Until June, Little Tiger, a 28-year-old schoolteacher from eastern Anhui Province (she asked to use a pseudonym for privacy reasons), had watched Li’s live broadcasts almost every night for 3 years. your sofa at the end of a tiring day. The live broadcasts, which took place on Taobao’s grocery shopping platform, usually lasted for hours straight, which Li made one sales pitch after another, promoting food, cosmetics and familiar items at a discount for his fans. , whom he addressed as “all girls. “
“You must, you must, you must, you must, look at this,” Li, known as Li Jiaqi in Chinese, said of a bottled milk tea in an April broadcast, before taking a sip.
“Look at my skin, is it like I put a diffuse filter on?”He sang while applying foundation to his face in a May live broadcast.
Every time Li told a joke, Little Tiger would write “HAHAHA” in the comments section. When anything he was looking for ran out before he had a chance to buy it, which he did, he signed up for the chorus of the audience asking for more. of the product.
“He makes money from us, but we’re satisfied with that. “
For those outside China, it’s hard to overstate Li’s point of fame and ubiquity in the country. With some 150 million fans on many platforms, he is the toughest trafficker in the country, selling millions of dollars worth of products each. and every night. His life story has been adapted into several documentaries; a truth series called All the Girls’ Offer shows how it trades with global brands like LVMH and Shiseido on behalf of consumers; even its five frisie bugs, the oldest of which is called Never, have their own brand, Never’s Family. A popular GPS app in China provides a navigation service with your voice. of your trip. ” Over here, over here, over here!”
For years, Li’s online critics have denounced him as a consumerist cult leader who has indoctrinated other people to spend more and more with his loud, toxic and dystopian sales pitch. But, to his fans, Li is more than a dealer offering exclusive discounts: he’s a partner. “He’s making money with us, but we’re pleased with that,” Little Tiger told the rest of the world. “It’s like a friend I’ve never met. “
Then, on June 3, Austin Li denied the impression. During his normal live broadcast, around nine o’clock in the evening, Li began hosting a segment featuring a Viennetta ice cream cake, known for its contrasting layers of ice cream and chocolate. Li’s assistant held the cake, which had been decorated with biscuit wheels and a wafer roll: it gave the impression of being shaped like an army tank. Almost immediately, the live broadcast was cut off.
Ice cream cake has touched a deep political taboo in China. Li’s live broadcast was broadcast ahead of June 4, the anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. On that day in 1989, the Chinese military sent tanks into central Beijing. and opened fire, killing at least many civilians. Outside China, the symbol of a man alone in front of a row of tanks is synonymous with government repression. But, inside the country, the government has downplayed and suppressed discussion of the incident ever since.
That night, when Little Tiger listened to Li’s channel as it did, he was surprised to realize that the screen had ended prematurely. “I was so unhappy that it just disappeared into thin air,” Little Tiger said. I would have left that day, I would have bought more. “
Immediately after the shutdown, Li posted on the Weibo social media platform that his team solved a “technical problem. “Two hours later, he said the exhibition would not resume that night. Then he fell silent.
Fans like Little Tiger, accustomed to the almost daily activities of Li’s accounts, waited weeks, then months. Rumors of his return surfaced sporadically on Weibo, before being censored. Li is nowhere to be found. The corporations he worked with turned to other live broadcasters to sell their products. Many assumed he had been silenced forever.
Li’s disappearance highlighted the threat of popularity and influence in China. Live broadcasters like Li are big corporations in the country. Since 2016, live ecommerce has gone from being a new party to a $100 billion industry, led through talented influencers to catch their enthusiasts to buy more: more underwear, more treadmills, more durians, and, in the case of the “queen of live streaming. “”Viya, even more cars and apartments. “
But, no matter how much they sell, the lasting good fortune of live broadcasters depends on absolute adherence to the Chinese Communist Party’s ideological and moral norms. Like the country’s movie stars and even billionaire tycoons, his position in the public eye is precarious. , its long term depends on unpredictable decisions made through government.
Li is the newest celebrity silenced online for his transgressions. Its sudden demise disappointed the daily purchases of millions of Chinese consumers and highlighted the fragility of fame in China.
