The author | pine leaf lemon
Edit | Tsukimi
Just 28 days after sydney's tax evasion storm, Via also ushered in the darkest moment of her life.
On December 20, the Inspection Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau in Zhejiang Province issued an announcement that it was recently found that huang Wei (network name: Wei Ya), the anchor of the network, had evaded taxes of 643 million yuan and other underpayment of taxes by concealing personal income, fictitious business conversion income and false declarations between 2019 and 2020, and made a tax administrative punishment decision against Huang Wei in accordance with the law, recovering taxes, collecting late fees and imposing fines totaling 1.341 billion yuan.
Compared with the more than 65 million yuan that Sydney was fined, Wei Ya's tax evasion and fines were more than 20 times that of the former, even compared with Fan Bingbing's 883 million tax evasion and penalty amount, Wei Ya was 1.5 times more. Via, in one fell swoop, refreshed the tax evasion record of a public figure.
Since becoming a sister of live streaming with goods, Wei Ya can be described as a spring breeze and a beautiful scenery. In February this year, when Wei Ya participated in the "Spit Conference", she proudly said: "When there is something good about celebrities, don't you see these stars, don't they all come to live broadcast?" The fate of celebrities is to bring goods, I just want to skip the step of being a star. At that time, the outside world had estimated that as the number one anchor of the whole network, Wei Ya's annual income may be higher than that of the first-line stars in the entertainment industry.
After the double harvest of fame and fortune, Via ushered in the collapse of the building overnight. Whether it is from the perspective of the amount of tax evasion or the fact of breaking the law, the nature of Weiya's tax evasion is more serious than Sydney, which also means that Weiya may usher in a more tragic ending than Sydney.
01 Mountain rain is coming
When Sydney fell for tax evasion, the outside world had already set its sights on Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi. However, based on the stable performance of the two in the past half a month, the outside world believes that the two can be safely landed, but in early December, some media found that the Hangzhou Qianyi Enterprise Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), a joint venture between Wei Ya and her husband Dong Haifeng, was officially cancelled, and the reason for the cancellation was the resolution to dissolve. Unusual industrial and commercial changes have laid the groundwork for the arrival of the storm.
As early as the exposure of the tax evasion incident in Sydney, the tax department started to use the establishment of a sole proprietorship enterprise to fictitiously convert the personal wages and salaries and labor remuneration obtained from the relevant enterprises into tax evasion methods of the operating income of the sole proprietorship enterprise. In view of this, the media has pre-established a number of sole proprietorships related to Via. The companies involved in tax evasion that are now named by the tax authorities are the same companies that attracted much attention at that time.
After Wei Ya's tax evasion incident was reported, Dong Haifeng also posted an apology letter on Weibo. In the letter, Dong blamed all the faults on himself, as well as the tax co-ordinator. This response has the meaning of abandoning the car to protect the marshal, but netizens generally do not buy it. In particular, the tax department emphasized that Dao Weiya's "rectification is still incomplete after repeated reminders and supervision by the tax authorities", which has intensified the public's disappointment and disgust towards Wei Ya and her husband.
Inside, it seems that when Sydney fell, he had anticipated the day he was informed. "New Entropy" noted that since November 22, the micro-signal of MCN Qianxun Holdings, which is actually controlled by Via's husband, "Qianxun Academy Helper Class", has no longer had the content of the circle of friends published. Before that, the frequency of the WeChat signal to publish the circle of friends was at least once a week.
After the tax evasion incident was exposed, Via immediately canceled tonight's live broadcast. Some media found that around 5:30 p.m., Via's live broadcast room had been frozen. However, "New Entropy" found that the entrance of via's live broadcast room was restored around 6 p.m., and the playback page could still be viewed normally. In the live broadcast replay on December 19, many viewers swiped the screen with words such as "block".
As a sister of live streaming with goods, Wei Ya is much stronger than Sydney's industry reputation. Sydney is frequently criticized by consumers and merchants for its product quality, after-sales service, suspected brushing and other issues. Compared with Sydney, Via's selection is more stringent, and the partners are more cautious, but this is only relative to anchors such as Sydney.
Since the formation of the double giant pattern of Via and Li Jiaqi, the live broadcast with goods has developed in a distorted direction, the big anchor has a large bargaining power, a high commission, and has made the big and small merchants cry bitterly, which has derived the concept of merchants stealing, placing the lowest price in the brand live broadcast room, giving the big anchor a false minimum price, and the L'Oréal incident is a typical event born under this contradiction.
