Xinba verlässt das Netz! Die Ära der Super-Top-Livestream-Verkäufer ist zu Ende.

In the whole year of 2024, the GMV of Kuaishou e-commerce reached 1.39 trillion yuan. The annual GMV target of Xinba and his company Xinxuan is almost 50 billion yuan every year. Assuming that Xinxuan achieved its GMV target in 2024 as expected, the annual GMV of Xinba's family accounted for about 3.6% of the entire Kuaishou e-commerce GMV, less than 4%.

Recently, Xinba announced his withdrawal from the internet again. For Kuaishou, the impact is almost negligible. But for Xinxuan, it is crucial. Kuaishou can do without the "top anchor", while Xinxuan cannot lose the soul of the company.

The potential risks faced by Xinxuan are not just the simple power transfer of the founder. The live - streaming power was transferred from Xinba to his wife, Churuixue, and Xinba stepped back to the behind - the - scenes. Currently, there are numerous rumors on the whole network about Xinba's situation. Although Xinxuan denied the rumors that Xinba was taken away for investigation by relevant departments and was stranded in Hong Kong, stating that they were untrue. Xinba himself also responded in his WeChat Moments, but the storm has not subsided.

The era of super - top anchors is gradually coming to an end. Xinba, the core figure in live - streaming e - commerce, has stepped back to the behind - the - scenes. Where will Xinxuan go in the future? Who will divide up Xinba's 100 million fans' traffic on Kuaishou?

Xinba Withdraws from the Internet, Xinxuan Lays off Employees

With Xinba's withdrawal from the internet, only Li Jiaqi will remain among the original "Four Kings" of live - streaming e - commerce.

According to netizens' statistics, Xinba has officially announced his withdrawal from the internet five times. The latest one was on August 18th, when Xinba announced his withdrawal from the internet in his Kuaishou live - streaming room. A few days later, his Kuaishou account was renamed Churuixue (Xinba 818), and the transfer of over 100 million fans was completed.

Although Xinba himself explained that he could no longer bear the live - streaming work due to health reasons and thus officially quit the industry. However, whether he really withdraws from the internet this time and the reason for his withdrawal have still sparked a lot of speculation from the outside world.

Some voices believe that Xinba's withdrawal from the internet may be a crisis - public - relations strategy of retreating to advance. Because the timing of his announcement of withdrawal from the internet coincided with the moment when Mianmima, the self - operated sanitary napkin brand under Xinxuan, was deeply involved in the cancer - causing storm.

A rumor a few days ago has made the reason for his withdrawal from the internet even more confusing. It was rumored that Xinba was taken away for investigation by relevant departments, facing multiple charges, and is currently stranded in Hong Kong. Although Xinxuan responded to the rumor, saying "it's untrue", and there are screenshots showing that Xinba himself also refuted the rumor in his WeChat Moments. However, the discussions around Xinba and Xinxuan are still raging.

Whether the withdrawal from the internet is active or passive, and whether it is a real withdrawal, putting aside the issue of Xinba's personal departure, a more worthy - of - attention question is whether Xinxuan can continue the live - streaming e - commerce myth created in the past without Xinba?

This live - streaming e - commerce company, founded in 2017 and relying on the top anchor Xinba, according to its official website, had its national employees grow to 4,000 in 2021. Its business includes supply - chain management, internet celebrity incubation, and digital e - commerce. In addition to the three well - known top anchors, Xinba, Churuixue, and Dandan, there is also a matrix of 30 anchors, including Shidapiaoliang and Zhaomengche.

Although Xinba doesn't have a high frequency of live - streaming in a year, the GMV of his live - streaming e - commerce accounts for the majority of the company's total GMV. If he steps back to the behind - the - scenes, the e - commerce performance may be greatly reduced.

The scale of employees is shrinking. Shortly after Xinba withdrew from the internet, it was rumored that Xinxuan began to lay off employees and cut salaries in batches. The first wave of lay - offs was 50% - 60%, and the second wave was 80%. An employee who has left Xinxuan said that a large number of people were laid off in the first batch. After the first - batch lay - offs in August, the specific proportion of the second - batch lay - offs is unknown.

