China's leading game streaming platforms Huya, Douyu joins a slew of tech firms to axe workforce
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Layoffs at Huya and Douyu are another blow for Chinese gaming giant Tencent, which hold majority stakes in both of the companies. SHARE
China's leading game streaming platforms Douyu and Huya have undergone massive layoffs, joining a slew of Chinese internet companies to scale back business operations amid an economic slowdown in the country. Huya's layoff mainly hit its international business department, with roughly 70% of the department's staff being layoff. The company's Nimo TV unit, launched in 2018 as an international version of Huya, is most heavily hit with significant staff cuts already implemented. Huya is also planning a 20% cut in its domestic business, focusing on new businesses such as cloud gaming. "Given the rapidly changing business environment, Nimo TV has made some strategic adjustments and optimisations for business, and will allocate resources to key regions in the future," a Huya spokesperson said. In a post on Maimai, a couple of unidentified Huya employees said they were informed to leave immediately after receiving the official notice. In China, companies are required to give a month's notice if they plan to fire more than 20 employees due to restructuring or other streamlining measures, which gives the workers time to find new jobs. Citing a source close to the matter, Chinese media Tech Plant first reported that the country's largest video streaming platform Douyin recently started a 30% layoff that affected multiple departments, including business development for games and live streaming in Shanghai, Beijing, and the Wuhan office. Explaining the rationale behind the move, Douyu said it was just part of their normal human resources optimization. The layoffs came against the backdrop that Chinese regulators have ramped up scrutiny of the live streaming industry, and Tencent shut its in-house video game streaming arm Penguin Esports this month. Since last year, China's live-streaming sector has been dealing with a tighter regulatory landscape as the country's regulators vowed to clean up irregular activities and chaos in the sector. In August 2021, China's Ministry of Commerce outlined proposals for an industry standard for the live-streaming industry. The authority detailed the guidance about how live-streamers should dress or speak in front of the camera. Layoffs at Huya and Douyu are another blow for Chinese gaming giant Tencent, which holds majority stakes in both companies. In July 2021, The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) blocked a merger deal between Huya and Douyu in July 2021 to avoid the monopoly of Tencent in the game streaming market. Panda TV's failure makes way for Tencent to dominate live streaming. Panda TV, owned by the flamboyant son of one of China's richest men Wang Jianlin, had ended its service after failing to raise fresh funds to support its operation in March 2019. Since Panda TV's failure, China's game-streaming market has been dominated by Tencent, which also controls many other aspects of China's game-streaming industry, such as e-sports. In addition to investing in Douyu and Huya, Tencent launched its self-developed game live-streaming platform eGame in July 2016. Tencent has made a heavy investment in many aspects of the game live streaming and esports business, importing foreign online games titles to China, hosting gaming championship events, and acquiring game streaming platforms that broadcast the events. Heavy investments in game live-streaming and esports businesses have bolstered Tencent's revenue from games such as its League of Legends because broadcasting LOL championship events generates high attention for its games. Huya and Douyu's revenue stream are highly dependent on its users, who buy virtual gifts ranging from toy rockets to fish ball to reward their favorite streamers. However, the number of paying users and monthly active users on Huya and Douyu saw flat growth in the past year, mainly driven by a tighter regulation on the live-streaming platform and the rising challenge brought by short videos. Huya and Douyu's layoffs followed similar moves by other Chinese tech giants, including Alibaba and Tencent, which have laid off tens of thousands of employees combined this year to scale back business operations. Chinese media reported that Alibaba and Tencent would cut 10-15% of their workforce separately this year in their biggest rounds of layoffs as they tried to deal with declining revenue due to the economic slowdown and Covid-19 outbreak. Last week, Chinese social media and e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu  reportedly cut roughly 10% of its workforce  as part of its business restructuring efforts.

China's leading game streaming platforms Huya, Douyu joins a slew of tech firms to axe workforce

