Original production of Shell Finance
Reporter Wei Yingzi, Wei Boya, Bai Bailei
Edited by Wang Jinyu
Intern Guo Xujun
The "sweet potato flour turmoil" of "Sister Northeast Yu" has been decided.
On October 12, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Manchu Autonomous County, Benxi City, Liaoning Province announced the results of the investigation of Benxi Yujie Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yujie Media") and said that the samples of sweet potato vermicelli promoted by its live broadcast were not detected with sweet potato-derived components, and cassava-derived components were detected. Yujie Media is guilty of false or misleading commercial promotion, and imposed an administrative penalty of confiscation of illegal gains and a fine of a total of 1.65 million yuan, and ordered it to suspend business and rectify within a time limit.
On the same day, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Chaoyang County, Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province announced the results of the investigation of Chaoyang County Liuhe Vermicelli Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Liuhe Company"), a factory manufacturer in the turmoil, and ordered Liuhe Company to suspend production and business, confiscate illegal gains, and fine a total of 6.7176 million yuan.
The day before, a blogger denounced the Tianmiao oil pollution sold by "Sister Northeast Yu" for being suspected of missing two catties. On October 14, the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter called Liuhe Company and the oil pollution net production enterprise "Hebei Jieruxin Daily Chemical" respectively. The former number was not connected, and the latter hung up after hearing the reporter's identity.
As a short video content creator, "Northeast Rain Sister" became famous for the theme of rural life, and then turned to live broadcasting. According to an interview with Shell Finance, the commission for agricultural and sideline food is about 20% to 35%, and there are also a few categories that are 15%, and the pit fee is about 100,000 yuan (the anchor promises a certain amount of sales), such a high cost makes many manufacturers have to reduce product quality in order to improve profit margins. The producers in the "sweet potato flour turmoil" have been administratively punished twice this year, including violating national food safety standards.
Anchors rely on high pit fees and commissions to enter the surging development. Taking "Northeast Sister Yu" and its affiliates as an example, it has broadcast 14 live broadcasts in the past 90 days, with an average sales of 2.5 million to 5 million per game, and 8 new media companies have been established this year alone, and 5 were established in March alone.
"Northeast Sister Yu" has brought goods in the past 90 days. Screenshot of the cicada mother platform
01
"Sister Northeast Yu" was fined 1.65 million yuan, and the "sweet potato vermicelli" production enterprise was punished twice this year
According to the above-mentioned notice from the Benxi County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, Yujie Media's claim in the live broadcast that sweet potato vermicelli "is not messy except for sweet potato starch, drinking water, and edible alum", etc., is inconsistent with the facts and is a false or misleading commercial promotion.
On the same day, the Chaoyang County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau reported that cassava-derived ingredients were detected in the relevant sweet potato vermicelli, but no sweet potato-derived ingredients were detected, which was a false content.
On October 14, the Shell Finance reporter repeatedly called the contact number of Liuhe Company shown by the enterprise investigation, but was not connected.
According to the information of the enterprise check, Liuhe Company was established in February 2014 and is a food manufacturing enterprise. He was punished three times by the Chaoyang County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau from 2022 to 2024. In September 2022, he was fined 5 million yuan and confiscated 420 yuan of illegal gains because the aluminum residue of the vermicelli samples submitted for inspection did not meet the "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" (GB 2760-2014). In February 2024, the company was given an administrative penalty for failing to comply with the national food safety standards required by the relevant food production and operation process. In May 2024, the company was again given an administrative penalty for other certified violations.
The day before, another blogger claimed that the oil-stained net products brought by Sister Yu in Northeast China were suspected to be short of two catties. The video of "Brother Frog Attack" shows that the oil pollution net brand is Tianmiao. The reporter searched for "Tianmiao" and "Oil Pollution Clean" under the account of "Northeast Yujie" on the cicada mother platform and found that the name of the product manufacturer is "Hebei Jieruxin Daily Chemical".
On October 14, the reporter called the contact number of Hebei Jieruxin Daily Chemical Co., Ltd. displayed by the enterprise investigation, and the phone was hung up after the reporter revealed his identity. Subsequently, the reporter called the number again but could not get through, and changed the mobile phone number to continue to call the number but also failed to connect.
