As the 618 shopping festival gets underway, top livestreamer Li Jiaqi has returned with “red envelope” vouchers on his channel.
Despite admitting that this year’s festival will be challenging, due to a continued backlash sparked by his comments to a consumer, Li’s sales on the first day reached 2.6 billion RMB ($359 million).
On Weibo, the topic of Li’s difficulties topped the Hot Search list with 270 million views, though netizens largely ridiculed his concerns.
Last September on Alibaba livestreaming platform Taobao Live, Li Jiaqi, popularly known as “Lipstick King,” offended netizens with his comments on prices.
A listener complained about the rising price of an eyebrow pencil from Florasis, a Chinese beauty brand. The pencil was previously priced at $10.80 (79 RMB).
The famous anchor, who claimed that the price hadn’t gone up in years, replied: “Is the product expensive? Sometimes, people need to find out why they haven’t received a pay raise after working so many years. Have they worked enough?” Li apologized to consumers the next day.
It remains to be seen whether Li’s comeback will be a success. Following his red envelope event, Li will join the fourth season of the popular variety TV show Call Me by Fire, which also gained significant attention.