Per reporter: Ding Zhouyang Bi Yuanyuan Per reporter: He Xiaotao, Dong Xingsheng, Yi Qijiang
"A sister with goods" Wei Ya evaded taxes and was punished with a penalty of 1.341 billion yuan. On the evening of the 20th, every xiaobian (WeChat: nbdnews) inquiry found that the accounts of Weiya Weibo, Taobao Live, Douyin, Kuaishou and other platforms have been blocked.
Via's Weibo account was blocked
Weiya Taobao live broadcast room was blocked
Via's Douyin account was blocked
Via's Kuaishou account was blocked
"The impact on Via should be very large, after all, it is a very serious illegal incident, and the impact of entrepreneurs and public figures not complying with the laws and regulations of the country may not lie in the fine itself." Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of Ai Media Consulting, said in an interview with the daily economic news reporter.
It is worth noting that on the afternoon of the 20th, the screenshot of the information notification group of the Weiya Business Department flowed out, and The Weiya agent Wang Si (Gummer) spoke and said, "Next, please go home and rest first, and the salary will be paid during this period." An industry source close to the Weiya business unit told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the picture news is true, and the follow-up company will issue an announcement on this.
The influencer landscape will be rewritten
In the live broadcast room full of shouting, most users lost their minds, passionately placed orders, and the high turnover of one order after another continued to break records, and Via became the "queen of goods" step by step to achieve personal wealth accumulation.
With this briefing, everything came to an abrupt end.
According to CCTV news, the tax department has found that the network anchor has a certain tax-related risk in recent years, so it has launched a risk verification, found that Wei Ya has a major tax evasion problem, and repeatedly reminded and urged rectification, but the rectification is still not thorough, so wei ya was investigated, confirmed her illegal facts, and made corresponding punishments.
Soon, Via issued an apology letter, saying that she "fully accepts the relevant penalty decision made by the tax department to me, and will actively raise funds to complete the payment of taxes, late fees and fines within the specified time."
Image source: Via Weibo
Wei Ya's husband Dong Haifeng also issued an apology letter, saying: "I am well aware that we are not professional in taxation, so I hired so-called professional institutions to help us with tax co-ordination compliance, but I found that there are problems with these so-called legal and compliant tax co-ordination." After the more professional financial team arrived at the post, it was found that the tax co-ordination had great risks, so since November 2020, we have terminated the so-called tax planning co-ordination, paid the relevant taxes of Via in full according to the 45% personal income tax rate, and took the initiative to pay the non-compliant related taxes before that. ”
Image source: Dong Haifeng Weibo
Every reporter understands that the anchor's income with goods mainly comes from two major plates: one is the "commission", that is, the proportion of the share of the goods given by the merchant; the other is the "pit fee", which generally exists in the big anchor. In Via's live broadcast room, the pit fee alone reached hundreds of thousands of yuan.
In 2020, since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, live streaming has ushered in a real "outlet", and this imaginative industry has attracted anchors, celebrities and even entrepreneurs to join. Zhang Ting, Shu Chang, Lin Yilun, Jia Nailiang and other stars "turned red" through live broadcasting, and high-traffic stars Yang Mi, Lu Han, Yang Ying, Li Yifeng and others also appeared in the live broadcast room to sell goods or projects.
At one time, some people thought that live streaming was low. What's the difference between this and TV shopping on TV yelling "Don't be 1999, just 999, pick up the phone now and dial..." However, the bridge of companionship and trust established between the head anchor and the consumer has made live streaming goods popular on major platforms in recent years, and has also become the second profession of many stars.
Wei Ya once joked at the "Spit Conference": "When the star has something good, the star's destination is to bring goods, I just want to skip the step of being a star." However, after this year's "618", the industry generally believes that the "heat" has dropped. An MCN institutional practitioner revealed to every reporter that the live broadcast offer of some celebrities last year was more than 200,000 yuan, which dropped to less than 50,000 yuan this year.
This year's "Double 11" live broadcast, the most beautiful results are Wei Ya, Li Jiaqi and Sydney, but Sydney and Wei Ya have turned over because of tax problems.
On November 22, the two anchors of Sydney and Lin Shanshan were chased in taxes, charged late fees and fined 65.5531 million yuan and 27.6725 million yuan in accordance with the law. Subsequently, the two anchors were "removed from the whole network", and accounts such as Weibo, Taobao, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and even Taobao were banned one after another. Like a roller coaster, Sydney completely changed from a top-notch anchor to no one.
What greeted Via?
It is understood that Wei Ya's Taobao live broadcast, which was scheduled to be scheduled for 7 p.m. on December 20, was canceled, and as of press time, Wei Ya's personal Weibo account has been blocked, Taobao stores have been removed, and all videos in the live broadcast room are no longer visible.
"The impact on Via should be very large, after all, it is a very serious illegal incident, and the impact of entrepreneurs and public figures not complying with the laws and regulations of the country may not lie in the fine itself." Zhang Yi said.