Another current employee of Xinxuan told Tech Planet that there are indeed lay - offs, but it's not as exaggerated as the "massive lay - offs at Xinxuan" reported by the outside world. Previously, there were about 200 employees in Xinxuan's Hangzhou company. After the lay - offs, there are now about 100 people left. Many people were laid off because they were unwilling to move from Hangzhou to Guangzhou. In 2023, three new buildings of Xinxuan's Hangzhou company were put into use, and the company moved from Guangzhou to Hangzhou. This year, it moved back from Hangzhou to Guangzhou.

The employee said that there are still about 2,500 people in the company now. After the boss Xinba officially announced his withdrawal from the internet, there has been no change in the employees' workload and KPIs, and he personally is not overly worried or anxious. In his opinion, each anchor is like a company. Even if a single one collapses, the company won't fall for now, "after all, Kuaishou needs it, and it needs Kuaishou", but it will affect the company's overall performance.

Xinxuan's annual GMV target is about 50 billion yuan. The employee said that the negative storm has a great impact on sales, and it will be difficult to achieve the sales target this year.

Are the Self - operated Brands, Anchor Academy, and Overseas Business in Trouble?

Xinba's business territory is not limited to live - streaming e - commerce.

Compared with other top anchors who live - stream daily or three or four times a week, the live - streaming frequency of Xinba's family is not high. Usually, after one live - stream, they take a long break before the next one. After Churuixue took over Xinba's account, she had a live - stream on August 29th, and there has been no live - stream for half a month since then. Dandan also seems to have stopped live - streaming since the end of August.

Moreover, other anchors or institutions for live - streaming e - commerce enter multiple platforms. They almost sell through all channels on Douyin, Taobao, and JD.com, while Xinxuan mainly relies on Kuaishou.

So, relying solely on live - streaming e - commerce may not be enough to support a company with a scale of three or four thousand people. This is more than the number of employees in other top - anchor companies.

The self - operated brand is a business with more commercial imagination. So far, Xinxuan has incubated multiple self - operated brands, including the sanitary napkin brand "Mianmima", the food brand "Jianfeng Shike", the beauty and skincare brand "Benzhi", and the daily - chemical brand "Miaojiesi". Before Mianmima was involved in the cancer - causing storm, its cumulative sales in 8 years had reached as high as 3.331 billion yuan. It is understood that there are more than 20 self - operated brands of Xinxuan with sales exceeding 100 million yuan.

An employee of Xinxuan said that Xinxuan's self - operated brands account for about 15% - 20% of the company's total GMV.

The self - operated brand is undoubtedly the key to increasing the company's gross profit margin. Another live - streaming e - commerce institution, Dongfang Zhenxuan, which has made great efforts in the self - operated brand track, has its self - operated business become the biggest highlight in its financial report. Self - operated products contribute more than 40% of the sales. Its financial report shows that in the fiscal year 2025, the proportion of Dongfang Zhenxuan's self - operated product GMV increased from 40% to 43.8%, and the gross profit margin increased from 25.9% in the fiscal year 2024 to 32% in the fiscal year 2025.

It is worth mentioning that, perhaps thanks to the success of the self - operated brands, Xinxuan tried to open up another offline market in addition to the live - streaming e - commerce business. In October last year, Xinba led his company's senior management team to visit the offline supermarket Fat Donglai. After that, the news that Xinba planned to open offline supermarkets spread widely. However, so far, there has been no substantial progress in Xinxuan's offline supermarket business.

In addition to the self - operated brands, another business of Xinxuan is the anchor training business. Almost all top live - streaming e - commerce institutions have expanded their business mainly focusing on internet celebrity anchor training. "Jiaoge Pengyou" established an e - commerce academy in 2021. Courses such as the New Anchor Camp, the Anchor Advanced Camp, and the Merchant Practical Camp developed by it were also sold in Luo Yonghao's live - streaming room. The company of "Fengkuang Xiaoyangge" also launched two live - streaming courses priced at 9,980 yuan and 3,980 yuan respectively, claiming to train more than ten thousand super - anchors.

Xinxuan also has its own anchor training business. An employee of Xinxuan said that Xinxuan has two anchor training businesses. One is a pure anchor business school, and the other is the Million Moms Entrepreneurship Plan. Both are for training anchors in live - streaming e - commerce, but they target different groups.

