In China’s live-streaming hub, a celebrity tax crackdown has put an entire industry on edge
- Viya’s spectacular rise to fame came to an abrupt halt two weeks ago after the local taxation bureau found her liable for a tax fine and back payment of US$210 million
- Brands and merchants may need to rethink their strategy of relying on top influencers to generate sales, say industry insiders
From the outside, the five buildings that make up the Ali Centre industrial park in Hangzhou, capital of China’s eastern Zhejiang province, look similar and are simply named building No 1 through No 5. Occupying 10 floors of the first tower was the headquarters of China’s most successful live streaming star – until now.
However, Viya’s spectacular rise to fame came to an abrupt halt two weeks ago after the local taxation bureau found her liable for a tax fine and back payment of 1.34 billion yuan (US$210 million). Overnight, Viya’s online presence – built up over a number of years – was erased in a sign of the harsh punishment imposed for the alleged tax evasion.
When the Post visited Viya’s Hangzhou compound, the mention of her name was enough to turn people away, even though the lights were still on and delivery men were carting in food packs for employees.
The Post approached more than a dozen people outside Viya’s company in December, and almost none were willing to take questions about the woman who was once the most famous person in the park.
Two people, who said they work in the same park but not for Viya’s company, said the lights in her office were still on at night, but it was much quieter than before.
That was not how things operated before the tax scandal, when Viya would live-stream until late into the night, the time when online shoppers were most active. The tax fine signals a new push by Beijing to beef up tax collection by plugging loopholes, leaving an air of uncertainty over an industry where tax payments were infamously irregular.
It is hard to estimate how many people in China emulated Viya by selling goods via live-streaming sessions, but a report published by a branch of the China Association of Performing Arts in May 2021 said there were over 130 million live-streaming accounts across 23 internet platforms by the end of 2020. There were no figures on how many of those were engaged in dai huo, or selling goods and services.