Baidu says its bid to buy Joyy’s YY Live has expired three years after it was unveiled because regulators did not approve the transaction.

Tencent, China’s biggest social media and video gaming company, is closing its live-streaming service Now, as the company continues to consolidate its video businesses.

US e-commerce giant Amazon said it will cut another 9,000 jobs, adding to the ongoing lay-offs that have swept the technology sector as an uncertain economy forces companies to get leaner.

Disruptions to deliveries have made it more difficult for live-streamers to sell goods and get advertising deals, leading some to give up during lockdowns.

China’s regulators have restricted minors from the country’s booming live-streaming industry, citing the need to protect ‘their physical and mental health’, in the latest crackdown on internet platform operators.

Kuaishou Technology delivers solid financial results for 2021, with net loss narrowing to 78 billion yuan.

Regional governments and business associations have had to deal with rising complaints about false advertising and poor product quality.

The Cyberspace Administration of China plans to go after agencies that help influencers gain online traffic through questionable methods.

China’s internet watchdog is making it harder for Big Tech firms to profit from gaming, live streaming and social media services aimed at the country’s 180 million internet users under the age of 18.

The short video app’s rise in cross-border e-commerce comes as the ‘made in China, sold on Amazon’ community scrambles to find a new platform to engage overseas consumers.

Live-streaming e-commerce host Ping Rong was held liable for tax irregularities in 2019 and 2020, according to tax authorities in southern Guangdong province.

More than 20 broadcast organisations are using Alibaba’s new online transmission system, Live Cloud, for the first time to cover the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Tencent, with a 37 per cent stake in Douyu, wants to team up with at least one private equity firm in the take-private plan, according to sources.

ByteDance’s Douyin is investing ‘tens of millions of yuan’ to promote live-streamers producing content involving traditional music from various cultures, including Chinese ethnic minorities.

Sales commissions for the top live-stream shopping hosts have reportedly made them millionaires and even billionaires.

Bilibili said it will prohibit the live-streaming of games with bloody, violent and pornographic content.

In last year’s Singles’ Day sales, China’s e-commerce platforms hit a record US$151 billion gross merchandise value, a sign that live-stream retail is booming.

Shenzhen-based Remo Tech has seen a threefold growth in sales during the pandemic, driven by demand for its motion-tracking Obsbot Tiny webcam.

A draft regulation in China would bar unlicensed sales of banking, insurance and securities services through live-streaming, an increasingly common practice for influencers.

Michael Yu Minhong, founder of New Oriental Education, made his debut as a live-streaming e-commerce host this week on Chinese short video platform Douyin.

The Zhejiang Consumer Council said 30 per cent of live-streamers it monitored during Singles’ Day were selling products that did not comply with regulations.

The change of mood in China’s tech industry due to a barrage of regulatory change is tangible and sudden after a decade of exceptional growth.

E-commerce live-streamers across the country are rushing to report underpaid taxes after authorities dealt a record fine on top influencer Viya.

Online influencer Viya currently finds herself out of the live-streaming e-commerce market after being slapped with a record fine for tax evasion.

Analysts say fines on Viya and other top influencers show that live-streaming is no longer a ‘blind spot’ when it comes to taxation.

Live-streaming e-commerce stars Zhu Chenhui and Lin Shanshan have become the unofficial poster girls of the government’s tax-focused crackdown.