The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2013–2025
Yujia, China's first-generation MCN, lost ¥70M in 2025 after the livestream gold rush
The Guangzhou agency behind 30,000 contracted streamers made ¥371M of revenue in 2025 and lost ¥69.9M — its investor is now selling its stake.
Yujia Digital · Legend Capital
What happened
Yujia Digital, founded in Guangzhou in 2013, was one of China's first-generation MCN agencies — the top guild on YY livestreaming, with more than 30,000 contracted streamers at its peak, over 2,000 of them exclusive. It helped build short-video accounts such as Xiao Aqi, with more than 20 million followers. IDG Capital led a Series A in 2015, Legend Capital led a Series B in 2016, and Mango Culture Fund took a strategic stake in 2017 before selling out entirely in 2022.
The 2025 numbers surfaced when Legend Capital listed its 3.8383% stake for sale: revenue of ¥371M against a net loss of ¥69.92M. In January 2026 the agency made ¥9.15M and lost ¥569K. The listing documents, in effect, put the whole first-generation MCN model on sale.
Costs pressed from both directions: platforms charged more for traffic while brands tightened budgets, and the agency still owed its talent a share of every deal. Meanwhile clients built in-house content teams, shrinking the pool of outsourced work that agencies like Yujia lived on.
Why it happened
- The model bought traffic and split revenue with talent; when ad-buying costs rose and brand budgets shrank, no margin was left in the middle.
- Clients increasingly ran their own social accounts in-house, cutting demand for the outsourced campaigns the agency lived on.
- Scale became a fixed-cost burden once growth stopped: tens of thousands of signed streamers, and no new funding round after the early investors exited.
The lesson
An agency that buys traffic and splits fees with talent is squeezed from both ends — when platforms raise prices and clients go in-house, scale becomes a liability.
Aftermath
Legend Capital is listing its 3.8383% stake for sale; Mango Culture Fund already exited in 2022. Yujia keeps operating with ¥322M of total assets and ¥300M of net assets, still losing money into 2026.
Sources
- 昔日“资本宠儿”年亏近7000万元，MCN行业进入存量竞争阶段 — 证券时报/网易 (Jul 2026)
- 赢了流量没了利润 MCN行业进入存量竞争阶段 — 富途资讯 (Jul 2026)
- 赢了流量没了利润 MCN行业进入存量竞争阶段 — 环球网 (Jul 2026)
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