Li Yuan, a lawyer from the Beijing Lawyers Association, analyzed to the Shell Financial Reporter that "Sister Northeast Yu", as an anchor with goods, is the role of the seller, the role of the product manufacturer is the producer, and the seller and the producer are both in the role of the operator, and both have the responsibility to protect the rights and interests of consumers.
Specifically, in this case ("Sweet Potato Flour Turmoil"), if a consumer purchases "sweet potato flour" but receives "tapioca flour", he can claim liability for being defrauded against the seller "Sister Dongbei Yu", and if the consumption of "cassava flour" with defective quality causes personal or property damage, the consumer can claim compensation from the seller "Sister Northeast Yu" or the producer.
He further explained that according to Article 55 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, in addition to returning the goods, "Sister Northeast Yu" must also bear punitive damages three times the value of the goods themselves, and the punitive damages shall not be less than 500 yuan.
Li Yuan also said that after the seller compensates, if it is the responsibility of the producer or the responsibility of other sellers who provide goods to the seller, the seller has the right to recover from the producer or other sellers. At this time, it is very important whether "Sister Northeast Yu" knows about the composition of "sweet potato flour", "which directly determines whether she has the subjective consciousness of intentionally infringing on the rights and interests of consumers as a seller." "If a seller sells to a consumer despite knowing that the goods provided to him by the producer are falsely advertised, he or she will lose some or all of his right to recover from the producer.
The Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Manchu Autonomous County, Benxi City, Liaoning Province, notified the results of the investigation into Benxi Yujie Media Co., Ltd. Screenshot of the government's official website
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This year, it has added 8 new media companies to bring goods, in addition to collecting pit fees, but also taking commissions
On February 18, 2022, "Sister Northeast Yu" uploaded the first short video on the short video platform, using rural life as the shooting material, and gradually became the platform's head "three rural anchors" with the image of "Wolf Warrior Version of Li Ziqi". Feigua data shows that the current number of fans of "Northeast Sister Rain" is 22.381 million. About a month and a half after she released her first short video, the number of fans reached 100,000, and it also exceeded 1 million at the end of November 2022. In January of the following year, the number of fans of "Northeast Rain Sister" reached the 5 million mark.
"Northeast Sister Yu" shifted the traffic brought by short videos to live broadcasting. According to the data of Cicada Mother, "Sister Northeast Rain" has broadcast 14 live broadcasts in the past 90 days, with an average sales of 2.5 million to 5 million, and the most products on the shelves and the best-selling categories are food and beverages, accounting for 54.5% and 51.25% respectively.
The person in charge of a leading MCN agency analyzed the business model of anchors like "Northeast Sister Yu" to the Shell Financial Reporter: usually the merchant pays a certain pit fee to the anchor, plus a high commission, the anchor will bring goods to the merchant, and of course, the anchor will also provide a certain amount of sales to the merchant's products as a guarantee. "The pit fee and the guaranteed amount of sales are generally in a ratio of 1:2, and some promises have a ratio of 1:3. In terms of commissions, it is relatively high, about 20% to 35% for agricultural and sideline foods. ”
For example, he said that the gross profit of a product is 45%, and the merchant needs to give the anchor 20% to 35% of the commission, and the anchor promises 300,000 sales to the merchant, so the gross profit of the merchant is between 30,000 and 75,000, and the merchant also needs to give the anchor 100,000 pit fees, which means that the merchant may lose money. "This is a relatively deformed cooperation model, which leads merchants to retreat to the next best thing and reduce the quality of goods." The person in charge said.
After having a certain fan base, "Northeast Sister Yu" began to expand its business territory, covering advertising, media, agriculture, e-commerce, food wholesale and other industries.
"Sister Northeast Rain" was formerly known as Chang Xiaoyu, and her husband's name was Bai Guohui. On February 3, 2023, Sister Yujie Media was established, and the natural person shareholder at that time was Chang Xiaoyu, and she held 100% of the shares. On February 13, Liaoning Yuhui Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd. was established (hereinafter referred to as Yuhui Agriculture), and invested in Yujie Media the next day. According to the enterprise investigation, Yuhui Agriculture is a crop seed production enterprise, and the actual controller and major shareholder is Bai Guohui.
