06:09
Chinese online star Li Ziqi provides an escape from urban life
Source:
https://scmp.com/tech/article/3204851/li-ziqi-once-chinas-hottest-youtuber-set-return-after-settling-legal-dispute-agent-weinian Tech
Li Ziqi, once China’s hottest YouTuber, set for return after settling legal dispute with agent Weinian
- Li Ziqi has reached a settlement with her agent Weinian, paving the way for new content
- Li rose to prominence in 2015 after posting videos of her peaceful existence cooking and doing handicrafts in Sichuan
YouTuber Li Ziqi. Photo: SCMP
Li Ziqi, a Chinese YouTuber who stopped uploading her popular lifestyle content more than a year ago amid a legal dispute with her agent, has settled the case and may soon return with new material.
The agent, Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co, and Li have “reached a settlement under the mediation of the Intermediate People’s Court in Mianyang”, a city in Sichuan province where Li lives, Weinian announced on Tuesday on its official WeChat account. Details of the case have not been disclosed.
The dispute surfaced last July when Li’s channel, followed by more than 17 million on YouTube and 7.7 millon on China’s Bilibili video site, stopped posting new content. Between October 2021 and March 2022, Li and Weinian sued and counter-sued each other a total of five times but the reasons were not made public.
In 2017, Li and Weinian created a joint venture named Sichuan Ziqi Culture Communication Co, with Li as a minority 49 per cent owner, and the agent holding the majority stake.
However, as of Monday the joint venture now lists Li as the majority owner with a 99 per cent stake, while Weinian holds 1 per cent, according to a company records change tracked by Chinese business information site Qichacha.
Li is expected to return with new content and maintain her relationship with Weinian, according to a report by domestic media outlet China Entrepreneur, which cited a person familiar with the matter.
Weinian and Li did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Li rose to prominence in 2015 after posting videos of her peaceful existence cooking and doing handicrafts in Sichuan. Weinian signed her in 2016 and began promoting the videos. Li broke her own Guinness World Record set in 2020 for the “most subscribers for a Chinese-language channel on YouTube”.
Li actually gained more followers in the past year while not posting new content on the Google-owned social media channel. Li had around 16 million subscribers on YouTube as of last October, which had grown to 17.3 million by Wednesday.
During the dispute with Li, Weinian lost TikTok owner ByteDance as an investor, with the Chinese tech unicorn terminating its stake in the company in October 2021.