Until the day in September when, as suddenly as he had left, Li returned.
For fans, Li’s genesis has become a well-known story: Born into a circle of middle-class relatives in Hunan province in 1992, he is part of a generation whose business stories begin on social media. After reading dance in the eastern city of Nanchang, Li discovered paintings at a Maybelline beauty counter in a shopping mall. Thanks to his appearance and talent, he has temporarily become one of the most productive salespeople.
In 2016, Li participated in a contest organized through Maybelline’s parent company, L’Oreal, and Alibaba-backed influencer firm MeiOne to identify distributors who would participate in a new way to buy groceries online that had just taken off: live streaming. The site, Taobao, had introduced its live streaming service before that year. Li is a notable candidate. He began presenting daily live grocery shopping exhibits lasting up to six hours, gathering audiences and enthusiasts along the way. She promoted a wide diversity of cosmetics, but traffic peaked when she sold lipstick.
“A guy selling cosmetics is a topic in itself,” Li explained in a 2020 interview. “It’s to impress consumers with lipstick. Many women have lipstick as their first cosmetic.
Trying on lipstick has a key component of Li’s online personality. Sitting in front of a wall of lipsticks, he leaned forward to highlight his freshly trimmed lips and described the products with exaggerated metaphors. dancing on it,'” she said in a 2019 livestream, after donning a YSL lip gloss. “There’s the starry sky and starlight in it. “
Li became known as the “king of lipstick” and the “brother of iron lipstick. “She once tried another 380 lipsticks at an exhibition and was able to sell 15,000 bars in five minutes. Jack Ma, Li sold 1000 bars, while Ma sold only 10. Online lipstick distributors have classified their products as “recommended through Li Jiaqi” to increase sales.
A man dressed in lipstick was new and revolutionary in China at the time: He challenged gender norms and Li’s subtle symbol as a close “gay friend” to Chinese women, observers say. “In that sense, it was very shameless,” says Chris. Tan, an independent educator who has studied gender representations in China’s live-streaming industry, told Rest of World, “He had the courage to break gender stereotypes and he did it and has become famous for it. “
The symbol also carried a risk. In an effort to publicize classical concepts of masculinity in society, Chinese censors banned influential men deemed too effeminate. Li seemed to have struck a delicate balance: she had tried cosmetics, her outfits never went beyond solid-colored suits or T-shirts. ; He did not advocate depictions of gender diversity. ” Li Jiaqi really drew a very, very narrow line between presenting himself as a gaymi [gay friend] who is susceptible to women’s needs, but is straight,” Tan said. difficult role to play. “
Li’s fame grew throughout the live grocery shopping boom that transformed Chinese retail. From 2017 to 2019, the price of goods sold on Taobao Live increased by 150% each year. Short video apps Kuaishou and Douyin have also launched live grocery shopping services. . In 2020, as prolonged Covid-19 lockdowns attracted more online shoppers, live streaming apps became virtual malls, rainy markets, grocery stores, and more. By mid-2021, the number of live shoppers in China exceeded 638 million people. Year, the live broadcast market was priced at $327 billion.
“He had the courage to break gender stereotypes and he did it and stood out for it. “
At the most sensible point of this burgeoning industry were two people: Viya, the queen of live streaming known for promoting household items, and the lipstick king Li, enjoyed by the young and prosperous city dwellers. Li’s products had temporarily expanded to include not only makeup and skin care products, but also instant noodles, smartphones, and toilet seats. Li and Viya have role models for a whole new chic of Chinese sales-related celebrities, known in the e-commerce industry through the abbreviation “KOL”: Key Opinion Leaders. E-commerce marketing company Azoya, which has worked with Li in the past, reported the effects of a September 2021 survey that found the sales of the two smartest KOLs, Viya and Li, dwarfed the next 28 influencers combined. Li was not only smart, he was magnetic. His sales tactics were evocative. On live streams, Li created compelling stories for everything he sold: This scent can make you smell like Elsa from Frozen. This dress would look wonderful on picnics. This tea set would be the best gift for in-laws.
