In the early morning of December 29, the official micro-business brand "TST Court Secret" created by Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting posted a response to the company's suspected pyramid scheme and was investigated, saying that the company has insisted on legal operations and paid taxes according to law since its establishment. In addition, the TST court secretly also said that it is very grateful to the Hebei Shijiazhuang government for guiding the company to check the risks, and all the company's operations are normal at present, and it will actively cooperate with the relevant departments.
According to the China News Network, recently, the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau revealed through the "Reply to the Verification Letter" that Shanghai Dalway Trading Co., Ltd. "because it uses financial institutions to transfer or conceal funds involved in pyramid schemes, the bureau has applied to the people's court to take preservation measures in accordance with the law, and the case is currently under further investigation."
In November 2017, the announcement of Shandong Huapeng, a listed company, on the signing of a strategic framework agreement with Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd., disclosed that Dalway had revenue of 3.6 billion yuan and net profit of 1.143 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2017. In 2019, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting attracted public attention to their business territory because of the tax payment of up to 2.1 billion yuan in the previous year. Enterprise investigations show that Zhang Shuqin (i.e. Zhang Ting) has 90 affiliated enterprises; Lin Jirong (i.e. Lin Ruiyang) has 53 affiliated enterprises. Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd., the main business of the two, shows that it is mainly engaged in wholesale and retail trade, and mainly acts as a trade agent. In recent years, Darway has also added cosmetics management and operation, publication management, and Sales of Class II and Class III medical devices.
The Beijing News shell financial reporter combed and found that Lin Ruiyang also did real estate business in Shanghai in the early years, claiming to be involved in real estate development, sales, finance and many other industrial chains. However, these businesses later encountered Waterloo one after another, until 2013, when Lin Ruiyang and his wife founded the TST brand and entered the micro-business field, they gradually realized the transformation from stars to business tycoons. Today, the business territory of the two has expanded to different fields such as health, red wine, furniture and supplies, and clothing.
After relying on the micro-business industry to make a lot of money, Zhang Ting and his wife were once rumored to be worth as much as 30 billion yuan, spending 1.7 billion yuan to buy the entire building in Shanghai, and the family lived in a mansion of 200 million. Under the ultra-high income, the main brand TST of Zhang Ting and his wife has been repeatedly exposed to product quality problems, and its sales model has also been criticized and suspected of pyramid schemes. In September this year, Zhang Ting's friend Tao Hong also quit the Shanghai Tao Buting Culture and Media Company, which the two jointly opened.
The business map expands into many fields, and in 2020, it will enter the e-commerce live broadcast
In January 2019, Shanghai Qingpu District Official Micro "Green Qingpu" released the news that Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd., operated by Zhang Ting and his wife, was listed on the list of the top 100 outstanding enterprises in Qingpu District, Shanghai. The company's total tax payment in 2018 reached 2.1 billion yuan, ranking first in the list before Zhongtong, Shentong, Yunda, Yuantong and other enterprises. Soon after the news was sent, Zhang Ting's tax payment of 2.1 billion yuan rushed to the hot search, stimulating netizens' enthusiasm for discussion of the business empire of Zhang Ting and his wife.
According to the data of enterprise investigation, Shanghai Dalvy was established in 2013 with a registered capital of 231.8 million yuan, which belongs to the wholesale industry, the legal representative is Lin Jirong, and the chairman is Zhang Shuqin. Zhang Shuqin (i.e. Zhang Ting) has 90 affiliated enterprises, including 15 holding enterprises, 16 foreign investment enterprises, 76 foreign employees, and 77 legal persons. Her husband, Lin Jirong (i.e., Lin Ruiyang), has 53 affiliated enterprises, including 3 holding enterprises, 3 foreign investment enterprises, 48 foreign employees, and 40 legal persons.