In the field of media, the pace of "Sister Northeast Rain" is relatively fast. According to the enterprise investigation, Sister Yujie Media also invested in and held 100% of Benxi Journey Media Co., Ltd., Benxi Xinqidian Media Co., Ltd., Benxi Xinqihang Media Co., Ltd., Benxi Yelena Media Co., Ltd., Benxi Yujie Little Follower Media Co., Ltd., Benxi Daliang Media Co., Ltd., Benxi New Brilliant Media Co., Ltd., and Benxi New Future Media Co., Ltd. The above eight companies were all established between February and September this year, of which five were established in March.
After the establishment of Yuhui Agriculture, in addition to Yujie Media, it also invested in and controlled Liaoning Yujie E-commerce Live Incubation Base Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yujie E-commerce), Benxi Dingshun Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., Benxi Xingyao Creative Advertising Planning Co., Ltd., Benxi Fengju Trading Co., Ltd., and Liaoning Yujie Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yujie Commerce).
Among them, Sister Yujie Trading and Yuhui Agriculture were established on the same day. According to industrial and commercial information, Sister Yu's business belongs to the food wholesale industry. On July 22 this year, Sister Yujie Trading was suspected of a product liability dispute, and was sued by Huang as a defendant together with Dalian Jiupin Food Co., Ltd. to the People's Court of Lushunkou District, Dalian City. On August 29, Huang applied to withdraw the lawsuit and obtained the court's approval.
Yujie E-commerce was established on August 8, 2024, and among Chang Xiaoyu's affiliated companies, only it and Zhongxian Chenhui Culture and Art Studio (individual industrial and commercial households) are in existence.
The first short video of "Sister Northeast Rain". Screenshot of the platform
03
Lack of detection cost, product selection pressure, and identification ability, how to avoid the risk of overturning with Internet celebrities?
At the end of July this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a one-month special action to "rectify false, vulgar and chaotic phenomena in the field of clear and · online live broadcasting" to rectify five types of outstanding problems.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told the Shell Financial Reporter that Sister Yu's frequent overturning of goods in Northeast China is in line with the two key issues of "bottom-line marketing" and "deceiving consumers and selling counterfeit and shoddy goods".
He also said that in order to attract traffic and sales, some anchors do not hesitate to fabricate false scenes, exaggerate product effects, and even sell fake and shoddy goods, which seriously damages the rights and trust of consumers. This kind of behavior not only violates laws and regulations, but also undermines the level playing field in the market.
Why do Internet celebrities frequently have quality control problems with goods? Internet analyst Zhang Shule told the Shell Financial Reporter that the current live broadcast room generally involves multiple categories in product selection, from food, beauty and skin care to clothing, electronic products, etc. The supply chain for each category is quite complex, "unless it has been in business for many years, [it's] not fully understood, and if you put it into testing, it will bring high time and money costs." ”
Zhang Shule analyzed that as well-known brands gradually turned to self-broadcasting, the anchors with goods had to choose from OEM or white-label products, which eventually led to the concentrated outbreak of the "rollover" problem. At the same time, due to the lack of professional knowledge and identification qualifications of the products carried by the Internet celebrity team, if it is easy to bring goods with only a few certificates, it is easy to have quality control risks.
How should Internet celebrities avoid the risk of rollover? Zhang Shule believes that for Internet celebrities, there should be a complete team, "Even if it is a small and beautiful live MCN, it must also be like marketing, public relations, and a professional selection team with a strong cognitive depth of the products involved." ”
How can influencers find a balance between business expansion and brand credibility? Pan Helin, a well-known economist, believes that business expansion and brand reputation are not contradictory. He said that in order to solve the problem of product quality control, some anchor companies will establish their own brands, customize products in their own supply chains, introduce professional talent teams in product selection, and conduct quality appraisal of merchants' products. In addition, anchors can reduce learning costs through supplier selection, and also make the quality of goods more stable, "Establishing a stable brand partnership is the future development direction of many short video creators." ”