such behavior, but it does not rule out that someone deliberately makes trouble.

afterwards, the reporter interviewed manager wang. manager wang said that they had signed a live streaming sales agreement with mr. zhou, and everything was done strictly in accordance with the agreement. regarding the so-called "brushing orders", they absolutely did not do so. in the agreement, they did not promise the transaction volume, so there would be no brushing orders. in addition, the company also has regulations prohibiting suppliers from giving money to anchors or buying things privately.

regarding this matter, the reporter contacted zhang gang, a lawyer at shanghai allbright law firm (qingdao), who said that even if there is no stipulation in the contract, wechat chat records can also serve as a supplement to the contract. at the same time, in the field of live streaming, whether there is suspected fraud in fake orders requires finding the subjective intent of the anchor company. evidence in this regard is difficult and requires relevant departments to intervene in the investigation.

the live broadcast room is a key factor in consumers' purchasing decisions. it is the party that controls pricing and earns the most money. wang hai, a well-known anti-counterfeiter, said that online celebrities trade volume for price, and the profits gained from volume are passed on to online celebrities, platforms and consumers. in practice, large companies and big brands all control prices nationwide. too much profit will make it difficult for dealers in other channels to accept, so they can only provide online celebrities with reduced-spec versions or special products for online celebrities. as for small and medium-sized brands, consumers may not trust them, so it is difficult to exchange volume for price.