A Chinese journalist who interviewed Li in 2019 and 2020 described him as an expressive and captivating guy and a born storyteller: she recalled Li taking care of visitors at a personal dinner holding on to the main points of his skydiving experience. sincere, exactly the same as the way he performed live,” he told Rest of World. He requested anonymity because it was not legal to discuss his report for a former employer. “It was like he was thinking for you. ” After meeting him in person, the reporter also began to buy live broadcasts from Li in a normal manner.
For retailers, getting a spot on Li’s screen, even if it’s only a few minutes long, is the fastest way to succeed. Increase the profile of the brand. To get a spot at Li’s exhibition, Cibot, along with other suppliers, waited for hours at the construction of Li’s workplace in downtown Shanghai. The first visits only took him to Li’s guyagers, but eventually, Cibot met the guy in person.
Cibot remembers Li as a friendly and intelligent businessman. Li invested so much in his listings that he tested the products himself and gave advice to manufacturers, Cibot said. But this care comes at a cost.
In addition to requesting a flat “slot fee” of around 200,000 yuan ($28,500), Li’s team demanded significant discounts of up to 40 percent on featured products, according to Cibot. sales in the form of commission. ” It’s very difficult, because they were looking for less expensive than cheap,” said Cibot, who has also collaborated with other prominent live broadcasters such as Viya and fashion and good-looking influencer Cherie. “These most productive KOLs, they were given everything they were looking for in terms of margin and price. “
But enthusiasts say Li has provided them with invaluable service by sparing them the hassle of choosing from a sea of online products. exclusively from Li after she started watching his live broadcasts. “He has a kind of magic that makes you need to see him live every day,” Yan said, “because the products he chooses were better than the ones we discovered ourselves. “
This is accepted as true and fueled a cycle of self-reinforcement: Li and other leading live broadcasters used their unwavering subscribers for bigger discounts, and those discounts increased their popularity. Major influencers controlled the buying force of millions of buyers. Shuyi Han, who analyzes ecommerce trends at China-based market research firm Daxue Consulting, told Rest of World that the influence of KOLs can even make brands uncomfortable: shoppers weren’t unwavering brand enthusiasts, but influencer enthusiasts.
From 2020 to 2021, Cibot controlled that Inderma’s products were displayed on Li’s screen about 4 times a year. Porcelain.
As more productive live broadcasters have become bigger and bigger celebrities, they began to attract more political attention. Since 2020, the Chinese government has carried out a series of crackdowns on private companies, in an attempt to reduce the influence of the country’s technology. giants and billionaire tycoons like Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma. The once-carefree live streaming industry suddenly finds itself under scrutiny.
Towards the end of 2021, the government fined several live broadcasters for tax evasion; the same tax that was imposed in the past opposed several pop stars who later disappeared from the internet. Viya, Li’s main rival, was blocked from all social media and e-commerce. platforms after regulators slapped it with a $210 million fine. Cherie, another live broadcaster fined $10. 2 million, also disappeared.
Pop stars and influencers have also been targeted for perceived ethical or political lapses, such as vulgarity, sexual misconduct, or reasons that are not made public. In the political context, Li has continuously shown his loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party: he has promoted loose agricultural products to help the party’s poverty alleviation program; his team prevented any snacks from appearing at the exhibit because their packaging said “made in Taiwan” instead of “made in Taiwan, China. “In March 2021, when Chinese consumers boycotted Western brands for moving away from products made in the Xinjiang region to human rights complaints related to the Uighurs’ remedy, Li long aired faithful to the region’s cotton, dates and milk.
In an obvious effort to distance himself from exaggerated consumption, he also told state media that he had toned down his “buy it” slogan to emphasize “rational buying. “But those efforts did not save Li from the aftermath after the ice cream. Cake episode, which may have been noted as a reference to the most sensitive date in the party’s political calendar. For some, the tank-shaped cake served as a stark reminder of a bloody history the party worked hard to make. Other people forget.
It is unclear whether Li consciously referred to the Tiananmen Square crackdown when he presented the tank-shaped cake on his show, or whether he was even aware of the occasion and its anniversary. Censorship watchers have speculated that the transgression may have been accidental, perhaps due to Li and his young staff’s ignorance of the country’s delicate history, a byproduct of life in a heavily censored society.
