On April 23rd, well-known anchors such as "PDD" and "A Little Tuan Tuan" quickly made it to the hot search, along with other entries such as "A large number of Douyu top anchors stopped broadcasting" and "A Little Tuan Tuan confirmed arrest".
Previously, the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reported that Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of Douyu, was released on bail pending trial after this year's Spring Festival. However, he may still face actual sentencing in the future. Based on the circumstances of his case, some legal personnel have estimated that Chen Shaojie's specific sentence may be between 5-7 years. At the same time, the report also mentioned that in March of this year, the well-known Douyu anchor "Xiaotuan Tuan", who had been suspended for over a month, was confirmed to have been arrested.
According to Southern Metropolis Daily reporters seeking confirmation from Douyu, as of the time of publication, Douyu has not yet responded.
After Chen Shaojie's arrest, Douyu formed a temporary management committee consisting of the company's director and chief strategic officer, Su Mingming, the company's director and vice president, Cao Hao, and the company's vice president, Ren Simin. Previously, media reports stated that Ren Simin, born in 1995, is not a veteran employee of the company. In the past few years, he has mainly been responsible for Chen Shaojie's administrative work and is currently considered the actual top manager.
Chen Shaojie was arrested by the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project Public Security Bureau in November 2023 on suspicion of opening a casino. Douyu publicly stated during the third quarter financial report conference call that "Douyu Company is currently operating normally and the investigation has not had a significant impact on the company's operations.".
According to the Daily Economic News, Chen Shaojie's last public appearance was in August 2023 when he attended the company's Q2 financial report analyst conference call.
Chen Shaojie is the founder of Douyu and has been serving as the director and CEO of Douyu since May 2014. According to Douyu's 2022 annual report, previously, Chen Shaojie was the founder of Shenzhen Headmaster Network Technology Co., Ltd. and the Chinese online video platform Acfun (A-site).
According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, after Chen Shaojie's incident, a group of Douyu's top anchors suspended their live broadcasts, and only a few anchors announced their resumption after several days of suspension. At that time, there were rumors in the industry that it was related to Chen Shaojie, mostly due to his involvement in gambling and money laundering.
Taking the popular Douyu anchor "PDD" as an example, data shows that PDD last started broadcasting on November 14, 2023, and was suspended for 161 days, exceeding 5 months. Regarding this, Douyu customer service stated that the current status of the live broadcast room of the anchor is normal, and whether to start broadcasting is the anchor's personal choice.
Looking at the top anchor "A Little Tuan Tuan", there have been recent reports that in March of this year, the well-known Douyu anchor "Little Tuan Tuan", who had been suspended for over a month, was confirmed to have been arrested. The reporter from Nandu has sought confirmation from Douyu officials regarding this matter, and as of the time of publication, no response has been received. According to Douyu platform, the last live broadcast of the "Yitiao Xiaotuan" account occurred on the evening of April 22, but the live broadcast was hosted by other anchors. The last live broadcast that "Yitiao Xiaotuan" appeared on screen was on December 1, 2023, which means that the "Yitiao Xiaotuan" account has been hosted for more than 4 months.
According to 21st Century Business Herald, the butterfly effect emerged after Douyu CEO Chen Shaojie was arrested in late November 2023. Recently, several big Douyu anchors such as "Doinb", "I am Dakunkun Ah", "Big Dragon Cat", "National Uncle Brother", and "Xuxu Baby" have been gradually discontinued.
In November 2023, Jinzhou Public Security Bureau announced that recently, Taihe Branch of Jinzhou Public Security Bureau successfully cracked a case of using the live broadcast platform to open a casino, captured two suspect, seized more than 90 mobile phones, 24 bank cards, and involved more than 17 million yuan in capital flow.
According to the announcement, on November 12, 2023, the Taihe Public Security Bureau received clues about gambling, and a certain platform anchor organized gambling activities in the live broadcast room.
After investigation, suspect Zhou is the anchor of the "Eat Chicken" game on a platform. From February 2019 to January 2022, in order to increase the popularity and revenue of the live broadcast room, Zhou extensively introduced to the audience the use of the lottery module in the live broadcast room to implement gambling gameplay, and incited viewers to participate in the live broadcast. After the game ends, rebates will be given to the winners based on the betting situation. His lover Chen is responsible for verifying and publishing the information of the winners, and distributing the winning amount.
After interrogation, suspect Zhou and Chen confessed to the illegal and criminal act of organizing more than 5000 gambling activities on a live broadcast platform from February 1, 2019 to January 12, 2022, with the accumulated gambling funds of more than 17 million yuan and illegal profits of more than 2.66 million yuan. At present, the two individuals have been criminally detained by the Taihe Public Security Bureau on suspicion of opening a casino, and the case is being further processed in accordance with the law.
Sources close to Douyu confirmed to 21 reporters that the person involved, Zhou, is Douyu anchor "Qingyu 619", who previously had over 2 million fans on the platform. The live broadcast replay shows that the anchor has been suspended since November 3rd.
In terms of performance, currently, Douyu's paid users continue to decline, with a monthly active user (MAU) of 51.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, a decrease of 5.7 million compared to the same period last year; The average paid users in the fourth quarter were 3.7 million, a year-on-year decrease of 1.9 million.
In 2023, Douyu turned losses into profits for the first time in nearly three years, but its revenue continued to decline. The revenue scale from 2020 to 2023 was 9.6 billion yuan, 9.1 billion yuan, 7.1 billion yuan, and 5.53 billion yuan, respectively; In terms of net profit, Douyu suffered losses for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022, and finally turned losses into profits in 2023, with a net profit of 154 million yuan.