For consumers, it is inevitable that the anger will be transferred to the anchor, on the other hand, the slack of the big anchor and his team will also make more incidents that make consumers unhappy. As a sister of live broadcasting with goods, Wei Ya's live broadcast room has long deterred some consumers, and the image in the hearts of consumers is no longer "an angel who sends welfare".
02 The image is gradually "split"
In 2021, the sense of separation of Via's external image is becoming stronger and stronger.
In the live streaming industry, the selection threshold almost determines the life and death of an anchor, many mid-waist anchors have been greatly hit by improper selection, and although Wei Ya's live broadcast room has also experienced several overturns, Wei Ya can still sit firmly in a high position.
In the Xiaohongshu and other social platforms, about the "thunder" in the Weiya live broadcast room is not a few, the black cat complaint platform, there are also a large number of complaints about the Weiya live broadcast room, from the complaint content, most of the complaints are related to product quality, false publicity, after-sales service and so on.
As early as May 2021, Via was caught in the storm of selling fakes, and the Supreme x GUZI co-branded halterneck fan sold in its live broadcast room was exposed by many media, and according to the live broadcast replay, this product was repeatedly emphasized by Via as a joint name of the United States, not a Hong Kong agent.
In response, Via responded that "there may be no legal problems", but the live broadcast was deleted.
Wei Ya has publicly stated that users' consumption in the live broadcast room is based on the trust of the anchor, and for the anchor, how to maintain the trust of consumers is crucial. However, in addition to the fake storm, Wei Ya had publicized the "pastoralist" low-fat comprehensive European package 9 times in 3 months, which was named by the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission, saying that it was "36% more carbohydrate than the nominal, and contained 40% more energy than the propaganda".
Consumers frequently step on the thunder in Via's live broadcast room, but Via has always stood firm. For a long time, consumers who have suffered losses in Weiya's live broadcast room have been deeply touched by Weiya's ability to control and evaluate. Xiaomei, a deep user of live shopping, said that whenever there is a negative event, if consumers go to Via's Weibo comments, there is a high probability that they will be deleted, and there will be water arms control reviews, and related events are also difficult to search. The cottage fan incident and the pastoral bread incident are the result of the continuous efforts of consumers to denounce them.
The stability of Via's basic disk comes in part from the positive image she has worked hard to establish over a long period of time. For the head anchor, the public image is not only an endorsement of ability, but also an invisible shield when negative news hits. After layers of honors, even if there are occasional negative events, gray hats such as "water army" and "professional black" can be used to cover up the voice of real consumers.
At present, Via's positive titles are very numerous. For example, as early as 2018, Wei Ya had been awarded the "2018 Poverty Alleviation Public Welfare Star" certificate by Alibaba Public Welfare. Since then, he has been awarded the honorary title of "Love Poverty Alleviation Ambassador" by many provinces, and has been awarded the title of "China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation" by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, and even became the "People's Daily New Media Public Welfare Belt Officer".
From being awarded the "Global Good Things Recommendation Officer" by multiple brands in 2019, to the "Hangzhou Tourism Promotion Ambassador" in 2020, the National March 8th Red Flag Bearer in the fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic and many other honorary titles. Until September 2021, Wei Ya also won the honorary titles of "Post-disaster Help and Love Public Welfare Ambassador", "Rural Revitalization Good Things Recommendation Officer" and "Qingli Helping Farmers Love You Ambassador" jointly awarded by the Department of Commerce of Henan Province, the Rural Revitalization Bureau and the Henan Communist Youth League.
On November 11, 2021, in the Hangzhou roadshow of the poverty alleviation theme movie "We Are the First Secretary", as a film recommendation officer, Wei Ya also appeared on the scene. She said that she will put the film on the shelves in her own live broadcast room, so that more people can understand the efforts behind these ordinary heroes. However, Via's live broadcast room is probably already "difficult to continue" with this movie that was only released on November 23.
On November 24, Wei Ya also interacted with the official blog as the publicity ambassador of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, and now this Weibo has been officially deleted by the Asian Games.
On the one hand, the selection of products frequently stepped on by consumers is not strict, on the other hand, the official seal of the excellent female image of the new era, Wei Ya's image wanders between flowers and controversy, and the sense of separation is deepening. Creating a personal image requires long-term efforts, and falling off the altar is only in the day.