Observers began to call this concept “the Austin Li paradox. “They recommend that the occasion highlight how conscious influencers want to be on the ever-changing list of banned topics and old controversies to avoid making the same mistake. “The paradox is that the censorship apparatus needs other people for June 4,” Eric Liu, a former Weibo censor and current U. S. researcher, told the rest of the world. U. S. Digital Times. ” But if other people don’t know, they’re going to keep walking in the sensibilities of some. “
Neither Li’s agency MeiOne nor Taobao’s parent company, Alibaba, responded to requests for comment on the currency. Some of Li’s younger enthusiasts, including Little Tiger, were intrigued by his demise. Many of them were unaware of the history of Tiananmen: a taboo subject banned in books, television and the web in China. To them, it was not obvious that the ice cream cake could offend. While curious enthusiasts searched for an answer, some wrote on social media that they had learned the story for the first time. Some had asked senior family members for data or passed the Great Firewall in an effort to find out what had happened to Li. Others said their accounts or newsgroups were shut down after sharing their locations online. “I didn’t like gossip,” said Little Tiger, who learned of the censorship through veiled writing on Weibo. “But this prevented him from coming back and affected my own purchases. “
“I didn’t like gossip, but this prevented him from coming back and affected my own purchases. “
In the wake of the snafu pie, critics in Beijing temporarily turned the lipstick king into a meme, a personification of China’s crackdown on lazy speech. Some made satirical cartoons featuring Li as a pro-democracy protester. it would be the last product Li would sell on his channel.
After Li was cut, the live transmitter fell silent on all platforms. On Li’s Weibo fan forum, devastated fans posted thousands of messages calling for his return. Many wrote that they hardly shop online anymore due to their absence. Henan’s fan, Yan, said he missed Li so much that he gave the impression in his dreams.
The smaller players have tried to put themselves in Li’s shoes. The former English teachers, who lost their jobs in July 2021 in the crackdown on for-profit tutoring, have started promoting grocery products on Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China. Singers and soap opera stars have capitalized on their past fame to sell detergent, shoes and toilet paper. Some young live streamers have taken pages from Li’s playbook: good-looking male influencers have emerged, seeking to gain acceptance from female consumers. But none of the smaller influencers controlled the extent of Li’s purchasing power. Many of Little Tiger’s friends moved on to other live streams, but she refused out of a sense of loyalty. “To be honest, I don’t have much hope [for her comeback] anymore,” she told Rest of the World in September. But she, she said she, she wanted to wait a little longer. “If she comes back, she will definitely sell a lot of things. I’ll save some money, I’ll be in a position to do some shopping. ” a sofa and a bed frame for her new apartment.
When Rest of World spoke to investigators in August, they doubted Li would livestream again because regulators would have to avoid the threat of further discussions about Tiananmen. But analysts say it’s exactly the scale of Li’s public stature and the deeply taboo nature of his mistake that would possibly have saved him from public condemnation and made a comeback possible: The void he left in the most sensitive of the e-commerce industry is too big to ignore. and the mystery of his disappearance has drawn more attention to Tiananmen, not less.
During his absence, rumors of Li’s impending return swept through enthusiasts every few days, triggering a cycle of excitement and then sadness when he never reappeared. Then, on September 20, the rumor peaked. Well-connected netizens shared a last-minute review from Li’s suppliers about his return. Around 7 p. m. , as if nothing had happened, Li reappeared on his live broadcast channel. A preview of the products sold, as you had done before. But the news spread quickly and soon the channel had millions of viewers.
“I tried to buy everything from him, but I couldn’t beat the others. “
Dressed in makeup and a black sweater, Li made his introductions as if he had never left. “When you wear that, you feel like you’re going into a cloud,” he said, as a co-host presented shoes in other colors. “270 yuan for a pair. Good deal, right? He promoted garbage bags, socks and unblockers – almost every single item sold out in seconds. More than 60 million viewers tuned in. He made no reference to the fact that he had been missing for more than 3 months.
