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.
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. Prior to 2019, the business model barely existed, and Viya’s first live-streaming show was only in 2016. He added: “Many people watch Taobao Live because of Li Jiaqi and Viya … From a competitive point of view, the future pattern is that Douyin will win and Taobao Live will lose.”
Rival Douyin, the short video platform operated by TikTok parent company ByteDance, has its own roster of live-streaming stars that have helped it increase gross merchandise sales 7.9 times from January to August, compared with the same period in 2020. The punishment imposed on Viya triggered tax authorities across China to issue orders demanding that live-streaming hosts under their jurisdiction report unpaid taxes by the end of December or face severe punishment if caught.
Local governments in less-developed areas of the country often lured such business vehicles with promises of low taxes. You Yunting, a senior partner at Shanghai DeBund Law Offices, said tax incentives offered by local governments have complicated the taxation situation. “I have no doubt the industry is rife with problems of tax evasion,” said Elijah Whaley, former chief marketing officer of PARKLU, a Shanghai-based marketing platform for online influencers.
Beyond the industrial park where Viya’s office is located, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of similar live-streaming bases in Zhejiang, where popular and lesser-known hosts are trying to connect consumers with suppliers via online pitches that can include singing and dancing.