Abstract:
The era of Brother Yang is probably in the past. On October 16, Brother Yang officially announced his return to Douyin, canceled his old account with over 100 million followers, and opened a new account with his brother. As soon as the news came out, batches of counterfeit accounts quickly appeared on Douyin, with the avatars and nicknames copied. The platform's backend directly launched a special cleanup, and more than 500 were processed in batches.
After two years of "disappearance", the influence of Xiao Yang, a top grassroots Internet celebrity, is still lingering.
Xiao Yang said that they have deeply reflected and "will focus more on content creation and self-operated brand operations", but many netizens obviously did not buy it.
On the night of the 16th, Xiao Yang and his elder brother appeared in the "Xiao Yang Zhenxuan" Douyin live broadcast room. The live broadcast lasted for a few minutes and had less than 2,000 viewers. It was far from its peak popularity. The number of fans of the newly opened account "Qingyang" has grown slowly, only to more than 60,000 so far, and was even cleared during the period.
In the comment area, there seems to be far more resistance, ridicule and cold looks than expected.
The former Xiao Yang had a GMV of 16 billion a year and several "small goals" in paying taxes every year; in order to keep a low profile, after discussing with Douyin, the number of fans only showed 99.99 million+; he spent 30 million to hold a concert, not accepting a single ticket, and not accepting rewards if he did not bring goods, purely to "give back to the fans."
Compared with the glory of the past, the current situation is almost starting from scratch.
Brother Yang, who was hit in the head, couldn't get mad anymore.
01
Fans cleared,
Why make a comeback?
In 2018, short video veteran Sanda Brother predicted that Brother Yang would one day "break through 20 million fans." Brother Yang responded: "I will eat shit if I have 10 million fans."
In 2022, he became the first amateur to have over 100 million fans on Douyin. In the first 10 minutes of broadcasting, 1 million people can crowd into the live broadcast room.
It only took him a few years to go from a rural boy to a top internet celebrity.
The reason is, firstly, because of its grassroots status, and secondly, because of the effect of the program, especially with the 2019 "Desperate Weekend" series, which increased its followers by more than 30 million in one year.
Even when carrying goods, the style of painting is very unique.
In 2019, Xiao Yangge registered and established Lu'an Big and Small Yangge E-Commerce Co., Ltd., but it went bankrupt in less than a year. Later, Brother Yang was having a chat with Internet celebrity Annie, and the latter suggested that they try to carry goods in reverse, which woke up the dreamer.
In order to retain users, the video style is usually crazy, but when it comes to selling goods in reverse, it is upgraded to crazy batch, so there is a live broadcast room where you bite slippers, fill garbage bags with water, and wash your hair in a torture style. In 2022, the live slicing business alone will earn 187 million.
However, these trump cards on which they are famous all collapsed when they encountered some bottom-line problems.
From being exposed to selling braised pork with pickled vegetables, fake Moutai, and fake beef rolls made from Taotou Pork, to the fake mooncakes that later confused Eric Tsang and made the entire Internet furious, each of them made fans and passers-by unable to stand it.
Funny videos and reverse delivery of goods cannot excuse lax product selection and knowingly committing crimes. After the "family members" realized that they had become "leeks", Brother Yang's subsequent journey was half the result with half the effort.
After being banned, he was not reconciled, but many temptations could only stop at the trial stage.
For example, in January 2025, Three Sheep moved its special New Year shopping event to its WeChat video account. However, the comments on the barrage were mostly negative, and the live broadcast lasted only four days before being withdrawn. In September 2025, Xiao Yang's "apprentices" such as Zui Ge, Qiao Mei, and Lao K launched their own broadcasts on Douyin, and the single transaction volume was basically about 500,000. On January 12 this year, the Three Sheep official account officially resumed broadcasting, with sales of only 250,000 yuan, and the next day's data was even worse.
In June this year, Brother Dayang showed up at an offline e-commerce training camp, charging 1,980 yuan for 3 days and 2 nights. Not long after, he was scolded to delete the video and remove the course.
Netizens have proven through their actions that the Internet still has memory.
Although the reputation is still at the lowest level, Brother Yang actually has some trump cards when he comes back this time.
One is the supply chain and "Xiaoyang Zhenxuan", which is the core strategic trump card of Three Sheep. As of April this year, the cumulative sales of self-operated brands exceed 40 million units; the other is overseas business. Three Sheep has firmly ranked among the top three cross-border MCNs in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam). In April this year, Three Sheep’s anchor “Traffic Light’s Yellow” officially joined TikTok and earned more than 100,000 US dollars in rewards from a single session. His live broadcast room once reached the top of the daily rankings in Vietnam, which also proved that the traffic routines in the past can still be copied.
It's just that these trump cards of Brother Yang may not be as lethal now.
02
Live streaming in the new era,
There is no room for the remnants of the old era
When Brother Xiao Yang left, he was "the first brother", but when he came back, he was a completely different person.
First of all, the weight of the three words Xiao Yang Ge has been diluted by successive rising stars in the era of short videos with extremely fast metabolism.
For example, on January 30, 2026, Li Yapeng’s Pu’er tea live broadcast on Douyin, the sales of a single 6-hour session reached 162 million yuan, and the cumulative views exceeded 40.28 million, reaching the top of the platform’s overall list of products; Youhui Peer relies on knowledge-based content and product selection systems to establish sustainable repurchase relationships with “mothers-in-law”, and its annual GMV exceeds 21 billion yuan.
There are always an endless stream of Internet celebrities for everyone’s entertainment. Brother Yang is by no means unique and irreplaceable. Today there is no Brother Yang, but tomorrow there will be Brother Big Niu.
If Brother Yang hadn't been a top internet celebrity, the audience would probably not remember a person who "disappeared" for two years.