Net celebrity Via brought fire to the MCN agency Humble Search
As absolute heads, Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi are no longer just "anchors". They have joint products with big brands, become product spokespersons, and are the "main coffee" invited by variety shows, celebrities from all walks of life line up to come to their live broadcast room, and the treatment is no less than that of popular big stars.
With popularity and money, Wei Ya has long lived into "capital". For this day, Via worked hard for nearly 20 years.
At the age of 17, Wei Ya, who left her hometown in Anhui to beijing to break into the world, and Dong Haifeng, who was still a boyfriend at the time, opened a clothing store in the Beijing Zoo wholesale market, dressed herself as a model, became the hottest stall in the wholesale market, and saved the first bucket of gold in her life; at the age of 20, she has always liked to sing, participated in the draft competition, and later debuted as the lead singer of the girl group; at the age of 23, cut off all contact with the show business, and Dong Haifeng regained the old clothing industry, opened seven offline stores, and bought several sets of properties in Xi'an and Guangzhou. Living the busy and rich life of a hostess...
Image source: Visual China
Without the "backwater war" in 2012, Wei Ya would just be one of the tens of millions of Chinese clothing businessmen and would never have become the face of the times. That year, Wei Ya and Dong Haifeng felt the squeeze from e-commerce, and Dong Haifeng decided to close the offline store and switch to the online line. "With the rapid rise of e-commerce, the rent of Xi'an stores is becoming more and more expensive, so it is better to give it a go and leave yourself a way back." Dong Haifeng once recalled.
Operate an online store, several times losses. "Sell a house, sell another house." Having spent all the savings in front of me, life at home is getting tighter and tighter. Wei Ya said in an interview with Lu Yu that the road of e-commerce was not chosen by mistake? That was when Via was least confident.
The turning point came in 2016 when Wei Ya began to work as a live broadcast anchor for Taobao. At that time, the head of Alibaba's live broadcast operation found that although the live broadcast with goods was not profitable, Wei Ya was the hardest one.
Later stories everyone knows, in just a few years, Wei Ya in this "unprecedented" live e-commerce outlet grew plump wings, flying to the sky she could not have imagined before. In 2020, Wei Ya's annual turnover has exceeded 30 billion yuan, firmly occupying the throne of "Queen of Goods".
The remarkable record has set the MCN agency behind Via on fire. In 2019, Wei Ya and his wife established Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd., of which Dong Haifeng is the majority shareholder. In 2020 and 2021, Legend Capital and Yunfeng Fund have injected capital into Qianxun, which has expanded its main business to include incubating Internet celebrity anchors, short video content production and delivery, global content marketing, etc. At present, It has signed Stars such as Lin Yilun, Li Jing, and Haiqing who have turned to live streaming with goods.
According to the data, Qianxun has reached cooperation with more than 5,000 brands, with a cumulative GMV of more than 10 billion yuan. In addition to their own company being invested by head institutions, in January this year, The Wei ya couple began to get involved in the field of private equity investment.
Wealth soared. In the 2021 China Forbes Rich List, Wei Ya and her husband Dong Haifeng ranked in the top 500 with a net worth of 9 billion yuan.
Before the tax evasion scandal came out, Via had already cleaned up part of the business map. According to the Qixinbao App, at present, Weiya (Huang Wei) has invested in a total of 16 enterprises, including Shangrao Jiaqian Enterprise Management Center (Limited Partnership), Guangzhou Weimi Kesi Clothing Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Weiyafeng Trading Co., Ltd., etc.; there are 8 enterprises as legal persons, including Yunnan Yazhi E-commerce Co., Ltd., Shanghai Jianzhe Enterprise Management Consulting Center, Shanghai Weihe Enterprise Management Consulting Center, etc.
Image source: Kaixinbao
On December 6, the joint venture between Wei Ya and Dong Haifeng, Hangzhou Qianyi Enterprise Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), underwent an industrial and commercial change, and the status of the enterprise was changed from existence to deregistration, and the reason for the cancellation was the resolution to dissolve. It is understood that the company was established in November 2020 and has just turned one year old. At that time, the #Via couple partnership cancellation # also rushed to the first place in the Weibo hot search, and some netizens questioned whether they were afraid of being taxed before the cancellation of the enterprise.
Image source: Weibo screenshot
Even for the "live broadcast sister", Wei Ya also flipped the car in terms of live broadcast. Earlier, because of the deviation of the nutrition composition table data, the brand "Pastoralism", which claimed to be the first in the sales of whole wheat bread and Wei Ya brought goods, was named by the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission, although the founder of the brand publicly clarified that the problem products had nothing to do with the products sold by Wei Ya, but Wei Ya did not retreat in the public opinion field.
