Li Ziqi and Hangzhou Weinian finally broke up and rose to the legal level!
Li Ziqi sued Hangzhou Weinian
According to Tianyan's investigation, on October 25, Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. and Liu Tongming and Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co., Ltd. added new case filing information, the plaintiff in the first instance was Ziqi Culture, and the defendants were Hangzhou Weinian and Liu Tongming.
According to shareholder information, Ziqi Culture is held by Hangzhou Hangzhou Weinian and Li Jiajia (Li Ziqi himself) 51% and 49% respectively.
This means that Li Ziqi officially broke with Hangzhou Weinian and Liu Tongming, and went to the step of legal proceedings.
The incident goes back three months, on July 14, when Li Ziqi posted a video on Weibo driving to Zigong, Sichuan Province, to refine well salt, after which Li Ziqi's Weibo inexplicably broke.
Not only Weibo, but today, Li Ziqi's videos on major social media accounts have been cut off for more than three months, during which time it has triggered countless reverie of netizens.
Many netizens pointed the finger at the MCN agency, that is, Li Ziqi's Internet celebrity brokerage company - Hangzhou Weinian, and its controlling person Liu Tongming, speculating that Li Ziqi had a disagreement with it, which led to the video breakout.
On August 30, Li Ziqi, who had been on the weibo for 75 days, once again rushed to the Weibo hot search, this time the content was released by Li Ziqi in the oasis: "Report a police in the early morning."
At the same time, Li Ziqi also attached a photo of her at the police station, and replied to netizens in the comments: "Capital is really a good means." Although this reply was quickly deleted, it still caused a lot of turmoil.
Who is Capital? Why go to the alarm step?
In addition, at this moment, everyone realized one point, that is, why did Li Ziqi publish this news on Oasis, and not on other platforms?
People familiar with the matter said: "The official accounts of Li Ziqi's Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, B station and other large platforms are not controlled by herself, but by Hangzhou Weinian." ”
Netizens once again set their sights on Hangzhou Weinian and Liu Tongming, and rumors such as the team being poached and the trademark being infringed were rampant.
Subsequently, Li Ziqi also sent a Weibo clarification: "The team that was poached is fake news, but there is indeed a dispute with the cooperative company, and legal procedures are being followed." ”
On October 22, CCTV4's official Weibo posted a video of an interview with Li Ziqi, which quickly rushed to the hot search. Li Ziqi talked a lot about his views on traditional culture and content creation in the program, but did not give a positive response to the much-concerned stop-and-go storm.
However, netizens can see from Li Ziqi's words that the two sides have broken up, because Li Ziqi calls each other "them", not "us".
3 days later, Ziqi Culture officially sued Hangzhou Weinian, and this incident finally reached the point of judicial proceedings, and the speculations of netizens came true.
Where Li Ziqi and Hangzhou Weinian's lawsuit is going, it is not yet known, but it is a place that is often overlooked, and it has been moved to the table, that is, the dispute between Internet celebrities and MCN institutions!
Between Li Ziqi and Hangzhou Weinian, it is the most typical case.
Li Ziqi and Wei Nian have a grudge
Li Ziqi, whose real name is Li Jiajia, began to contact short videos in 2015 and became an independent content creator.
Because Li Ziqi's short video style is distinct, full of traditional cultural atmosphere and love for poetic pastoral life, he quickly accumulated a certain number of fans.
In 2016, Liu Tongming of Hangzhou Weinian saw the potential of "Li Ziqi", came to Sichuan from Hangzhou to meet with Li Jiajia, and successfully signed it in September 2016, the two sides agreed that Li Ziqi would focus on the production of content, and Weinian would be responsible for marketing and promotion.
It was also in September 2016 that Sina Weibo began to publicly find excellent short video creators for resource support, and Li Ziqi became a beneficiary.
In November 2016, Li Ziqi created the first blockbuster short video - "Lanzhou Beef Noodles", with the help of Weibo, Meipai and Weinian, this short video was played more than 50 million times on the whole network, with more than 600,000 likes, and Li Ziqi suddenly became the top stream of the Internet celebrity industry!
In July 2017, the two sides changed the mode of cooperation and jointly established Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd., and in August 2018, the flagship store of Liziqi Tmall was officially opened.
With the traffic of the top-notch Internet celebrities, the IP of "Li Ziqi" also showed amazing gold absorption ability, in 2020, the sales of the Li Ziqi brand reached 1.6 billion yuan, and the plum Ziqi snail powder alone sold 500 million yuan in sales a year, and became an "Internet red food".
