Recently, CHAILEEDO obtained information from the official website of the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation that Beijing Papitube Network Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Papitube”) was fined a total of 36,000 yuan by the Market Supervision Administration of Fangshan District, Beijing, for advertising violations in a video note posted by one of its influencers promoting an intense pulsed light therapy device.
According to multiple media reports, Papitube is a company founded by Papi, known as the “originator of internet celebrities” in China, and it owns the MCN agency Papitube. So, what exactly happened in this case?
Advertisement Not reviewed, the company got total fine of 36,000 yuan
According to the administrative penalty decision, a influencer under Papitube posted a video on the Xiaohongshu platform through the account number 9500199506. The video promoted a product called the Intense Pulsed Light Therapy Device, model U106PR, which falls under the category of medical equipment. This advertisement was not reviewed by the advertising review authority, and the advertising fee amounted to 18,000 yuan.
Based on this, the Fangshan District Market Supervision Administration in Beijing determined that Papitube violated Article 58, Paragraph 3 of the Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China (2018). They ordered the party involved to rectify the relevant illegal behavior, impose a fine of 18,000 yuan, and confiscate the illegal income of 18,000 yuan, resulting in a total fine of 36,000 yuan.
On February 23rd at noon, CHAILEEDO searched for the account number 9500199506 on Xiaohongshu and entered the homepage of a user named “Da Maomao.” The blogger’s tags indicated “beauty blogger” and “fashion blogger,” and their affiliated MCN organization was Papitube, with a fan count of 303,000. When CHAILEEDO searched for “hair removal device” on this blogger’s page, the aforementioned short video appeared, with a publication date of September 22, 2023.
In the video, the blogger mentioned that autumn and winter are good seasons for whitening and hair removal. Among all hair removal devices, home-use ones can show visible results in a short period. In the latter part of the video, the blogger specifically introduced a certain brand of hair removal device, stating that it had sufficient energy and had been clinically tested, making it worthy of consideration. However, at the time of writing, the video could no longer be found.
Regarding Papitube’s penalty, Wang, a representative of a Shenzhen-based company specializing in radio frequency device development, stated, “As long as it is a medical product, promoting it through images, texts, or videos on major platforms requires advertising review.”
The head of a medical device testing organization also stated that advertisements for medical devices need to undergo scrutiny, and the reviewer can be either the manufacturer or the seller. As for the application process, the representative mentioned, “The manufacturer or seller needs to obtain the U-shield from the National Medical Products Administration system, and then they can proceed with the operation after entering the system.”
Lawyer Deng Gang from Guangdong Fazhi Shengbang Law Firm told CHAILEEDO, “In this penalty, the fined entities are the advertising operators and the advertising publishers. According to Article 58, Paragraph 3 of the Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China (2018), if the advertising operator or advertising publisher knowingly or should have known about the illegal acts specified in the first paragraph of this article and still designs, produces, agents, or publishes them, the market supervision administration department shall confiscate the advertising fees and impose a fine of not less than one time but not more than three times the amount of the advertising fees.”
China’s “top internet celebrity,” influences 66.7% of beauty products
According to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, Papitube was established in 2016 with a registered capital of 1 million yuan. Looking at the key personnel information, Yang Ming is the Chairman and Manager of Papitube, while Jiang Yilei is a director of the company. Yang Ming and Jiang Yilei hold 52% and 30% of the shares of Papitube, respectively. According to public reports, Jiang Yilei is the well-known internet celebrity Papi and is referred to as the first generation of China’s “Number One Internet Celebrity.”
It is understood that Papi graduated from the Directing Department of the Central Academy of Drama. Since 2015, Papi has been creating short videos through internet platforms. Her videos quickly gained popularity on the internet due to their humor, satire, sharpness, and high-quality content. In 2016, Papi also received a 12 million yuan investment from funds such as ZhenFund and Light Source Capital.