The investigation showed the commercial territory of Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting
According to public information, Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd. has also created 5 major platforms: Ting Secret (online), O2O (offline), Ting Shuang GO (life), Ting Hi GO (Haitao), and TMM Life Hall. According to a 2019 article on the company's official website, as of January 2019, Zhang Ting's Shanghai Dalway Company has more than 400 employees, 75 offline stores, and the main brand is TST. In November 2017, the announcement of Shandong Huapeng, a listed company, on the signing of a strategic framework agreement with Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd., disclosed that Dalway had revenue of 3.6 billion yuan and net profit of 1.143 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2017. TST's official WeChat account also disclosed that the sales of TST champion agents in 2018 exceeded 60 million yuan, and only the top 10 micro-merchants have contributed nearly 300 million yuan in sales.
According to the official website of TST, TST Ting's secret series of products belongs to shanghai Darway brand, founded by Lin Ruiyang Zhang Ting in 2013, with cosmetics and skin care products as the main category, covering 100 million consumer groups, helping 12.46 million people to achieve employment in the past 7 years, and counseling more than 3,300 people to set up start-up companies. In addition, TST has also attracted celebrities such as Lin Zhiling and Jiang Yiyi, as well as many stars such as Tao Hong, Xu Zheng, and Ming Dao as product platforms.
So what exactly is the company's so-called TST product?
According to the official website, TST is a live yeast from France that aroused the interest of Zhang Ting's husband Lin Ruiyang in 1994. After two years of product development and stranding, Zhang Ting supported Lin Ruiyang to start the live yeast project again, and finally in 1996, Lin Ruiyang officially developed la'Fee, the predecessor of TST, live yeast skin care products, but according to The official website of Darway, La'Fee was not marketized due to technical factors at that time. After that, Lin Ruiyang came to Shanghai and devoted himself to the boiling real estate industry, claiming to be involved in real estate development, sales, finance and many other industrial chains. However, according to the 2015 China Business Daily, due to the delay in delivery of the house and the failure to pay liquidated damages, the property developed by Lin Ruiyang's Shangyang Real Estate Group in Wuhan was defended by the owner. The scale of Shangyang Real Estate Group is not large, with only 4 projects in Wuhan, Hubei, Suzhou, Jiangsu and Linyi, Shandong. At the same time that the real estate business encountered Waterloo, Lin Ruiyang's micro-business business began to rise gradually. In 2013, Dalway extracted yeast from fresh milk, combined with high-tech ultra-micron penetration technology, successfully developed products and put them on the market, and founded Shanghai Dalway Trading Co., Ltd. in the same year. Nowadays, according to the TST Court Secret Official Website Mall, TST products not only include skin care products such as serums and masks, but also begin to sell food such as bird's nest and beauty equipment products.
In recent years, with the continuous development of Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting's company, the business territory of the two has expanded to different fields such as big health, red wine, household goods, and clothing. In 2020, Zhang Ting and his wife began to enter the e-commerce live broadcast, on June 10 last year, Zhang Ting and Tao Hong jointly launched the first live broadcast with goods of 250 million, ranking first in the sales of all stars and Internet celebrities on the Douyin platform.
TST product business model has been questioned, micro-business to MLM?
While the business model has been very successful, TST's micro-business model has also been questioned.
In 2019, the Beijing News Shell financial reporter added a liu Yan who claimed to be the chairman of TST Million Company as a friend through the WeChat account provided by TST's "official website". Liu Yan introduced that joining TST "no need to hoard goods, no deposit, all goods in the manufacturer, no money can do", agents only need to sell. Moreover, TST agents adopt a commission rebate system, and the performance of new agent sales becomes 15%; within 30 days, the cumulative performance of the agent will become a gold card agent, and the performance commission will become 24%-32%. If the agent recruits himself as an agent and forms his own team, when the team's cumulative sales exceed 250,000, the performance commission of the gold card agent directly reaches 32%. In addition, the Gold Card Agent also has a difference of 2%-17%, a 4%-6% self-media bonus, and a 4.5% management bonus for the owner of the team after becoming the founder.
