Three Sheep resumed streaming without its star — the peak never came back

After the fake-Meicheng-mooncake scandal of September 2024, Three Sheep paid its ¥68.9495 million fine in full on October 11, 2024, compensated consumers ¥27.7785 million under a refund-one-compensate-three standard, and worked through 89 rectification items. On March 23, 2025, Hefei's market regulator declared it fit to resume operations. The first comeback try had already failed: a January 2025 test on WeChat's channels under 'Xiaoyang Zhenxuan', with no anchor on camera, drew 140,000 heat points and a little over a thousand orders before stopping after four days.

The real resumption came on the night of September 15, 2025 — no announcement, several streamers going live at once. Zuige, 8.47 million followers, peaked at 110,000 concurrent viewers; Qiaomei drew 1.23 million views; Lao K wore sleeves over his tattoos and stuck to product talk. The style was professional, the entertainment gone. On sale were three self-brand items — garbage bags, toothbrushes, dental floss — and the combined take for the session was roughly ¥250,000 to ¥500,000, against a history of single sessions that once cleared ¥100 million. The founder remained absent throughout.

His Douyin following fell from a peak of about 122 million to 112 million within 120 days of the shutdown — more than 40,000 a day — and had slipped below 100 million by September 2025. Three Sheep is now rebuilding around the 'Xiaoyang Zhenxuan' private label, supply chain, and overseas expansion, with more than 20 local streamers signed in Singapore and Malaysia. The industry had moved meanwhile: influencer-driven sales fell to about 30% of Douyin commerce in 2024 as shop livestreaming took over. The comeback is real; the business it returns to is not the one that left.