Three sheep are in troubled times.
Zebra Consumer Fan Jian
What is the most important thing in live-streaming sales? Trust!
Recently, Sanzhiyang has been embroiled in a whirlpool of public opinion due to products like Meicheng mooncakes, braised pork with preserved vegetables, and Moutai, leading to a severe crisis of trust among users.
Crazy Little Yang, a grassroots Gen Z, rose to fame rapidly in the short video era with authenticity and joy. Now, to completely escape the crisis, Zhang Qingyang, the founder and chairman of Sanzhiyang, may need to return to his original intentions.
Authentic or Fake Hong Kong Meicheng Mooncakes
The Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, but the mooncake controversy involving Sanzhiyang and its live-streaming rooms continues to escalate.
As a seasonal food, mooncakes have only one peak sales period each year—before the Mid-Autumn Festival. This year, affected by various factors, the entire mooncake market saw declines in both volume and price.
However, in the live-streaming room of "Douyin's top streamer" Crazy Little Yang, mooncake sales remained exceptionally hot.
Before the festival, Sanzhiyang and its hosts, including Crazy Little Yang, heavily promoted "Hong Kong Meicheng Mooncakes."
During the live stream, the Yang brothers maintained their signature boisterous style, claiming the mooncakes were high-end, Hong Kong-style, and "crafted by Michelin masters." The presence of Hong Kong superstar Eric Tsang further enhanced the "Hong Kong flavor" of the product.
Little Yang also showcased a certificate during the stream, proving the product was the "national sales leader in black truffle lava custard mooncakes."
After hyping the product's premium status, they further played the "low-price card."
According to their live-stream introduction, the mooncakes retail for 238 yuan per box in supermarkets, but they slashed the price: two boxes of black truffle mooncakes plus four assorted mooncakes of the same brand, all three boxes for just 169 yuan.
With top streamers and celebrities endorsing them, premium mooncakes at bargain prices were hard for viewers to resist.
However, industry insiders soon revealed that Meicheng mooncakes were not a high-end Hong Kong brand and had no physical stores in Hong Kong.
The Meicheng mooncakes sold in Sanzhiyang's live streams were operated by Guangzhou Meicheng Food Co., Ltd., and produced by Guangzhou Meicheng Food Technology Co., Ltd. and Foshan Meicheng Food Co., Ltd.—seemingly unrelated to Hong Kong.
As public opinion heated up, on the evening of September 14, Sanzhiyang's live-streaming rooms stopped selling Meicheng mooncakes. The same day, the Huadu District Market Supervision Bureau, where Guangzhou Meicheng is registered, stated they had launched an investigation into the online controversy.
On Mid-Autumn Festival day, the Hefei High-Tech Zone Market Supervision Bureau, where Sanzhiyang is registered, issued a notice announcing an investigation into Sanzhiyang's alleged misleading practices during live streams.
On September 18, the Huadu District Market Supervision Bureau further clarified that Meicheng mooncakes had no issues with qualifications, branding, or product quality, but whether they involved false advertising required further coordination with Hefei authorities for a lawful assessment.
The Unresolved "Lion vs. Sheep" Battle
Over the past two weeks, Sanzhiyang has been mired in controversy. Before the mooncake scandal, there was the "Lion vs. Sheep" battle sparked by a crab card.
A mere pricing dispute over the same crab card reignited long-standing animosity between "Kuaishou's top streamer" Xinba and Sanzhiyang.
In his live stream, Xinba listed various product quality issues in Sanzhiyang's sales, accusing them of irresponsibility toward users and failing to provide proper after-sales service or compensation for defective products.
Xinba specifically called out problematic items like braised pork with preserved vegetables, unlicensed hair dryers, and counterfeit Moutai.
In response to Xinba's public accusations, Sanzhiyang co-founder Lu Wenqing drunkenly went live, cursing at Xinba.
This further provoked Xinba, who publicly declared he would give Sanzhiyang a deadline to address the issues and compensate users—or he would spend 100 million yuan out of pocket to compensate Sanzhiyang's customers himself.
After a week of silence from Sanzhiyang, Xinba announced a live stream on September 11 at 8 PM to address the matter and compensate users.
However, Xinba never appeared that night, and his account's live-streaming function was suspended.
Some netizens later shared screenshots showing they had received "industry consolation payments" of 188 yuan and 9,000 yuan from Xinba's team for the braised pork and Moutai issues.
The reason for Xinba's suspension remains unknown, but the "Lion vs. Sheep" battle earned him significant goodwill among users, while Sanzhiyang remained on the defensive.
According to Chanmama data, Sanzhiyang Network's daily sales averaged 1-2.5 million yuan over the past 30 days, peaking at 7.5-10 million yuan on September 1 before gradually declining. On September 16, viewership hit a monthly high of 3.282 million, but sales were only 100,000-250,000 yuan. The account lost over 140,000 followers in 30 days.
Crazy Little Yang's Douyin account, with over 100 million followers, lost 2.33 million followers in the same period.
The Imbalance of Trust
Crazy Little Yang, born Zhang Qingyang, is a grassroots Gen Z from Lu'an, Anhui, who rode the wave of short videos to become the founder and chairman of Sanzhiyang Group, a billion-GMV empire in just a few years.
In interviews, he recalled his impoverished childhood: his parents worked grueling factory jobs in Jiashan, Zhejiang, and the family squeezed into a 10-square-meter room. As an adult, he was determined to earn money quickly to free his mother from hard labor.
Encouraged by friends, he and his twin brother began posting comedy skits on short video platforms. It wasn't until the viral "Ink Explosion" video that Crazy Little Yang found his formula for success.
He later reflected that his videos resonated due to their novelty, twists, and relatability—using authenticity to bring joy.
Once his follower count grew, Crazy Little Yang ventured into live-streaming sales, pioneering "reverse sales" that skyrocketed revenue.
Reports indicate Sanzhiyang achieved 6 billion yuan GMV in 2022 and surged to 16 billion yuan in 2023. Around Crazy Little Yang's super-account, Sanzhiyang signed top hosts like Brother Mouth, Sister Qiao, Zhuoshilin, Chen Yili, and Three Thousand Watch Talker, amassing 2,477 accounts with 388 million total followers, becoming a mega MCN group.
Even Hefei is leveraging Crazy Little Yang and Sanzhiyang's influence to build itself into an "e-commerce hub."
In February, local media reported Hefei averages 16.3 new live-streaming companies daily, with over 2,000 带货主播 by the end of 2023.
Every top streamer has a unique appeal—users follow out of fondness and shop out of trust.
But recent events have severely damaged Sanzhiyang's trust spiral with users.
If they navigate these crises wisely, internet celebrity Crazy Little Yang may truly transform into young entrepreneur Zhang Qingyang.
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