On April 22, it was confirmed that Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of Douyu, had been released on bail pending trial after the Spring Festival this year.
Today, it was reported that the well-known anchor "Xiao Tuantuan" of Douyu was arrested and rushed to the first place in the hot search on Weibo.
Chen Shaojie's release on bail pending trial means that he has been acquitted?
As soon as Chen Shaojie came out, "Xiaotuantuan" was arrested immediately, why?
01
Lost contact for three weeks
The secret is out
As early as the beginning of November last year, multiple sources showed that Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of Douyu, had been missing for nearly three weeks. Subsequently, Douyu officials also confirmed the news of Chen Shaojie's disappearance.
Source: Douyu's official public account
On November 21, Douyu issued an announcement saying that Chen Shaojie, the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors of Douyu, was arrested by Chengdu police around November 16. The company has not yet received formal notice of the investigation into Mr. Chen or the apparent reasons for his arrest. Subsequently, the betta fell straight in front of the market, once falling by more than 10%.
On November 22, Chengdu Dujiangyan Police issued a police report: After investigation by the bureau, Chen Moujie (male, 39 years old) was suspected of opening a casino. At present, Chen Moujie has been arrested in accordance with the law. Further investigation is ongoing.
02
取保候审
Actual punishment is inevitable
A person familiar with the matter revealed that although Chen Shaojie has been released on bail pending trial, he may still face a real sentence in the future.
According to the circumstances of his case, some legal sources have estimated that Chen Shaojie's specific sentence may be between 5 and 7 years.
According to public information, Chen Shaojie was born in Jinan, Shandong Province in 1984. In the fifth grade of elementary school, I became obsessed with games, and when I went to university, I even spent the night at an Internet café.
During his freshman year, he dropped out of school and became a "squatting at home". After the Spring Festival in 2006, 21-year-old Chen Shaojie came to Wuhan, and with his 10-year experience as a veteran gamer, he quickly found a job developing a game battle platform.
In 2010, Chen Shaojie bought Station A, the "originator of the two-dimensional website" in China, and established the "Shengbo" channel of Station A.
In 2014, he made the "Shengbo" channel independent and renamed it "Douyu TV".
In 2019, Chen Shaojie once ranked 1507th on the Hurun Report with a fortune of 2.5 billion yuan.
When Chen Shaojie was first arrested, there were 15 affiliated enterprises under his name, 7 of which were in existence, including Wuhan Douyu Network Technology Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Shark Webcast Technology Co., Ltd. At present, he serves as a shareholder and supervisor in a number of related companies.
03
"Xiao Tuan Tuan" has just confirmed his arrest
AutoNavi has more than 10 million voice package users
After Chen Shaojie's incident, Douyu set up a temporary management committee, and said on the third quarter post-earnings call at that time, "At present, Douyu Company is operating normally, and the investigation has not had a significant impact on the company's operations." Since then, Douyu has not disclosed any information about Chen Shaojie.
But is that really the case?
Since Chen Shaojie's arrest, many of Douyu's head anchors have suspended live broadcasts for dozens of days, and then only a few anchors resumed live broadcasts. It has been rumored in the circle that these anchors who suspended live broadcasts may be related to the Chen Shaojie case.
Yesterday (April 22), some media said that the well-known Douyu anchor "Xiao Tuantuan" was confirmed to be arrested. It is said that "Xiao Tuan Tuan" is also suspected of large gambling and is related to the Chen Shaojie case.
On January 27, Xiao Tuan Tuan posted a dynamic in Douyu Fish Bar to announce that it would stop broadcasting, and her Weibo update stayed on December 2, 2023.
On September 11, 2020, Xiaotuantuan Navigation Voice was put on the Gaode map, and he also became the youngest navigator of the map. It is said that the number of users exceeds 10 million, and it is also one of the most popular navigation voice packages, not inferior to Lin Chiling.
In this regard, AutoNavi customer service said that it is not clear whether it will be removed from the shelves in the future, and feedback will be recorded.
In addition, Yuwan Media, the contracted guild of the small group, has now become the person subject to execution, with an execution amount of about 445,700 yuan. In 2021, Yuwan Media applied for the registration of the trademark "Yiyi Xiaotuantuan", which is already invalid.
April 23, #一条小团团被捕#冲上微博热搜第一. It is reported that as of 9:30 a.m. on the 23rd, a small group of betta live broadcast rooms has not been banned. In this regard, Douyu customer service said that based on the actual page display, no relevant ban notice has been received at present.
04
The head anchor of the betta fish retreated
The platform is facing a reshuffle
April 23, #PDD#也冲上微博热搜. The data shows that the last time Douyu anchor PDD started broadcasting was on November 14, 2023, and the suspension time was as long as 161 days, more than 5 months.
In this regard, Douyu customer service said that at present, the status of the anchor's live broadcast room is normal, and whether to start broadcasting is the anchor's personal choice.
From Chen Shaojie's arrest to the present, Douyu "Hearthstone First Brother" and the well-known anchor "Dog Thief" have also been rumored to be involved in the case and arrested, and the live broadcast room has been suspended since November last year.
The remaining head anchors of betta fish such as Zhang Daxian and Xu Xu Baby also chose to settle in Douyin.
Behind it is the irreversible trend of the game live broadcast industry: new short and medium-sized video platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili have seized the attention of a large number of users with their lighter content forms and perfect business models.
At present, Douyu's paying subscribers continue to churn, with MAUs (monthly active users) in the fourth quarter of 2023 being 51.7 million, a decrease of 5.7 million compared to the same period last year, and an average of 3.7 million paying users in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 1.9 million year-on-year.
Last year, Douyu ushered in its first annual report in nearly three years. The total revenue for the whole year of 2023 will be 5.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of about 23%, and the net profit will be 154 million yuan, compared with a net loss of 7.6 million yuan in the same period of 2022.
However, like most Internet platforms, the improvement of Douyu's profitability does not come from revenue growth, but from cost control.
As of the close of trading on April 19, Douyu's stock price was $8.06, with a total market capitalization of $258 million. At the beginning of 2021, the market value of Betta Fish exceeded $3 billion, and now it has evaporated by more than 9%.
It is understood that Douyu has carried out a "four-in-one" (business compliance, content compliance, process compliance and data compliance), fully implement the project risk prevention and control system, establish a product traceability mechanism, improve the interactive anti-addiction system, attach importance to the handling of disputes and complaints, regularly check the violation risk of the platform and rectify the violations, and strengthen the risk awareness education of the company's relevant personnel.
Finally, do you think there is still a possibility for betta fish to turn around?
[The author of this article is a dark horse, an entrepreneur who originally wrote.] If you need to reprint, please contact the WeChat public account (ID: iheima) for authorization. ］