According to the "Kechuangban Daily", Douyu's well-known anchor "Xiao Tuantuan" was confirmed to have been arrested. An insider told reporters that "Xiao Tuantuan" was also suspected of large-scale gambling and was related to the Chen Shaojie case. On April 23, #一条小团团confirmed to be arrested# became the top trending topic on Weibo.
According to the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, reporters learned from insiders that Douyu founder and CEO Chen Shaojie has been released on bail pending trial. Some legal experts have estimated based on the circumstances of his case that Chen Shaojie's specific sentencing may be between 5 and 7 years.
Chen Shaojie Source: "Douyu Live Broadcast Platform" WeChat official account
In November 2023, Chen Shaojie was arrested by the Dujiangyan City Public Security Bureau in Chengdu on suspicion of opening a casino. After the incident, Douyu established an interim management committee and stated in a conference call after the third quarter financial report that "Douyu is currently operating normally and the investigation has not had a major impact on the company's operations." Since then, Douyu has not disclosed any information about Chen Shaojie.
The "post-80s" billionaire who founded the live streaming giant
was arrested on suspicion of opening a casino
Public information shows that Chen Shaojie was born in Jinan in 1984. He has been obsessed with games since the fifth grade of elementary school. When he was in college, he stayed in Internet cafes all night long. When I was a freshman, I dropped out of school and became a "stay at home".
Chen Shaojie’s entrepreneurial experience is quite legendary. After the Spring Festival in 2006, 21-year-old Chen Shaojie came to Wuhan. With 10 years of experience as a veteran player, he quickly found a job developing a game battle platform.
In 2010, Chen Shaojie, who was only 26 years old, bought Station A, the “originator of two-dimensional websites” in China. At Station A, the “Sheng Broadcasting” channel of Station A was established.
In 2014, he separated the "Shengbang Broadcasting" channel from Station A and changed its name to "Douyu TV".
In just a few years since then, Douyu has grown rapidly and received investment from well-known capital including Sequoia China.
Douyu, headquartered in Wuhan, is a game-centric live streaming platform where users can enjoy interactive games and entertainment live streaming through the platform on PC and mobile applications.
In July 2019, Douyu was listed on Nasdaq, with a market value of nearly US$4 billion that day. Chen Shaojie's personal wealth also skyrocketed. In October of that year, Chen Shaojie ranked 1,507th on the "2019 Hurun Rich List" with a net worth of 2.5 billion yuan.
In 2020, Douyu and another game live broadcast platform Huya (nyse:huya) had planned to merge. However, on July 12, 2021, Douyu announced on its official website that it would terminate the merger agreement with Huya.
On November 21 last year, Douyu issued an announcement stating that the company’s CEO Chen Shaojie was arrested by Chengdu police around November 16, 2023. Douyu said Chen Shaojie’s continued detention and any subsequent related legal proceedings and enforcement actions against relevant parties may have a material adverse impact on the company’s reputation, business and operating results.
On November 22, 2023, the Dujiangyan Municipal Public Security Bureau in Chengdu issued a police notice: After investigation, our bureau found that Chen Moujie (male, 39 years old) was suspected of opening a casino. Currently, Chen Moujie has been arrested in accordance with the law. The case is under further investigation.
Chen Shaojie’s last public appearance before his arrest was in a conference call after Douyu’s second-quarter financial report on August 14 last year. At that time, he said that Douyu would continue to build a healthy and sustainable gaming community ecosystem, pay attention to the operation of core users, implement the development strategy of "a diversified content ecological platform with games as the core", and be committed to the production of high-quality content and the development of product models. Innovation.
Many top anchors stopped broadcasting and switched jobs.
's revenue continued to decline, and its market value shrank.
The company's leader was arrested in connection with the case, which has had a considerable impact on Douyu. Here again, the turmoil and loss of top anchors are particularly noticeable.
After Chen Shaojie was arrested, a large number of top Douyu anchors suspended their live broadcasts, and then only some announced that they would resume broadcasting. At that time, there were rumors in the industry that he was related to Chen Shaojie, mostly due to his involvement in gambling and money laundering.
According to the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, in March this year, the well-known Douyu anchor "Xiao Tuantuan" who had been off the air for more than a month was confirmed to have been arrested.An insider told reporters that "Xiao Tuantuan" was also suspected of large-scale gambling and was related to the Chen Shaojie case.
On January 27, "Xiao Tuantuan" posted a message on Douyu Fish Bar to announce her suspension. There has been no news since, and her Weibo update stayed on December 2, 2023.
It is understood that the commercial value of "Xiao Tuantuan" is very high, with Douyu fans reaching 26 million and Douyin fans reaching 37 million. In the May 2019 Douyu gift revenue ranking list, "Xiao Tuantuan" received 5.39 million yuan in gift income, which was second only to Xuxu Baobao, the "No. 1 brother" on the list at that time, and surpassed pdd. Its Amap voice package has over 10 million users and is one of the most popular navigation voice packages.
Douyu’s “Hearthstone Brother” and the well-known anchor “Dog Thief” were also rumored to be involved in the case and were arrested. The live broadcast room has been suspended since November last year.
After Chen Shaojie’s incident, Douyu’s top anchors such as “Tree Falling Hozen Scatter”, Zhang Daxian, Xuxu Baobao, etc. have now joined Douyin, while pdd, Da Sima, etc. are still suspended.
At present, Douyu’s paying users are still continuing to lose. MAU (monthly active users) in the fourth quarter of 2023 was 51.7 million, a decrease of 5.7 million compared with the same period last year; the average paying users in the fourth quarter were 3.7 million, a decrease year-on-year. 1.9 million.
In 2023, Douyu ushered in its first annual report of turning a loss into a profit in the past three years, but its revenue continued to decline. Douyu's revenue from 2020 to 2023 is 9.6 billion yuan, 9.1 billion yuan, 7.1 billion yuan, and 5.53 billion yuan respectively, which is on a downward trajectory; in terms of net profit, Douyu has suffered losses for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022, and in 2023 It finally turned a profit in the year, with a net profit of 154 million yuan.
Source: Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Financial Associated Press, Mijing.com, Jiemian News, Daily Economic News, public information, etc.
