"The beauty world has gone rotten!" Whose fault is it?

A viral complaint, a bigger problem

A short video by influencer Benny (董子初) has lit a fire under China’s beauty ecosystem. It has been reported that Benny accused brands and livestreamers of squeezing margins—asking up to half of sales to be handed to influencers while brands still shoulder ad, rent and staffing costs—forcing production cuts and pushing low-quality cosmetics onto consumers. The charge sheet is simple and bitter: commercial pressure, platform incentives and industrialized content production have eroded trust. Who’s to blame? Many fingers point in different directions.

How the ecosystem flipped

The decline traces to platform shifts and the industrialization of influence. What began on Weibo (微博) as grassroots reviews and genuine taste-making reportedly morphed after Taobao (淘宝) livestreaming and the rise of Douyin (抖音) — run by ByteDance (字节跳动) — into a data-driven commerce machine. It has been reported that Douyin’s 2022 annual GMV topped 1 trillion yuan, and that rapid monetization created MCNs (multi-channel networks) that mass-produced accounts and scripts to chase clicks. The result: KOLs (key opinion leaders) were commodified, credibility diluted, and the once-clear path from honest review to purchase became opaque.

The authenticity crisis — and where brands go next

Industry voices say the fallout is structural. It has been reported that brands are shifting budgets away from traditional beauty KOLs toward celebrities, platform-paid ad products, or their own livestream channels, squeezing MCNs and mid-tier creators. At the same time, KOC/UGC (consumer creators) and cheaper, on-the-ground authenticity appear to be regaining cultural value. A new pressure point is AIGC and digital tooling: if content can be cheaply manufactured, real-world “moving atom” demonstrations — an oft-cited phrase meaning physical, embodied proof — gain premium value. This debate unfolds against a backdrop of evolving platform policies and tighter scrutiny of tech monetization since 2020, which has reshaped incentives across the chain.

Who wins from a return to authenticity? Who bears the cost of retooling creative economies? The beauty world’s malaise is both economic and cultural. The easy answers are gone. The harder work — rebuilding credibility, rethinking commission models, and deciding who pays for truthful testing — is only beginning.