Liu Yan showed the performance page of the court secret system to the shell financial reporter that in January 2019, the total personal performance of the company's two agents was 37,500 yuan and 11,100 yuan respectively, which was their income in the month and ranked in the top two in the company. Subsequently, Liu Yan provided a two-dimensional code to the reporter, providing a real name, ID card number, mobile phone number and bank card number, and then registered as a TST agent for free. Liu Yan clearly remembers that she joined TST as an agent on October 22, 2015, the first month was "only 980 yuan", on April 1, 2016 she began to serve as the chairman of TST Million Company, from January 1 to 30, 2019, she earned 130,000 yuan in one month, and said that she earned a total of 5 million yuan in three years of joining TST. However, at that time, there were no enterprises named "TST Million Company" on the national enterprise credit information publicity system and Tianyan Check.
TST agent performance calculation method. Courtesy of Liu Yan
In this regard, Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that this commission rebate level model obviously has the characteristics of MLM. According to laws and regulations, multi-level sales models with more than two levels are generally identified as MLM. However, the TST model seems to have only two levels, but the law regulates the rebate level rather than the surface mode, and the rebate level of TST has already exceeded 3 levels, which is a typical rebate MLM model.
Zhu Wei also said that the remuneration model of the TST team is also in line with the nature of MLM. According to the Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes, the formation of an up-down line relationship and the use of down-line sales performance as the upper-line remuneration standard are of the nature of pyramid schemes. The TST model adopts the form of multi-level up and downline sales, and the online can not only obtain the commission of the downline business, but also after the downline business volume reaches the standard, rises to become an independent team and the upper line level, the original upline can still be a variety of names for the original downline commission, which is the so-called new "horizontal" MLM model that has emerged in recent years.
Recently, according to the China News Network, the Municipal Supervision Bureau of Yuhua District of Shijiazhuang City issued a "Reply to the Inquiry Letter", saying that according to a number of mass reports and verifications, Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd. was suspected of using the Network to engage in pyramid schemes, and according to the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes", in June this year, the Municipal Supervision Bureau has filed a case against the company and reported it to the superior step by step. Because the company used financial institutions to transfer or conceal funds involved in the transmission, the Municipal Supervision Bureau has applied to the people's court to take preservation measures in accordance with the law, and the case is still under further investigation.
Behind the alleged pyramid scheme, TST products were involved in a number of consumer disputes, and the star partners withdrew from the company's operation
In February 2016, @Happy Zhou Yaya exposed on Weibo, saying that she had been using TST products for three consecutive months, during which she did not mix other skin care products, her face was rough, peeling, blushing, and her eyes could not be opened with yellow water. However, the TST staff replied that this was the skin "detoxifying". Four months later, TST announced that the skin of "Happy Zhou Yaya" with the help of the company has returned to health and beauty. But then, "Happy Zhou Yaya" sent a Weibo rebuttal, saying that her skin was repaired with the help of doctors and had nothing to do with TST, and some of the photos used in the TST announcement were secretly taken and belonged to false propaganda.
In the same year, some media reported that many consumers said that they had different degrees of allergies after using TST live yeast products, and abnormal symptoms such as hard pimples and acne appeared on their faces. After the fermentation of public opinion, Zhang Ting personally responded on Weibo, saying that each user has a different skin type and will have different reactions to cosmetics. The TST product is in accordance with the law and the three certificates are complete, and a professional third-party inspection and quarantine agency has been invited to conduct health safety tests.
In addition, in September this year, Tao Hong also withdrew from the business activities of Zhang Ting's media company.
In July 2020, Tao Hong and Zhang Ting jointly founded "Tao Buting Culture Media" Company, with a registered capital of 50 million yuan, and the business scope includes network culture management, Internet sales, marketing planning, etc. At that time, Tao Hong and Zhang Ting often co-produced short videos on Douyin and brought goods live together. Just over a year later, in September 2021, Shanghai Tao Buting Culture Media Company underwent a number of industrial and commercial changes, and Tao Hong withdrew from the company's shareholders.
Beijing News shell financial reporter Li Menghan Editor Song Yuting Proofreader Wei Zhuo