Chinese game live streaming platform Chushou has shut down, the latest casualty in the country’s Tencent-dominated game live streaming market. Live streaming platform Panda TV folded last year. Chushou received a roughly $77M USD investment from Google in early 2018 and raised a disclosed total of roughly $128M in funding since the platform was established in 2011. Other investors in Chushou included Qiming Venture Partners, GGV Capital, Shunwei Capital, AlphaX Partners, and Baidu’s iQiyi. Tencent controls the two largest game live streaming platforms in China, Huya and DouYu . Additionally, it operates its self-developed Penguin Esports platform and owns minority stakes in live streaming platforms Bilibili and Kuaishou. According to Bloomberg News , Chushou asked streamers who stream exclusively on the platform to switch to Kuaishou. In an interview with Surging News in 2019 , Li Qiang COO and co-founder of Chushou revealed that the company was close to breaking even while paying tens of millions of yuan a year for esports events media rights. In the same year, the company announced that it expected around ¥600M RMB ($85.5M) in revenues for the year, and its CMO Yang Shuyu talked about Chushou’s willingness to go public in China. Since then, several Chushou streamers complained about not receiving revenue share payments and at least one influencer agency sued Chushou for breach of contract before the service ceased operations on July 3. An anonymous source told the China-Singapore Jingwei that the platform currently owes several esports organizations up to ¥5M ($713K) and thousands of content creators up to ¥200K ($28.5K). While Tencent is solidifying its market dominance in China, the company released a new live streaming platform in the West. The service named Trovo closely resembles Amazon-owned live streaming platform Twitch in its appearance and functionality. Tencent-owned Huya pursued a similar strategy with the launch of Nimo TV in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Mexico in 2018. Outside of China, Mixer is the latest service to surrender to its live streaming platform competition, mainly Twitch, as it will cease business on July 22. The Microsoft-owned platform exclusively signed two previously high-profile Twitch influencers Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “shroud” Grzesiek. Photo courtesy of Epic Games
Fortnite developer Epic Games responded to missing floating rings in Lazy Lakes confirming that they are still in the game despite being invisible. Players were running into issues in regards to completing a Week 3 challenge. It required players to collect four floating rings in Lazy Lakes, but many were unable to see the floating rings. By completing this challenge, players earned 35,000 experience points. We’re aware that Floating Rings for Floating Ring Challenges may not be visible on some platforms with lower settings. (The Rings are still present, however.) We’ll provide an update when we have new information. https://t.co/1Ipwq5Bkb0
Epic Games tweeted a response to the invisible or missing floating rings issues that have plagued some players. Epic Games released a statement last night stating that the issue could just be due to a player’s setting. The issue seems to be occurring more on PC and mobile with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players seemingly unaffected. In addition, Epic Games responded saying that the rings are still in the game despite being invisible or ‘missing’. The Fortnite developer is still investigating the issue so expect a follow-up response soon. Players who are still experiencing the issue might take a more tedious approach and search through the entire town. Pokemon GO Premier Cup Tier List aims to help trainers build the best team for the meta | The Pokemon Company via Bulbapedia
Pokemon GO Premier Cup Tier list can help you choose the best Pokemon to participate in your community’s Premier Cup this month. With the launch of the Premier Cup finally underway, trainers are gearing up their best Pokemon to compete in a team of six. This tournament takes place in the Master League and, therefore, has no CP limit. The only real rule is that trainers aren’t allowed to register their legendary Pokemon into the competition. Hope you’re having a great day completing those Timed Research tasks, Trainers! Focus and perseverance are qualities of some of the best Pokémon GO Trainers in the world. Let’s GO #TeamMystic ! pic.twitter.com/DB7lxQ9Mug
In the interest of time, this list will only encompass the best-known options for the current state of the GO Battle meta. These rankings may be subject to change based on the trainers’ move set, style, and team composition—i.e. : just because a Pokemon is listed as top tier, doesn’t mean it will automatically hand you a win. S Tier Pokemon
Spirit Blossom Lillia is the first skin coming out for League of Legends’ next champion. Riot Games reveals the newest addition to League of Legends , Lillia the bashful bloom. With Lillia comes the launch of a new skin line , Spirit Blossom. With the arrival of the Spirit Blossom Festival, a magical fawn musters the courage to venture out and uncover the mystery behind her ailing forest. pic.twitter.com/XZBHD9uVir
While no official splash art for Lillia has been released, expect to see the bashful blooms bright new skin on the PBE in the near future. There’s been no official announcement confirming the price of the new Lillia skin, but expect to pay between 975 to 1,350 Riot Points. Spirit Blossom Lillia is expected to be released along with Lillia in Patch 10.15, but be sure to keep an eye out for the Bashful Bloom on the PBE. There are three ways to acquire the Spirit Blossom Lillia skin. First you can purchase the skin directly from the league of legends in-game store. If you’re lucky, you can re-roll three random skin shards for a chance to unlock a permanent skin shard. Lastly, if you acquire a Spirit Blossom Lillia skin shard from a loot box you can permanently unlock it with orange essence.