But rather than being forgotten, what is more worthy of Brother Yang’s attention is that the rules of the game for live streaming have been completely different.
In the past, personal IPs were relied upon to siphon traffic, but now the “removal of head anchors” is unstoppable.
The "2025 Live Streaming E-commerce Industry Development White Paper" shows that the proportion of GMV driven by top anchors has dropped to 10.66%, that of small and medium-sized anchors has increased to 89.34%, and that of store broadcasts has exceeded 50%.
In the first half of 2026, in Han Shu’s live broadcast, the overall contribution of celebrity promotion was only 7.65%, and self-operated transactions accounted for 68.88%.
Once a brand, especially a big brand, can broadcast itself, there is no need to give up profits to the anchor. An analyst once told "New Weekly": After losing high-quality supply, Internet celebrity live broadcast rooms are "full of third-rate brands, and product selection decisions have become worse and worse."
The decline in the effectiveness of personal IP is closely related to another game rule that has quietly changed - in the past, the live streaming business was trust-driven, but now it is professional-driven.
In the past, people believed that the anchors they followed would choose good products and seek benefits, and those anchors also understood this psychology well and would give some sweet dates to their "family members" from time to time.
For example, Brother Yang asked merchants to offer absolutely low prices in the early days. An investment recruiter from an MCN organization revealed that Xiao Yang usually requires the entire network to break prices and have related gift mechanisms. In addition, some e-commerce insiders revealed that brand owners can only send a few samples when they ask others to bring goods. In Xiao Yang's live broadcast room, they must send out exactly the same formal clothes.
However, after hundreds of hardships and countless wisdom gained, people finally understood that pie in the sky will not fall.
So, more and more people no longer look at the nice things the anchor says or his character in the live broadcast room. People only look at whether the goods, experience, service, etc. in the live broadcast room are reliable.
The best example of this change is Eastern Selection.
In July 2024, it sold "Walking with Hui" to Dong Yuhui for 76.58 million yuan. In April this year, first-generation anchors such as Mingming and Tianquan also resigned one after another.
Without the big anchor, Oriental Selection’s performance has not declined but risen: in fiscal year 2026 (as of May 31, 2026), revenue is 5.701 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.8%; net profit attributable to the parent company is 544 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 90 times!
The driving force for growth mainly comes from self-operated products. In order to change the focus from "people" to "goods" and let consumers pay for products instead of anchors, Yu Minhong established a "three highs" rule: high safety, high taste, and high cost performance. To this end, self-operated products have accumulated more than 26,000 test reports and invest tens of millions of yuan in testing a year.
Brother Yang also needs to prove to people that his products are far more reliable than others.
In the new era of live broadcasting, personal charm is no longer relied upon, but product capabilities are the passport.
03
Brother Yang is making a comeback,
You can learn from Simba
Among grassroots Internet celebrities, Brother Yang is already considered one of the "lucky" ones.
At least he still has a big business and is allowed to make a comeback. However, in the past, those grassroots Internet celebrities who were knocked off the traffic altar rarely had a second chance, and they were basically killed as soon as they showed up.
Beiyu Sister, the great situation with 24 million fans at her peak was ruined by fake sweet potato vermicelli and unrepentant attitude. She also tried to make a comeback, playing a small account, not showing her face, and only taking pictures of the stove and her hands. She once accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers, but it didn't take long for her to be discovered. The official media even published an article criticizing this comeback attempt.
In addition, there are grassroots Internet celebrities such as Tieshan Kao, Erlu, Liu Ergou, etc. Some people have as many as 40 million followers. However, due to vulgar content, things got serious and they were banned one by one. They quietly came back with small accounts and could not make a splash for a few days.
Among the grassroots Internet celebrities, if there is anyone who is an exception, Simba may be the biggest exception, and may also be a very good example for Brother Yang.
There are also negative voices surrounding Simba. He was withdrawn from the network five times, but in the end he never got involved and is still standing.
Some people think that because Simba’s influence in Kuaishou is far greater than Yang’s influence in Douyin, the platform does not dare to kill Simba. Although the Simba team’s contribution to Kuaishou’s live streaming e-commerce GMV accounted for nearly 1/3 at its peak, that was in the old days. In 2023, Kuaishou e-commerce GMV has exceeded one trillion, and the Simba team is no longer as important to Kuaishou as it once was.
What Xiao Yang really deserves to learn is Simba's sense of crisis.
As one Zhihu netizen said: Simba’s madness is just a character design, but he is actually very well-behaved.
After making a mistake, Simba will never be stubborn or even slap him like other grassroots Internet celebrities. Instead, he will struggle first and then kneel down to repent at the right time. When he needs to express his position, he also has the money and strength to contribute.
For example, his biggest negative - the sugar-watered bird's nest incident in 2020. Although he firmly denied it at first, he soon apologized, refunded one and compensated three, and paid out 61.98 million yuan. After the account was unblocked, Simba bowed and apologized to fans in the live broadcast room, knelt down on one knee, and led all employees in shouting "Take all users home."
In 2024, Simba and Brother Xiao Yang had a conflict. Simba opened up old scores, detailed the controversial products sold by Brother Yang in the past, and accused Xiao Yang's team of having problems with "quality inspection, after-sales, and compensation attitude." He also gave the other party a one-week deadline: If Three Sheep did not give consumers an explanation, he would pay 100 million in compensation himself. Later, according to feedback from some consumers, some people actually received this somewhat inexplicable "industry consolation payment."
Water can carry or overturn a boat, so you can offend your peers, but not your fans and consumers.
What’s more important is that no matter how many fans you have or how influential you are, don’t take everyone’s likes as your own ability and forget where you came from.
Don’t get too involved in the drama, which is a must-have for grassroots Internet celebrities.
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