DouYu CEO Chen Shaojie Missing and Incommunicado, Say China Reports
08.11.2023 - 02:33
/ variety.com
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of leading gaming live-streaming platform DouYu, has disappeared and has been incommunicado for some three weeks, according to multiple Chinese media sources.
The local reports, subsequently carried by the Financial Times and the Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post based in Hong Kong, allege that Chen’s disappearance is related to discovery by authorities of pornography and gambling content on the platform. Both are illegal in mainland China.
In a separate report, the BBC said that two prominent executives have gone missing: Chen and pharmaceuticals specialist Zhao Bingxian.
Executive disappearances in China have often, but not always, preceded the announcement of formal investigation proceedings. Bao Fan, a banker with China Renaissance Holdings disappeared from public view in February this year.
It was subsequently announced that he is detained while helping with investigations. So far, no investigative authority in China has disclosed such a formal step against Chen and local media report that DouYu has not responded to specific questions about Chen’s whereabouts, beyond saying that the company is functioning normally.
Chen was last seen in public in August at a discussion of the NASDAQ-listed company’s second quarter financial results.
Douyu has not made a regulatory filing about Chen. Nor has Tencent, the social media and games giant that is DouYu’s largest shareholder.
In May, internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, made an unusual in-person visit to DouYu-controlled premises in Hubei Province as part of a probe into the company’s alleged hosting of pornography and other vulgar content.
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