Dong Yuhui Should Learn from Pang Donglai — livestream star’s delayed reply deepens trust crisis

The collapse: a top streamer tangled in a “fake foreign” supplement

Dong Yuhui (董宇辉) and his flagship channel Yu Hui Tongxing (与辉同行) have been thrust into a brand-trust crisis after CCTV News (央视新闻) reported that the supplement Australian Yousiyi (澳洲优思益) is a “fake foreign” product. It has been reported that Yu Hui Tongxing’s livestreams helped push the product to total sales in the multi‑million yuan range — reportedly between ¥10m and ¥25m in a single campaign, and overall sales already at the tens of millions. Celebrities who sold the product apologised and offered full refunds quickly; Yu Hui Tongxing stayed quiet at first, and only after mounting public pressure pledged to front refunds and review its selection process. How did a top‑tier curator miss this?

Learn from Pang Donglai’s rapid‑response playbook

Industry commentators say the misstep is as much about crisis handling as about product sourcing. Retailer Pang Donglai (胖东来) has repeatedly shown the opposite playbook: fast public responses, on‑site testing, immediate recalls or compensation when warranted, transparent publishing of test results, and legal follow‑through when needed. In past incidents — from the “red underwear” health scare to recent egg‑quality allegations — Pang Donglai moved quickly, accompanied complainants to seek medical checks, paid advance costs, and published detailed test reports to close the loop. The argument in the Chinese trade press is simple: when trust is the business’s currency, speed and transparency matter as much as supply‑chain controls. Dong Yuhui and his team, critics say, should adopt that model.

Bigger picture: a maturing livestream market needs offline ballast and tighter sourcing

This episode comes as China’s livestream e‑commerce market transitions from frenetic growth to a more regulated, quality‑focused phase. Regulators and platforms have tightened oversight; consumer protection enforcement is fiercer than before. It has been reported that leading livestream houses are already experimenting with offline retail to shore up trust — for example Oriental Selection (东方甄选) has been publicly pursuing brick‑and‑mortar outlets to combine live selling with visible supply‑chain guarantees. For Yu Hui Tongxing, the takeaway is twofold: harden supplier vetting and incident playbooks now, and consider building offline touchpoints to give skeptical consumers a place to verify claims. In a market where reputation is fragile, reactive silence is no longer an option.