The live broadcasting industry may usher in strong supervision
Via is not the last
Via's punishment was not without warning. On October 29, it was revealed that the live broadcasting industry will usher in a major tax rectification, and then Via Company responded: "Fake, not us, don't believe it." ”
However, according to a person engaged in the e-commerce industry, the relevant departments have been inspecting the tax of the live broadcasting industry for several months. "Wei Ya is not the last, there are not a few people who have violated the law in live broadcasting, and there are also big anchors who are also being investigated." Whether there will be a real problem, or whether the punishment will be paid in time before the punishment comes out, it is difficult to say. ”
Why live streaming will become the hardest hit area for tax evasion and evasion is closely related to the rapid outbreak of the industry.
The live e-commerce industry has developed rapidly, and the report "Live E-commerce Towards a Trillion Market" released by KPMG and Ali Research Institute shows that the overall scale of live e-commerce will reach 1.05 trillion yuan in 2020, and this scale will be expanded to 2 trillion yuan in 2021. According to the data previously released by the Ministry of Commerce, the number of active anchors of e-commerce live broadcasting in the first half of 2020 exceeded 400,000.
Image source: Screenshot of the report
The scale of transactions has risen year after year, the social influence has continued to expand, and various "chaos" in the live broadcast room has been repeatedly prohibited: excessive publicity, false publicity, difficulty in returning and exchanging goods, incorrect version of goods, and difficulty in refunding have been criticized by users for a long time.
Zhang Yi told every reporter that as a new model of business format, the live e-commerce industry has developed rapidly and the scale is also increasing, and live e-commerce has brought employment opportunities and poverty alleviation opportunities to the public. Because of this, some regulatory measures have not kept up in time. "But this does not mean that legal loopholes can be exploited, and the due civic obligations should not be forgotten."
Many practitioners believe that there are a lot of tax evasion in both live broadcasts of the nature of selling goods and live broadcasts of entertainment. Zhang Yi introduced that the tax authorities have been focusing on the live broadcasting industry. Because e-commerce live broadcasting involves goods, there are rules to follow, but in terms of entertainment live broadcasting, most of them are revenues of the nature of tipping, how to collect taxes? There is a certain degree of difficulty at present.
Will Via be "cool"? Most of the industry is on the sidelines and has a negative attitude. "The influence of a head anchor like Via is no less than that of some stars." Some practitioners in the live broadcasting industry said.
Whatever awaits Via, under the times, it is nothing more than a grain of sand. Zhang Yi firmly believes that it is the needs of the market that has appeared weiya and Li Jiaqi, not because of weiya and Li Jiaqi, and the live broadcasting industry is thriving. "The market is large enough, and the monopoly of the head anchor is not conducive to the development of the industry." For merchants, it seems that only looking for them can be effective; for the platform, if they are not happy, it is very troublesome; for consumers, they will wonder whether they can only buy good things by following them, but this is not the case. ”
Under the high commission, the big anchor has too much right to speak, so that Wei Ya, who is originally from the folk, has become a myth of wealth creation. Some merchants are miserable, bluntly saying that there is no popularity in the small live broadcast room, so they bite their teeth and ask Via.
A brokerage company's conference call revealed that under the super head pattern, the platform and brand are very uncomfortable. "During the double 11 period, they (super head anchors) have too strong a voice on the brand, and the brand as a sales, whether it is the market or the sales function, is subject to them." The profits have cut a lot, the inner volume pattern, you must find them, in order to enter the TOP5. "Excessively strong anchors make the brand passive, and in the long run, it will be detrimental to the rise of the national tide and healthy development." The brokerage source believes: "Wei Ya has become a channel for the market to be too strong to a certain extent, and it is also a factor in her being punished. ”
Soochow Retail believes that in terms of taxation, legal compliance is the bottom line of operation. Finding the head anchor to bring goods is for the ranking, and the ranking is limited. The war between brands and channels has been continuing, and the head anchor is too powerful, and even affects the healthy development of the brand. Regarding the future of live broadcasting, Soochow Retail analysis said that there will be no major problems with live streaming with goods itself, but the pattern of head anchors getting stronger and stronger is problematic. In the future, for other anchors, platforms and brands want them to do more live broadcasts of content, rather than just asking for discounts. In the future, perhaps more attention may be paid to decentralization, and the anchor matrix of live broadcasting may also be shuffled.
According to data from iiMedia Research, under the influence of the new crown epidemic, the penetration rate of live broadcasting has further increased, and the number of live broadcast users has exceeded 500 million. And Wei Ya was punished, the live broadcast industry is bound to usher in a wave of reshuffle, Zhang Yi believes that it will promote the prosperity and development of the entire live e-commerce market. "The concentration of the head will be more dispersed, the opportunities for each anchor MCN institution will be greater, and the prosperity of hundreds of companies in the future is the normal state."
Reporters| Ding Zhouyang, Bi Yuanyuan, editors| He Xiaotao, Dong Xingsheng, Yi Qijiang, and Wang Jiaqi
Proofread | duan lian
| the original article of the daily economic news nbdnews |
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