Chushou Doomed By Tencent’s Streaming Dominance In Chinese Market

Chinese game live streaming platform Chushou has shut down, the latest casualty in the country’s Tencent-dominated game live streaming market. Live streaming platform Panda TV folded last year. Chushou received a roughly $77M USD investment from Google in early 2018 and raised a disclosed total of roughly $128M in funding since the platform was established in 2011. Other investors in Chushou included Qiming Venture Partners, GGV Capital, Shunwei Capital, AlphaX Partners, and Baidu’s iQiyi. Tencent controls the two largest game live streaming platforms in China, Huya and DouYu . Additionally, it operates its self-developed Penguin Esports platform and owns minority stakes in live streaming platforms Bilibili and Kuaishou. According to Bloomberg News , Chushou asked streamers who stream exclusively on the platform to switch to Kuaishou. In an interview with Surging News in 2019 , Li Qiang COO and co-founder of Chushou revealed that the company was close to breaking even while paying tens of millions of yuan a year for esports events media rights. In the same year, the company announced that it expected around ¥600M RMB ($85.5M) in revenues for the year, and its CMO Yang Shuyu talked about Chushou’s willingness to go public in China. Related posts:
Since then, several Chushou streamers complained about not receiving revenue share payments and at least one influencer agency sued Chushou for breach of contract before the service ceased operations on July 3. An anonymous source told the China-Singapore Jingwei that the platform currently owes several esports organizations up to ¥5M ($713K) and thousands of content creators up to ¥200K ($28.5K). While Tencent is solidifying its market dominance in China, the company released a new live streaming platform in the West. The service named Trovo closely resembles Amazon-owned live streaming platform Twitch in its appearance and functionality. Tencent-owned Huya pursued a similar strategy with the launch of Nimo TV in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Mexico in 2018. Outside of China, Mixer is the latest service to surrender to its live streaming platform competition, mainly Twitch, as it will cease business on July 22. The Microsoft-owned platform exclusively signed two previously high-profile Twitch influencers Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “shroud” Grzesiek.

Dec 27, 2019
Screenshot of Panda TV’s logo. (Image Credit: TechNode)
Prometheus Capital, the VC fund controlled by Wang Sicong, is RMB 2 billion ($285 million) in debt after providing a joint guarantee for investors of the now-defunct game live-streaming platform Panda TV, according to an announcement on Prometheus Capital’s website. Panda TV was founded by Wang Sicong. Why it matters: China’s game live-streaming landscape is known for its cutthroat competition, making survival near impossible for companies with no strong backers. The two largest players in the field, Douyu and Huya, are both backed by gaming behemoth Tencent. Details: Prometheus Capital and Wang, the high-profile son of Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, claim to have reached settlement agreements with all of its several dozen investors. Prometheus Capital and Wang will compensate for the RMB 2 billion of losses. Due to the joint guarantee that Wang provided to investors of Panda Entertainment, Prometheus Capital needed separate settlements with each creditor, causing the negotiations to take over two months, the statement said. One of Panda Entertainment’s creditors who invested RMB 9.6 million in the company, however, told The Paper that it never participated in any negotiations or reached any agreements with Prometheus Capital. In October, a court in Shanghai imposed limits on Wang Sicong’s high spending for failing to pay RMB 3.6 million to a former livestreamer working at Panda TV. In the same month, a Beijing court seized assets belonging to Wang Sicong for an RMB 151 million debt related to Panda TV and restricted his spending on luxuries. The spending restrictions on Wang were lifted on Nov. 22 and Tuesday, respectively. Context: Launched in October 2015, Panda TV confirmed bankruptcy in an internal letter in March this year, with the company’s COO citing lack of new funding for 22 months as the main reason. At the time of bankruptcy, the company was already RMB 1 billion in debt, including RMB 700 million of bandwidth expenses and RMB 300 million of unpaid livestreamer salaries, according to a report from media outlet IT Times .

Wang Sicong settles with investors for RMB 2 billion over live-streaming failure

China's Panda TV Billionaire Settles USD21.6 Million Investor Lawsuit to Resume Splurging
Liao Shumin
China's Panda TV Billionaire Settles USD21.6 Million Investor Lawsuit to Resume Splurging
(Yicai Global) Dec. 25 -- Entrepreneur Wang Sicong, the only son of Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, has reached an agreement with Jiaxing Jingzitiwei Equity Investment Fund Partnership, the Panda TV investor to whom Wang owes CNY151 million (USD21.6 million), to get back to a more lavish lifestyle. The case has been settled and Wang's spending ban is lifted, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said in a statement on its Weibo account yesterday. Wang has paid an initial CNY50 million (USD7.1 million) installment as part of the deal, an anonymous person who works at the court told the Beijing Youth Daily. In November, Wang was ordered to pay the headline figure to Jingzitiwei, which invested CNY3.6 million (USD511,562) in the B-round financing of Shanghai Panda Entertainment Culture for a 2.31 percent stake. Founded in 2015, streaming site Panda TV has been struggling with debt for many years. After Wang failed to comply with an enforcement notice, the court took measures last month to restrict his luxury consumption and seized property under his name, including real estate, vehicles and bank savings. Editor: Emmi Laine

China's Panda TV Billionaire Settles USD21.6 Million Investor Lawsuit to Resume Splurging

Audi (FWB: NSU) is a German automobile manufacturer that designs, engineers, produces, markets and distributes luxury automobiles.

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FAW-Volkswagen Audi has signed its first sponsorship deal with a Chinese streaming platform , Panda TV .

Name	Sicong Wang
Work History
Title	Chief Executive Officer
Status	Former

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