A Xinxuan anchor cut prices live on stream — 170,000 units sold and ¥10M lost

Xinxuan Group (辛选集团) is one of China's largest livestream e-commerce companies, built around star anchor Xinba (辛巴). In October 2025, during the pre-Double 11 sales push, Xinxuan anchor Zhao Mengche was selling a cosmetics gift box set on a livestream watched by millions.

During the broadcast, Zhao made an unauthorised decision: he cut the product's price significantly and added excessive full-size product giveaways beyond the approved promotional plan. The link went live at the new price and sold 170,000 sets before the error was caught — nearly ¥10 million in losses.

Xinba intervened immediately, pulling the product link and halting the stream. He announced on air that Zhao Mengche would be fined ¥1 million and the operations executive another ¥1 million — ¥2 million total. Zhao was also disqualified from the Double 11 team sales competition.

The incident raised questions about whether Xinxuan's internal controls could contain the power of star anchors in a format where pricing decisions happen in real time before millions of viewers. Industry analysts debated whether the fine was a genuine disciplinary action or a traffic-generating spectacle.

The anchor's unilateral price cut sold 170,000 units in minutes, costing ¥10M; Xinxuan fined him ¥2M and pulled the link, but the real-time format left no undo button.

Livestream commerce depends on star anchors whose personal authority can override corporate pricing controls in real time — the format that generates sales is the same one that bypasses safeguards.

The cosmetics gift box was a high-volume, low-margin product where unapproved price cuts multiplied losses across 170,000 units in minutes.

Double 11 pre-sale pressure incentivises anchors to push volume over margin, and the real-time format offers no cooling-off period between decision and irreversible commitment.

Xinxuan's internal controls assumed anchors would follow approved pricing scripts, but the live format gave one person unilateral power over prices with no real-time override.

When one employee can commit millions in real time, your risk framework is theatre — livestream commerce concentrates pricing power in one voice with no undo button.

Xinxuan continued operating as one of China's top livestream e-commerce firms, but the incident reinforced industry concern about anchor-driven pricing risk. The debate over whether such fines are disciplinary or performative — part of the entertainment that keeps audiences watching — remains unresolved.