03 It is difficult to get up
Thanks to Sydney's previous experience, Via's next fate trajectory is self-evident. But in terms of business, Via and Sydney are very different. Wei Ya is mainly based on live streaming with goods, and Sydney in addition to live streaming with goods, in fact, the controlled Chenfan e-commerce also has many private brand Taobao stores.
On the night of Double Twelfth, many of Sydney's Taobao stores disappeared overnight. Prior to this, there are still voices in the outside world that Sydney will quietly make a comeback when the limelight passes. However, the closure of Chenfan's stores has made people realize that it will be difficult for bad anchors to continue to monetize through the network through fame.
At present, the main source of income of Sydney and Chenfan is the commercial cooperation income of other Internet celebrities other than Sydney and Lin Shanshan on various platforms such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu. However, this model is much lower than the live streaming with surging traffic. What is even more frightening is that in view of Chenfan's current poor reputation, many small Internet celebrities may directly leave after the expiration of their contracts. As a result, Chenfan will lose the only remaining main business of MCN commissioning.
At the moment, Wei Ya's ban is a foregone conclusion. Unlike Sydney and Lin Shanshan, who monopolize the resources of the live broadcast room, Qianxun's anchors all have their own live broadcast rooms. In the future, Qianxun can also hope for other anchors.
At present, There are more than 40 anchors under Qianxun, including well-known hosts such as Lin Yilun, Li Jing, and Li Xiang, as well as well-known Internet celebrities such as Late Night Teacher Xu and Teng Yujia. Celebrity anchors are less dependent on modesty, and after Via falls, celebrity anchors will most likely leave. For other anchors, it may be possible to take over, share Via's resources, and even become the next object of humble support.
In addition to its Internet celebrity anchors, the new anchors cultivated by Qianxun Classroom may also become the objects of Qianxun's next focus on support. Qianxun Academy is an anchor training camp launched by Qianxun in March this year, aiming to cultivate anchors with goods and prepare anchors for Qianxun. "New Entropy" learned that the Qianxun Academy mostly selects students from among the ordinary people, and after the course, it is selected and contracted in both directions. At present, the Qianxun Academy Live Training Camp has been carried out to the 5th session, and judging from the graduation of the first two periods, a certain number of students have signed up with Qianxun in each period.
Whether it is its internet celebrity anchor or a new anchor being cultivated, if you are looking for full support, it is still possible to become the head anchor. For the head MCN agency like Qianxun, it can be described as a hundred-footed worm, dead but not stiff, the institution responds quickly, allowing other anchors to undertake Via's resources, and the institution still has the possibility of turning over.
But for Qianxun, if the end of Via's era, it also means that the head MCN's family workshop model has completely collapsed. Supporting new anchors, Qianxun will also be more similar to the model of the American ONE behind Li Jiaqi, that is, there is a pure commercial binding between the big anchor and the institution. Abandoning the bundle of family factors seems to increase the instability factor for Qianxun, but it may be able to promote its path towards a more professional MCN.
After Via fell, Taobao was definitely the unhappy one. At present, Douyin and Kuaishou are ambushing Taobao Live, Wei Ya's fall is like a whale falling, and the resources with goods are destined to be lost, not only to other anchors in Taobao Live, but also to the outside of the station. If Douyin and Kuaishou take advantage of the opportunity, it will be difficult for Taobao Live to be overwhelmed for a while.
The head anchors of the second echelon of Taobao Live Broadcast, Lie'er Baby and Chen Jie Kiki, will most likely become the new live broadcast sister under the blessing of the platform. But there is also a more pessimistic possibility, that is, under the successive explosions of multiple head anchors, consumers lose confidence in live streaming with goods, and then the traffic is dispersed, resulting in the no longer appearing super anchors like Via.
On the afternoon of the 20th, Li Jiaqi's U.S. ONE responded categorically to the media "all normal operations of U.S. ONE" to dispel external doubts. That night, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room also became strange, and the bullet screen was almost completely brushed by "Jia Qi" and "Believe Jia Qi". There is no doubt that the fall of Via has made consumers scream. The anchors of various platforms, like birds of fright, take the initiative to check and pay taxes. It's just that people don't know whether Via's fall is the climax of this rectification storm or the end.