Details of Li Ziqi’s Wei Nian Incident

The specific situation of Li Ziqi’s Weinian incident

The specific situation of Li Ziqi’s Weinian incident. A few days ago, Weinian Company admitted in a statement that it had not reached an agreement with Li Ziqi on equity and other rights and interests, but it had Proactively conducted many communications. Li Ziqi seemed to disagree with Wei Nian's response. Li Ziqi briefly thought about the specific circumstances of the incident. The specific situation of Li Ziqi’s Wei Nian incident 1

Recently, Li Ziqi has frequently become a hot topic on Baidu, social media, Zhihu, Toutiao and other platforms.

Since the release of the "Salt" video on July 14, Li Ziqi, who has become a symbol of Chinese pastoral culture, has not updated any new works, leading to various speculations about the suspension of updates. Finally, after a hundred days of interruption, Li Ziqi sued Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co., Ltd.

The whole story of Li Ziqi’s trademark incident

In August, Li Ziqi and “National Treasure” jointly released a limited edition snail and lion powder. (Corresponding to the peak of public opinion ①)

On August 26, Li Ziqi’s assistant posted two blog posts in a row. One reminded everyone not to be deceived by fraudulent text messages pretending to be Li Ziqi’s name, and said that he had reported it to the public security Report to the agency; another responded to the suspension of updates, saying that Li Ziqi needs time to sort out practical problems and needs to continue learning. This subsequently led to speculation that Li Ziqi had a disagreement with his partner company Wei Nian.

On August 30, Li Ziqi became a hot search topic again because of an Oasis post, "Call the police early in the morning" and attached a photo of herself in the police station. In the comment, she replied to netizens: "Capital is really a good tool." It was quickly deleted. (Corresponding to the peak of public opinion ②)

On September 14, due to the "counterfeit mooncake" incident, Li Ziqi's company Sichuan Ziqi Culture issued a lawyer's statement: "High-priced mooncakes" in Yibin, Sichuan were caused by a supermarket using the Li Ziqi brand name An act of deceiving consumers. The mooncake has nothing to do with Li Ziqifang. Judging from the pictures taken by netizens: the receipt showed Li Ziqi mooncakes, but the ones purchased were mooncakes from other brands. Not only that, there is also a huge difference in the price of this product online and offline. The offline price is 786 yuan/box, while the online price is only 189 yuan/box.

In mid-September, there were rumors that Li Yapeng had taken over Li Ziqi’s team. The topic “Li Yapeng poached Li Ziqi’s team” became a hot search topic on the One Eye platform. There are rumors on the Internet that "Li Ziqi is involved in a capital and equity dispute", and insiders have exposed problems with Li Ziqi's company's equity structure. Most of Li Ziqi's intellectual property rights and commercial content are under the name of Weinian Company. If she breaks up with the company, , not even having control over the account. Analysis: Li Ziqi will lose everything if he breaks up with the company. (Corresponding to the peak of public opinion ③)

On September 29, Li Ziqi was interviewed by Xinhua News Agency. Frankly speaking, the recognition of her videos is a great encouragement to her, and she will continue to strictly control the quality of her videos. "A good life is actually the love and yearning in my heart." (Corresponding to the peak of public opinion ④)

On September 23, Li Ziqi was appointed as the "Sichuan Farming Culture Ambassador".

On October 22, Li Ziqi went on CCTV for an interview and talked about her future life plans. There were three things she wanted to do most. The first is about rural revitalization and common prosperity, the second is about the inheritance and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage, and the third is about the guidance of young people. Li Ziqi does not want young people to want to be Internet celebrities in the future. (Corresponding to the peak of public opinion ⑤)

On October 25, Sichuan Ziqi Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., Liu Tongming, and Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co., Ltd. added new case filing information. The plaintiff in the first instance was Sichuan Ziqi Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., and the defendants were Hangzhou Weinian Brand Management Co., Ltd. and Liu Tongming. In addition, the company's applications for the Li Ziqi trademark were all rejected, and the trademark process status was changed to invalid, pending review of rejection, etc. The international classification involves material processing, catering and accommodation, etc.

On October 27, ByteDance’s withdrawal from Li Ziqi’s contract company Weinian became a hot topic. On June 30, 2021, Beijing Quantum Leap Technology Co., Ltd., a ByteDance affiliate, invested in Hangzhou Weinian, with a shareholding ratio of approximately 1.37%. After financing at that time, its valuation reached approximately 5 billion yuan. On October 16, ByteDance started the exit process, with less than half a year of investment. According to a person close to the transaction, ByteDance originally invested in Weinian mainly because it was optimistic about Li Ziqi.

