Ziqi Culture sued the majority shareholder Hangzhou Weinian "Li Ziqi" for a battle or a private agreement

"We're not going to be interviewed right now." On the evening of October 27, in the face of the Shanghai Securities News reporter's question about Li Ziqi's litigation matters and equity issues, the relevant person in charge of Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hangzhou Weinian") hurriedly hung up the phone.

Encountering Li Ziqi's prosecution, Hangzhou Weinian stood on the cusp of public opinion. Not only to the outside world, but also to its own investors, Hangzhou Weinian is also secretive.

That night, a person in charge of a VC fund that invested in Hangzhou Weinian told reporters bluntly: "We also saw the news reports to know that Li Ziqi and Hangzhou Weinian completely fell out." We were surprised and disappointed. ”

"If it's a question of equity, I think it's confusing. Because whether it is Li Ziqi or Hangzhou Weinian, the equity structure and future listing arrangements at the time of financing are all signed and known to them, why did they fall out today? Another investor who has been following Hangzhou Weinian for a long time analyzed to reporters, "Therefore, this dispute may have been caused by some previous 'private agreements' between Li Ziqi and Liu Tongming, the major shareholder of Hangzhou Weinian." ”

Whether it is a dispute for equity or others, the final battle is nothing more than the commercial brand of "Li Ziqi" and the attribution of its value. And this sudden "Plum Ziqi" scramble may expose many "gray trajectories" behind the reckless development of the domestic Internet red industry.

Li Ziqi fought back

Rumors of disagreement between Li Ziqi and the major shareholders of Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ziqi Culture") were finally completely exposed under public opinion.

According to Tianyan's investigation, on October 25, Ziqi Culture added information on cases related to Liu Tongming and Hangzhou Weinian, and the plaintiff in the first instance was Ziqi Culture, and the defendants were Hangzhou Weinian and Liu Tongming.

According to the data of Tianyancha, Ziqi Culture is held by Hangzhou Weinian and Li Jiajia (Li Ziqi) by 51% and 49% respectively, and the company has a number of brand trademarks related to "Li Ziqi", and Hangzhou Weinian is the controlling party.

However, on the other hand, Hangzhou Weinian's shareholder list does not include Li Jiajia's shares. According to the latest data from Tianyancha, the major shareholder of Hangzhou Weinian is Liu Tongming, whose total shareholding ratio is about 20.4%, including about 19% of direct shareholding. In addition, Beijing Quantum Leap Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of ByteDance, also holds 1.37% of the shares.

Since the suspension in July this year, rumors of differences between Li Ziqi and the company behind him have been heard, and now, a complaint by Li Ziqi has officially made the issue public.

On the evening of the 27th, a shareholder of Hangzhou Weinian and a VC investor revealed to reporters that the dispute may stem from the "private agreement" between Li Ziqi and Liu Tongming on certain interest arrangements.

"If you look at the company's equity, you'll see problems." The above-mentioned investor said that the reason why Li Ziqi would accept such an equity arrangement in the first place was likely to have a private agreement with Liu Tongming on other interests, "Before the general investment, we will do due diligence, and we invest in Hangzhou Weinian is indeed because we are interested in Li Ziqi, but in the end, there is no Li Ziqi among the shareholders of Hangzhou Weinian, and he himself also acquiesced to this equity status quo at the beginning." In addition, according to people familiar with the matter, in the initial investment stage, it is not completely certain whether it will be Hangzhou Weinian or Ziqi Culture as the main body of listing in the future.

Once upon a time, the story of Liu Tongming's discovery of Li Ziqi was once rumored to be a good story of "Bole and Maxima" in the industry. Since the establishment of cooperation between the two sides in 2017, relying on the operation of Hangzhou Weinian, Li Ziqi's fame has become louder and louder, and the former has become the top MCN (Multi-Channel Network, that is, multi-channel network) institutions in China, which is popular with countless capitals at the moment when the Internet celebrity economy is prevalent.

Previously, some media reported that after the latest round of financing, the valuation of Hangzhou Weinian has reached 5 billion yuan, just around the corner from listing. However, the turn came so unexpectedly. With the contradiction between Li Ziqi and Hangzhou Weinian becoming public, it is rumored that even ByteDance has started the withdrawal process on October 16.

Who exactly does "Li Ziqi" belong to?

The ownership of the brand "Li Ziqi" is undoubtedly the core of the equity dispute between the two parties.

How powerful is "Li Ziqi"? In August 2018, Li Ziqi's Tmall store of the same name was officially opened. In only 6 days of going online, the store's sales of only 5 products exceeded 10 million yuan; in 2019, the store sales were nearly 500 million yuan. According to the data released by dolphin think tank, the sales of the Li Ziqi brand in 2020 reached 1.6 billion yuan, an increase of more than 200% year-on-year, of which only one product, snail powder, contributed more than 300 million yuan of profits to Hangzhou Weinian in 2020.

However, in contrast, the "Li Ziqi" brand has brought li Ziqi himself very little benefits, according to many industry estimates, this number is about tens of millions. In the long run, it will naturally cause dissatisfaction with Li Ziqi. As a result, the disagreement around the brand "Li Ziqi" is about to erupt.

So, who belongs to "Li Ziqi" as a commercial brand?

According to public information, Li Jiajia applied for trademarks of many categories such as "Li Ziqi" in her personal name in 2016, and after reaching cooperation with Hangzhou Weinian in 2017, all these trademarks were transferred to the newly established Ziqi Culture. However, what is intriguing is that at the end of 2019, Hangzhou Weinian repeatedly applied for a number of trademarks in its own name, including "Li Ziqi", but these applications were eventually rejected.

Is the "Plum Ziqi" brand Li Ziqi's? Yes but not all.

Some legal sources said that the specific attribution needs to depend on the contract between the two parties, if Li Ziqi is authorized to Hangzhou Weinian to use the "Li Ziqi" brand, then she herself can not revoke in the short term, but if Hangzhou Weinian does not pay the corresponding royalties, the brand will return to Li Ziqi.0

But for now, with the openness of the contradictions, this is destined to be a lose-lose struggle. "Li Ziqi's own content team is only a few people, and there is no control over the operation and product supply chain." Some investors in Hangzhou Weinian also said that although they valued Li Ziqi's own influence at the beginning, the channel advantages of Hangzhou Weinian were equally important, "Without a strong operation team and selection channels, it is difficult for Li Ziqi to become bigger on its own."

Source: Shanghai Securities News