Public information shows that Papitube’s contracted influencers cover vertical fields such as food, beauty, comedy, lifestyle, product reviews, maternity and baby, cute pets, and culture. Among them, many of Papitube’s influencers have over tens of millions of followers, such as Joey and Lingye. As the absolute face of Papitube, Papi has a massive fan base across multiple platforms. On Xiaohongshu, Papi’s account has 5.275 million followers. On Douyin (TikTok), Papi’s account has 31.074 million followers, and on Weibo, Papi has 31.209 million followers.
According to Feigua data, in the entire year of 2023, Papi’s Douyin account posted a total of 47 short videos, including 1 product promotion video. The average number of likes per video was 429,000, and the sales revenue from the videos ranged from 250,000 to 500,000 yuan. In terms of product influence, beauty products accounted for 66.7%, with Papi promoting 11 brands and 5 categories, with estimated earnings of 1.2 million yuan.
Regarding the recent issues involving Papi and the MCN organization, an industry veteran stated, “Major MCN organizations usually require brand partners to provide written agreements stating their qualifications, authorizations, quality commitments, and they also strictly review the content before its release. It is rare for advertisements to be published without undergoing review.”
Home hair removal devices enter an era of strong regulation
In fact, Papitube’s behavior is not an isolated case. Just recently, the MCN agency Beijing Hongni Xiaohuolu Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Hongni Xiaohuolu”) was also fined for unauthorized advertising of hair removal devices. According to the publicly available administrative penalty document, on September 1, 2023, the Beijing Huairou Municipal Supervision Bureau conducted an investigation after receiving complaints and found that a hair removal device sold by a Hongni Xiaohuolu influencer was a strong pulsed light hair removal product, which should have been classified under the second category of medical devices. However, the video advertisement released by the influencer was not reviewed, leading to the bureau ordering Hongni Xiaohuolu to rectify the violation and imposing a fine of 1,900 yuan.
In recent years, with the prevalence of the “beauty economy,” beauty devices have taken the spotlight. As one of the subcategories in the beauty device market, the market for hair removal devices has been continuously expanding. According to many media reports, the market size of hair removal devices in China has exceeded 10 billion yuan. However, in the rapidly developing market, hair removal devices have frequently encountered issues. A search for “hair removal devices” on the Hei Mao Complaints Platform revealed a high number of related complaints, reaching 1,734. These complaints include product quality issues such as power failure, skin irritation, and redness, as well as refusal of repairs and exaggerated advertising claims.
It is understood that current home hair removal devices are mainly divided into two categories: laser and intense pulsed light (IPL). Laser hair removal devices belong to the third category of medical devices, and the production of such medical devices requires examination and approval from the competent drug regulatory authority of the State Council, along with the issuance of a product production registration certificate. In May 2018, the National Medical Products Administration issued a notice defining the classification of intense pulsed light hair removal products, specifically stating that they should be managed as second-category medical devices with a classification code of 09-03-04. It was also stipulated that from January 1, 2023, intense pulsed light hair removal products without medical device registration certificates obtained in accordance with the law shall not be produced, imported, or sold.
“Since last year, there has been stricter regulation on hair removal devices, and we have found that many head hair removal device brands have significantly reduced their promotion efforts,” said a representative of a medical device testing organization.
Wang, on the other hand, stated, “Both of the products involved in these two penalty cases likely did not undergo medical certification.” It is understood that obtaining medical certification for both laser and intense pulsed light hair removal devices requires a certain amount of cost and time. Wang explained that his company is currently undergoing second-category medical certification for laser hair removal devices, which costs approximately 300,000 yuan and takes about one year. He also mentioned, “The medical certification for intense pulsed light hair removal devices is probably not cheap either.”
A beauty device manufacturer in Guangdong also told CHAILEEDO, “Applying for second-category medical certification for intense pulsed light hair removal devices generally requires clinical trials, with a total cost of about 300,000 yuan and a time frame of around 10 months.”
In general, fines are never the ultimate goal; the essence lies in regulating industry development. Judging from the frequent actions taken by regulatory authorities, the era of “strong regulation” for hair removal devices has arrived. This also serves as a reminder to all industry participants not to pursue insignificant gains at the cost of significant losses. Only by complying with regulations can companies achieve long-term development.
