According to reports, Chinese top live streamer Viya is seeking a comeback and may relaunch on Taobao no later than March this year. The staff of Viya’s affiliate company, Qianxun, has not yet responded to the news of Viya’s comeback.
“Viya is coming back” “Viya’s live streaming will comeback” …… From a few days ago, the news about Viya’s comeback was all over the place.
In December last year, Viya was fined 1.34 billion (about $210 million) for tax evasion and then blocked. Just 2 months later, is Viya is really going to make a comeback?
The rumors of Viya’s comeback started with an e-commerce live streaming.
On February 12, a new live-streaming, “Feng Mi Jing Xi She”, was officially launched on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. During its first broadcast, a total of six live streamers appeared. It was observed that the first day of the “Feng Mi Jing Xi She” live streaming lasted about 5 hours with 55 links for selling goods including more than 10 beauty brands. The first live viewing of more than 1 million with an increase followers of 100,000. As of February 13 at 16:00, the number of followers in its live streaming has been more than 260,000. The growth rate for a new live streaming account is relatively substantial.
The reason why the “Feng Mi Jing Xi She” was so popular was that it was named after Veya’s account “Veya Jing Xi She”. Followers who were familiar with Viya recognized that these live streamers were the same as Viya’s group and models in live streaming are the same as Viya’s former live streaming. The selection of products is also familiar with Viya.
Soon, the news of “Viya’s comeback” and “Viya’s transition to behind-the-scenes” spread on Chinese social media such as Xiaohongbook and Weibo. More and more netizens flocked to the “Feng Mi Jing Xi She” live streaming. Within one day, there were more than 100 notes about “Feng Mi Jing Xi She” on Xiaohongbook. There is even news that Viya will make her comeback in March.
In this regard, the “Feng Mi Jing Xi She” live streaming customer service response is “this is our company’s new live streamers” but the company’s information is always evasive.
Later, CHAILEEDO called Viya affiliated companies Qianxun (Hangzhou) Holdings Limited, Qian Entertainment (Hangzhou) Entertainment Media Company Limited and Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Company Limited, but the phone was never connected.
According to public information, in December 2021, Hangzhou Tax Service, State Taxation Administration investigated the suspected tax evasion of influencer Viya. It was found that Viya had evaded 643 million yuan (approximately $101 million) in taxes and underpaid 0.6 billion yuan (approximately $09 million) in other taxes between 2019 and 2020 by concealing her personal income, fictitiously converting the nature of her business into income and other tax underpayments. A tax administrative processing penalty decision was made against Viya in accordance with the law, recovering taxes, adding late payment fees and imposing fines. The penalty was 1.341 billion yuan ($210 million).
In response to the penalty, Viya apologized and said, “I fully accept the decision of the tax department to impose the relevant penalty on me according to the law and will actively raise funds to complete the payment of back taxes, late payment fees and fines within the stipulated time.” Subsequently, Viya’s accounts on Weibo, TikTok and Taobao live streaming were blocked one after another.
