Yeshu Livestreaming Style Sparks Controversy, Market Supervision Bureau Responds!

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Recently, the "seasoned driver" of the marketing industry, Hainan Yeshu Group (hereinafter referred to as "Yeshu Group"), started live streaming sales on its official Douyin account, but the style of the live broadcast room has sparked considerable controversy. Currently, staff from the market supervision administration have responded that they have received multiple reports and are closely monitoring the situation while studying a handling plan.

On the evening of October 8th, Yeshu Group started their live broadcast at 8 PM as scheduled, featuring the "familiar formula." The live broadcast background was light blue, with four female hosts selling products while performing dance talents. The female hosts were all wearing tight tops paired with black shorts, wearing masks printed with Yeshu brand's classic packaging, and holding Yeshu brand coconut milk while dancing hotly to promote sales.

Perhaps many netizens had been waiting early before the live broadcast started. As soon as the broadcast began, over 50,000 people instantly flooded in. However, just a few minutes into the broadcast, it was immediately cut off by the Douyin platform. The broadcast resumed after ten minutes, only to be cut off again after five more minutes of airing. It is reported that this situation occurred multiple times during the live broadcast on October 5th, after which the broadcasts were suspended for two days.

Platform data shows that Yeshu Group has currently conducted six live broadcasts, accumulating 234,000 followers, with the peak concurrent online viewership exceeding 50,000, and the total cumulative viewership reaching 560,000. However, the transaction volume for each session remained between 2,500-5,000 yuan.

Company Response and Background

On October 8th, in response to netizens' criticism of their "borderline marketing," a relevant person in charge at Yeshu Group responded that they started live broadcasting because their products needed it, but they were unclear about netizens' evaluations of the broadcast room and temporarily unaware of the relevant situation.

Public information shows that Hainan Yeshu Coconut Milk Beverage Co., Ltd. was established in February 1998, with the legal representative Zhang Wu and a registered capital of approximately 52.86 million RMB. The business scope includes production, sales, and wholesale of beverages. Tianyancha shareholder information shows that the company is jointly held by Hainan Yeye Industrial Co., Ltd. and Yeshu Group Co., Ltd.

Previous Violations and Public Reaction

On the morning of October 9th, the group even trended on Weibo with the related topic #YeshuWasFinedTwiceForViolatingSocialGoodCustoms#. Tianyancha risk information indeed shows that the company was fined 200,000 yuan and 400,000 yuan twice respectively for "obstructing social public order or violating social good customs."

It has been learned that these two fines occurred in 2019 when Yeshu Coconut Milk directly printed "large-breasted women" on new packaging, with copywriting that directly主打 "breast enhancement artifact." Later, for obstructing social public order or violating social good customs, Yeshu Group was fined 200,000 yuan by the local market supervision administration. Additionally, in early 2021, Yeshu Group was summoned for talks by the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Administration for publishing recruitment advertisements containing content such as "enrollment guarantees a car, a house, high salary, and certainly beautiful women and handsome men pursuing you." On April 30th of the same year, the Hainan Market Supervision Administration fined Hainan Yeshu Coconut Milk Beverage Co., Ltd. a total of 400,000 yuan, of which 380,000 yuan was aimed at advertisements published by Yeshu Group that violated social good customs.

Many people believe that Yeshu brand's advertising is vulgar, heavy on "dad culture," and even suspected of false propaganda. Every marketing campaign easily makes people associate the product's efficacy with "breast enhancement." Yeshu has also admitted that this move was to highlight the breast enhancement effects of Yeshu coconut milk, but in fact, there is no scientific basis to support this.

Therefore, Yeshu has not only been criticized and fined by the Administration for Industry and Commerce but has also been used as a negative typical case by the national "anti-pornography and illegal publications" office, and its applied trademark for "from childhood" "drinking to adulthood" was also rejected.

Public Opinion Divide

This incident has divided netizens into two camps: one camp believes that Yeshu Group is continuously playing legal "borderline ball" in marketing, while the other camp believes that Yeshu Group's marketing is just continuing its past style because Yeshu brand coconut milk is genuinely delicious, and some netizens even said, "Yeshu's boss has always thought that good sales are due to good advertising"! What is your view on this?

Image source: Internet

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