Now that Li Ziqi and Wei Nian are in disagreement, ByteDance has decided to withdraw. (Corresponding to the peak of public opinion ⑥)

On the evening of November 1, Weinian finally responded to relevant matters, saying that more than a year ago, Weinian proposed the direction of the equity plan and cooperation model with Li Ziqi, and With the consent of the shareholders, an agreement on the relevant share arrangements and cooperation fees was signed. He had communicated with Li Ziqi on equity and other equity matters many times, but no substantial progress was made. Wei Nian has never controlled any of Li Ziqi’s related platform accounts. Li Ziqi herself also responded in the comment area that the account belongs to her.

Subsequently, Li Ziqi’s assistant issued a response, saying that the “equity plan and signing of relevant agreements with investors” stated by Wei Nian was not an equity dispute, but someone deliberately did it with a rhythm, and included a picture to “confuse right and wrong.” . Previously, people familiar with the matter said that the main reason why Li Ziqifang filed the lawsuit was that Weinian had violated the signed contract. (Corresponding to the public opinion peak ⑦)

Since August, there have been about 920,000 pieces of public opinion information related to "Li Ziqi" in the past three months on the entire network. Among them, most of the events corresponding to the public opinion peak are related to The trademark dispute case between Li Ziqi and Wei Nian is somewhat related.

If you briefly summarize the incident, it can be divided into four stages:

In the first stage, Li Ziqi called the police. The disagreement between the two parties had reached an irreconcilable level, but at this time it was publicly disclosed The limited information led to widespread rumors; the second stage, the counterfeit Li Ziqi mooncake incident, the rumors of Li Yapeng poaching Li Ziqi's team, Li Ziqi's equity structure issues, etc. Under the true and false news, disputes between the two began to surface; the third stage , Li Ziqi was appointed as the "Ambassador of Sichuan Farming Culture" and was interviewed by mainstream official media such as Xinhua News Agency and CCTV. Before the war officially started, Li Ziqi received a lot of support; In the fourth stage, Li Ziqi sued Wei Nian, and Li Ziqi The war with Weinian has officially begun, and the break is on the table. Byte's divestment is one of the results. Details of Li Ziqi’s Weinian Incident 2

The dispute between Li Ziqi and Weinian does not seem to be getting better.

A few days ago, Weinian Company admitted in a statement that it had not reached an agreement with Li Ziqi on equity and other rights and interests, but it had proactively communicated many times.

However, Li Ziqi seemed to disagree with Wei Nian’s response. Reading between the lines reflects the extremely low likelihood of reconciliation between the two parties.

According to the latest reports, Weinian’s 510,000 equity stake in Li Ziqi’s company Ziqi Culture has been frozen.

The reason why this dispute caused a sensation across the entire network is not only because of the traffic of Li Ziqi’s top IP, but also because it demonstrated the interests of Internet celebrities and MCN organizations Allocation problem.

The conflict between individuals and companies is naturally dramatic. One is a well-known Internet celebrity, and the other is the capital hidden behind Internet celebrities. In front of capital, Internet celebrities will not consciously be regarded as weak no matter how strong they are.

At present, this dispute has entered the legal stage. However, in the eyes of many people, the transition from tacit cooperation to open discord between the two parties, no matter the outcome, is a damage to the perfection of Li Ziqi's IP.

It is reported that Sichuan Ziqi Culture is a joint venture between Li Ziqi and Weinian. It was established in July 2017. Weinian holds 51% of the shares and originally agreed to be responsible for operating the Li Ziqi brand.

Regarding the commercialization of Li Ziqi’s IP, Wei Nian’s founders Liu Tongming and Li Ziqi themselves cherish feathers very much and do not easily accept advertisements or carry goods live.

Weinian finally decided to build a consumer brand with the "Li Ziqi" IP as the core, and successively launched snail noodles, lotus root noodles and other products.

In August 2018, Li Ziqi’s Tmall flagship store officially opened. According to public data on the Internet, five products set a sales record of tens of millions within three days of their launch.

Currently, the store has 6.43 million followers. It sells foods such as snail noodles, lotus root noodles, hot and sour noodles, etc. These foods can be found in Li Ziqi’s video.

Using big IP to incubate new consumer products, Wei Nian’s approach has greatly maintained the purity of Li Ziqi’s video while also taking into account commercial benefits. It is a very smart business idea.

However, this Taobao store is operated by Weinian, not Li Ziqi’s Ziqi Culture.

In other words, although Ziqi Culture was established to operate Li Ziqi IP, it did not take over the operating rights from Wei Nian.

And Li Ziqi does not have any shares in Wei Nian. In the opinion of many people, Li Ziqi cannot benefit from the revenue of the Taobao store.