Excited enthusiasts flooded the broadcast with comments such as “AHHHHHHH” and “I missed you. “Little Tiger sent a message to the rest of the world. He said he cried with happiness and bought disinfectant and drain cleaner from his live stream. “I tried to buy everything from him, but I couldn’t beat the others,” he said. She noticed that Li’s eyes were shining at the end of the night.
Li’s reappearance was as mysterious as his disappearance. Speculation about the reason for his return ranged from Li’s close appointments with the government to the government’s pressing need to encourage customer calls in an economy hit by strict Covid-19 restrictions. Fang Kecheng, a communications professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the rest of the world that he suspects the government is involved in the fact that Li’s disappearance is causing job losses in its supply chain and damaging morale throughout the e-commerce industry. Fang said the government might also have to, instead of hiding it from fans, bringing Li back would be a better way to avoid online conversations about Tiananmen.
This strategy turns out to be working. Amid the celebrations on social media surrounding Li’s return, only a few voices continue to speculate on why he disappeared. Fanatics summarize those conversations with “zz,” which simply means “politics. “Others are silent about their absence, perhaps because of self-censorship. , a preference for shielding Li, or genuine indifference.
Bin Xu, a sociology professor at Emory University who has studied collective memory in China, told the rest of the world that for young Li enthusiasts who grew up under excessive censorship, the ability to keep buying groceries and the well-being of their idol are more urgent considerations than considering China’s violent past. “I don’t think Li enthusiasts saw the relevance of an anti-corruption and pro-democracy motion 30 years ago, even though they started to know when Li banned,” Xu said.
But the mistake that virtually wiped Li off the web at the height of his career will remain on the minds of regulators, e-commerce platforms and Li himself, according to the researchers. He ordered the platforms to monitor live broadcasters more for any bad behavior. Another new draft regulation, published in September, is expected to require a broadcast deadline for all live entertainment programming, so that problematic content can be known and removed before it reaches viewers. . Weibo blocked similar hashtags as Li’s return. ” Innocent time will never return,” said Liu, the censorship analyst.
For brands, the incident could have accelerated an update in marketing strategy. Trading platforms and influencers will focus on construction brands that don’t have as much functionality as individual live broadcasters, Lee said. Five of Viya’s former assistants, for example, formed their own live-streaming team.
Li’s inexplicable pause underscores the influence of politics and ideology on any business in China, no matter how successful it may be. “Li’s return to Taobao is a testament not only to the volatility of Chinese cultural policy, but also to the vulnerability of cultural entrepreneurship in China,” Sheng Zou, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University who studies Chinese media and politics, told the rest of the world. “Regardless of live streaming companies geared toward internet traffic, their survival and expansion count largely in their alignment with official ideology and compatible political and ethical values. “
In the future, Zou said, Li will have to be incredibly careful not to make any more mistakes and paint too hard to propagate the state’s “core values. “Li posted his first message on Weibo since the tank cake incident on October 1. January 1, China’s National Day. ” I wish the motherland prosperity and strength,” it reads, with a link to a state television sign that reads: “I love you, China!”Fans also noted that Li followed a muted taste in his relaunch of the live channel, performing in a softer voice in modest contexts. She even dyed her brown hair black, a more conservative taste in China.
But one thing Li still has to do is sell things. In the large number of teams of fans passing by his company on WeChat, workers have damaged their three-month silence and are once again posting product trailers every day. Global brands like Tom Ford, Jo Malone and Maybelline are back. “It’s like a soap opera,” said Cibot, who shared the news of Li’s wonderful comeback with his LinkedIn followers.
On the contrary, the drama of the reserve cake brought Li to a wider audience abroad. Now, as a global agent of Barrio Perfume, Cibot said he would be willing to paint with Li in the future: “The guy is coming back. People are behind their screens. ” They buy. In fact, he has never been more famous.
On the third night of her comeback, Li passed lipstick to her millions of viewers. As the camera zoomed in on her face, Li, holding a pocket makeup mirror, skillfully applied a soft layer of a red hue, Guerlain 214, scattering it. gently with your fingertip. ” It’s the feeling of being in love,” he said, leaning forward to show his lips. “He tried five other colors in a row. After the broadcast, enthusiasts complained: Li presented 60,000 bars of other lipsticks, they could not access them fast enough. He had already sold them.