Image source: Global Times
Asian Tech Press (Aug 27)-- China has further strengthened the governance of "chaotic" fandom culture, with the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) issuing a notice Friday calling for eliminating all charts involving individual celebrities or groups, and strictly prohibiting any new or disguised individual charts and related products or features. Only music, film and TV works can be kept on the charts, but the names of celebrities and other personal logos are not allowed to appear.
Actress Zhao Wei/ Vicky Zhao
Actress Zheng Shuang fined $46 million for tax evasion
Chinese actress Zheng Shuang, previously banned due to the surrogacy controversy, was accused of alleged tax fraud and evasion by her ex-boyfriend Zhang Heng in April.
On August 27, the State Taxation Administration informed that the Shanghai Municipal Taxation Bureau conducted an in-depth inspection in accordance with the law based on the reports of actress Zheng Shuang's alleged tax evasion.
The Bureau recently found that Zheng had failed to declare her personal income of 191 million yuan ($29.452 million), evaded 45.266 million yuan in taxes and underpaid 26.520,700 yuan in other taxes between 2019 and 2020. The authority decided to impose a penalty of tax recovery, an additional late payment fee, and a fine of 299 million yuan ($46.1 million) under the law.
Actress Zheng Shuang
Social media giant's concerns
Celebrity news and fan-generated rankings charts have brought huge traffic and revenue to online platforms such as Weibo, which may be affected in some ways as the authorities continue to regulate "chaotic" fan culture.
According to Sina Weibo's Q2 2021 financial results, its net revenue reached $570 million, up 48% year-over-year. Net profit was $81 million, down 59% year-over-year, showing revenue growth without profit growth.
In addition, the financial results showed that operating costs for the second quarter were $381 million, up 36% year-over-year. Among them, marketing costs were $154 million, accounting for 27% of total revenue.
According to Choice data, as of August 25, Weibo's share price fell by a cumulative 10.07% in the past month.