As of October 25, 2021, Li Ziqi's Weibo fans reached 27.632 million, Station B fans reached 7.927 million, and the number of single videos played by foreign YouTube channel accounts often exceeded 10 million, and the number of subscriptions exceeded 14.1 million.
However, behind Li Ziqi's success, there are several huge thunderbolts buried:
1. Whether it is the main body of Li Ziqi's flagship store or the shareholders of the explosive snail powder production plant, they are all Hangzhou Weinian, and Li Ziqi does not hold any shares of Weinian;
2. Hangzhou Weinian has three office buildings, one of which is dedicated to the Li Ziqi Division, but the Li Ziqi Division is responsible for product research and development, supply chain and marketing of the e-commerce channel under the IP of "Li Ziqi", which has almost no connection with Li Ziqi and his shooting team in Sichuan;
3. Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd., which was jointly established by the two sides, shows that the number of insured people in the company is 0, while the number of insured people in Hangzhou Weinian is 504, which shows that Ziqi Culture is almost a shell company, and the personnel who actually operate the Li Ziqi brand all belong to Hangzhou Weinian.
The biggest blogger under MCN, the main account, operation, sales, etc. are in the hands of the company, but there is no stake in the company, how can this not break out of contradictions?
To put it bluntly, Hangzhou Weinian "eating is too ugly", once Li Jiajia herself realized the problem, or the two sides are diverging, the contradiction will erupt in a concentrated manner.
It is worth mentioning that although Li Ziqi has a CCTV platform and tens of millions of fans to criticize the capital for it, unfortunately, it is difficult for Li Ziqi to win this lawsuit.
The fact is that Li Ziqi's IP, Weibo Douyin Kuaishou B station account, and Li Ziqi's flagship store are all in the hands of Hangzhou Weinian, and the worst result is that Li Jiajia may lose the IP of "Li Ziqi".
If the contract signed between Li Jiajia and Wei Nian was unfavorable to Li Jiajia, then the final result may be that Li Jiajia will lose everything she has now, starting from scratch, which is a good means of capital.
It is difficult for influencers to coexist with MCN agencies
MCN and influencers, in themselves, are complementary to each other, and brokerage companies help bloggers become popular and then make profits, which is a win-win situation.
However, in the distribution of benefits, MCN institutions naturally have an advantage over Internet celebrity bloggers, so there are many "overlord clauses", which may swallow before the bloggers have become popular, but once they have the strength, they may go to a break.
Even the top-notch Li Ziqi did not have the equity of Wei Nian, and also went to the step of legal proceedings, not to mention those small bloggers.
In the game with MCN, individual creators with weak strength are often unable to compete with MCN's mature operation team, and under the irreconcilable contradictions, they basically end up giving up their accounts.
For example, the B station's up master "Lin Chen Classmate" and "Xiangxiang Battle" were eventually taken away by the MCN agency to conclude, and the "Xiangxiang Battle" had to start again.
In the era of traffic, the dispute between bloggers and MCN institutions has never stopped: MCN institutions hope to quickly monetize through huge traffic, often through advertising, while bloggers prefer not to be too commercial, to maintain the reputation of bloggers and accounts, the two are difficult to reconcile.
In fact, it is wrong to say that today's "internet celebrities" are in chaos, because it is more likely that there is something wrong with the brokerage company behind it.
The data shows that there are currently more than 1,000 MCN institutions in Xiaohongshu alone, but only 50-60 have obtained qualifications and certifications.
The phenomenon of Li Ziqi is not a case, but a case that can trigger people to reflect on the chaos in this field.
Capital has never had a lower limit, for the sake of profit, they can do whatever it takes, if they let the bad money in this field drive out the good money, then it will eventually lead to a decline in the quality of the entire industry.
Fortunately, on the afternoon of October 26, the Ministry of Commerce, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Development and Reform Commission issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for E-commerce Development", which clearly mentioned that it is necessary to strengthen industry supervision of industries such as live broadcasting and carrying goods, accelerate the improvement of relevant laws, and rectify industry chaos.
Li Ziqi and Wei Nian, it is possible that the end is a lose-lose situation, Li Ziqi lost the IP of "Li Ziqi", and Wei Nian lost Li Jiajia himself. This is also a "loss of no culture", because I do not understand equity, and I did not carry out certain prevention when signing contracts in the early days.
However, the results of the two sides are not necessarily the same, without Li Jiajia's micro-idea, it is absolutely impossible to operate the Li Ziqi brand, and Li Jiajia herself has a very high popularity, the reputation is also very good, it is easy to find the next brokerage company or do it alone, she can become a new "Li Ziqi"!
Author | Fan Zhilin