Streamer Banned for Earning $7 Million from Fake Engagement | Ban Effective for 630 Years

Urian B., Tech Times 21 May 2021, 10:05 pm

A streamer banned for one of the most surprising reasons would not be able to stream for 630 years. The reason--a fake engagement! A Chinese video app banned this streamer for staging a "fake engagement" party where about $7 million worth of products were sold.

Streamer Banned for Fake Engagement

According to NewsWeek, 22-year old Yin Shihang of Lishgui, Zhejiang province in China, was officially banned on Kuaishou, a popular Chinese video app, on Monday. The app is reportedly known to be the main competitor of Douyin's TikTok.

Kuaishou stated that Yin, with 8.7 million followers, did a five-hour stream from 9:03PM to 2:23AM the next morning. The broadcast was said to be an engagement ceremony with Tao Lulu, his 21-year-old girlfriend, but then became a marketing and sales event.

Fake Engagement Viral

The app accused Yin of making "vulgar" performances and concocting "hype" to sell commercial products. Kuaishou also pointed out the false advertising, which reportedly received 230,000 complaints. He also generated interest in the event by promoting the "engagement party" beforehand. He told followers about the engagement with Tao Lulu.

In the promotion clip, he asked, "Lulu, will you marry me" which was then followed by "We'll find out tomorrow." Yin reportedly arrived at the party on the back of a pony while images from the stream showed. The event was set up like a game show, and Yin's ex-girlfriend, as well as a third woman, wore veils. He then had to choose the right person.

Streamer Fakes Engagement

Yin and his team were reportedly prompting viewers to buy products through the event. A report by Southern Metropolis Daily, as noted by Sixth Tone, says Yin peaked at 1.7 million viewers. There were also 100 million searches about the event. This then spilled over to Kuaishou's competitor Douyin.

The statistics of the viral stream showed Yin made about $7.16 million in product sales. He also earned an additional $780,000 in tips. The report said he sold about 50,000 sets of perfume, 20 fake Rolex Submariner watches, and 21,000 smartphones and more.

Streamer Banned for 630 Years!

The paper noted Kuaishou was slapped with a 230,000-day ban or 630 years on his account. This followed Douyin's announcement to permanently ban Yin from their platform for certain breaches of the policy. In Kuaishou's statement, the particular video-sharing app reportedly stated it started cleaning the platform last November. It then removed accounts involved in fraudulent activities.

Other Chinese news outlets noted that Yin and girlfriend tried generating hype for their own "engagement" by trying to repeatedly break up and, in the end, reconcile. An unconfirmed report even noted that a man was then hired to play Yin's father at the engagement party. The man was reportedly only 26 years old, which is just four years older than Yin. As of the moment, the streamer won't be able to use his account for the next 630 years.

The engagement can be watched here on Weibo.

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Written by Urian B.