However, the anchor training business is often easily criticized as a money - making scheme. In the past two years, many media have reported that the high - priced courses have been questioned by consumers as a money - making scheme.

In addition, Xinxuan is also gradually implementing its overseas business. According to incomplete statistics, Xinxuan has carried out live - streaming e - commerce in Thailand, South Korea, and Russia. The uncertainty of Xinba himself has also made the prospects of Xinxuan's various businesses confusing.

The Era of Super - top Anchors Comes to an End

Theoretically, Xinba's withdrawal from the internet is not a fatal blow to Xinxuan. Xinba is to Xinxuan what Wei Ya is to Qianxun and Luo Yonghao is to "Jiaoge Pengyou". Without the core figure, it still doesn't affect the operation. It's just that the single - live - stream e - commerce performance may not be as brilliant as before.

An industry insider said that Xinba's withdrawal doesn't affect Xinxuan because he had already let his apprentice Yang Runxin (online name Dandan) and others take up the banner of live - streaming e - commerce.

However, the problem is that Dandan, the "top e - commerce anchor" of Xinxuan, is also full of uncertainties.

For Xinxuan, in addition to Xinba and Churuixue, another anchor related to Xinxuan's annual sales is Dandan. Dandan's annual sales account for about half of Xinxuan's. Previously, she publicly revealed that her annual sales were 26 billion yuan. Her number of fans on Kuaishou has exceeded Xinba's, reaching 110 million, while Xinba has maintained nearly 100 million fans all year round. Data shows that during the 618 promotion this year, the sales of Dandan's final live - stream reached as high as 2.23 billion yuan.

But the relationship between top anchors and the company is often delicate. Without a deep - bound relationship like that between Li Jiaqi and Meiyouji, it is easy to become another case like Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Zhenxuan. In fact, although Dandan herself has publicly stated that she will not set up her own business, the rumors about Dandan leaving Xinxuan have never stopped.

Currently, the introduction on Dandan's Kuaishou account homepage is "Partner of Kuaishou National Subsidy", without any trace of Xinba or Xinxuan. An employee of Xinxuan said that Dandan has not cut off her relationship with the company. Now the company has established a company for Dandan. The main body of her Kuaishou store is "Guangzhou Xinrun Network Technology Co., Ltd.", and the controlling shareholder of this company is Xinxuan Holdings.

For Xinxuan, the issue of Dandan's departure or stay is like a Damocles sword hanging over its head. In addition, external anchors are also coveting Xinba's traffic.

Although Churuixue seamlessly took over Xinba's nearly 100 million fans, and the traffic remained unchanged, other top anchors on Kuaishou should not be underestimated either. Another top anchor on Kuaishou, "Taiyuan Laoge", has a number of fans close to Xinba's, currently at 98.254 million. The threat he poses to Xinxuan is that he live - streams every day.

The anchor ecosystem on Kuaishou may also change rapidly. In July, Kuaishou invited the "Jiaoge Pengyou" live - streaming room to settle in. A person familiar with the matter revealed that the platform gave certain traffic support to "Jiaoge Pengyou". Currently, "Jiaoge Pengyou" live - streams once a week on Kuaishou.

Xinxuan's situation can indeed be described as being beset with internal and external troubles.

Moreover, even if Xinba doesn't withdraw from the internet, it has become increasingly difficult for his live - streaming room to conduct e - commerce. The golden age of live - streaming e - commerce has come to an end. The e - commerce performance of the live - streaming rooms of super - top anchors, including Li Jiaqi and Xinba, has been declining in the past two years.

A comparison of the company's data shows that during the 618 promotion in 2023, Xinxuan Group arranged more than 150 live - streams, and 16 of them had sales exceeding 100 million yuan. By the 618 promotion in 2025, Xinxuan arranged nearly 200 live - streams during the 618 promotion, with 10 of them having sales exceeding 100 million yuan; the total number of e - commerce products exceeded 33 million orders, and the total popularity in the live - streaming rooms reached 550 million. For a big promotion, a more intensive live - streaming frequency is needed to boost the performance, but the number of live - streams with sales exceeding 100 million yuan is almost halved.

Kuaishou no longer needs to "eliminate Xinba", while Xinba and Xinxuan are becoming more and more dependent on Kuaishou.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Tech Planet". Author: Zhai Yuanyuan. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.