On the evening of July 13th, Luo Wangyu, a top anchor on Douyin with over 18 million followers, announced his “withdrawal from the internet,” and at the same time, he will face a staggering refund of 150 million RMB.
According to Blue Whale News, on the evening of July 13th, Luo Wangyu released a video announcing his “withdrawal from the internet.” What’s even more surprising is the 150 million RMB refund he is facing.
Previously, Luo Wangyu was exposed by a testing blogger for promoting olive essence products that “do not contain olive oil,” and this is not the first time he has faced controversy over ingredient and efficacy issues.
On the evening of July 12th, after a 5-month hiatus, Luo Wangyu released a work. His irregular update frequency in the livestreaming industry demanding “high-frequency operation” is very unusual. This stems from the “false advertising of olive essence” incident Luo Wangyu was involved in back in February this year.
In February this year, Douyin testing blogger “Da Hu Ke Dai Biao” released a comparative test report, selecting 6 olive essence products and testing the content of two active ingredients – oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol. The results showed that the product from the brand “CSS” did not contain any of the aforementioned two ingredients.
The rapidly spreading public opinion placed the blogger Luo Wangyu, who had promoted the product in a whirlpool. This controversy quickly led to Luo Wangyu losing over 1.35 million followers in a short period of time.
Reports indicate that the testing results of the testing blogger had been re-examined by the China Inspection and Quarantine Science Research Institute’s China Inspection Department (Beijing) Cosmetics Technology Co., Ltd., and the final results were consistent. Therefore, on March 2nd, Luo Wangyu not only sent a lawyer’s letter to CSS but also reported CSS to the market supervision for suspected false advertising. Luo Wangyu promised that if he wins, the brand will compensate consumers for their losses; if he loses, he will compensate on his own.
Now, three months have passed, and fearing the loss of trust from his fans due to the label’s failure to compensate, Luo Wangyu ultimately decided to refund consumers first.
According to Luo Wangyu’s video on the evening of July 12th, he mentioned that there is still no clear legal judgment and he is worried that the process of compensation could be complex and lengthy, so he decided to personally refund consumers for the related products. The amount involved is a staggering 150 million RMB.
In 2019, Luo Wangyu entered the self-media industry and quickly gained popularity by criticizing and revealing secrets of top skincare brands. He accumulated over 6 million followers in just a year and set a record of 13 million sales in a single short video on Douyin. According to Feigua data, on October 26, 2022, Luo Wangyu’s livestreaming room ranked first in the sales ranking for anchors, with sales exceeding one billion.
In April 2023, White Rabbit Holdings, which owns top KOLs such as Luo Wangyu, “Special Ulala,” and “Zhang Xixi,” successively received two rounds of financing. According to the “Daily Economic News,” the latest round of strategic investment was made by the Sichuan Cultural Industry Fund, marking the first time state-owned funds have invested in the MCN track.