On June 9, Zhao Mengche—who used to sit right at the top of Xinba’s livestreaming roster as his lead apprentice—went public with a lengthy update confirming he’s cutting ties with the Xin Xuan Group once and for all. He’s done with the whole livestreaming grind. And honestly, it wasn’t much of a surprise considering what happened just 24 hours earlier: Shi Dapiaoliang, another key face under Xinba’s umbrella, just announced her seven-year deal is officially off the table and she’s moving on.
If you’re familiar with what fans dubbed “Xinba’s Original Four Disciples”, you can safely say that chapter is officially closed. From Dandan to Zhao Mengche, Meow Sister, and Shi Dapiaoliang, every single one of them has now bowed out of the livestreaming game..
He also spared us the guesswork about what’s next. Straight out of the gate, Zhao laid it on the line: don’t expect to see him behind a camera or on any app hosting streams ever again. He’s trading his microphone for spreadsheets, pivoting straight into the back-end operations of the retail and consumer goods space.
And since we’ve all been wondering how the money actually works for creators at that level, Zhao didn’t sugarcoat it. He broke down the real math in his post, dropping this gem: “After running the numbers on my total sales volume over the years, my actual cut never cracked 1.85%.” Yeah, the reality check is pretty steep.
On top of that, he cleared up the status of his personal brand, “She Mao.” The product managers and the whole core crew who kept things running smoothly have been passed over to Xin Xuan founders Chu Ruixue and Xu Jie. As for the trademark rights? They’re getting officially reassigned to Xu Jie sooner rather than later.
Things really started rolling on June 8, when Shi Dapiaoliang—the go-to voice for beauty at Xin Xuan with a massive 46-million-follower base—stepped onto Kuaishou to officially say her seven-year run is over. If you were paying attention, you probably already caught the signs. Her streaming calendar had been noticeably thinner lately, and her online presence just naturally faded out without a dramatic goodbye.
But if you trace the domino effect back further, it actually kicked off way back in June 2025. Barely a week after the huge 618 shopping marathon, Dandan vanished. She wiped her main Kuaishou page—carrying over 100 million followers—clean and ghosted every social platform. She stayed offline for a solid four months before quietly registering two new companies: Hangzhou Runxing Entertainment and Hangzhou Runxin Entertainment, both sitting at 99% ownership under her name. Once fall rolled around, she resurfaced to make it official: she’s done with Xin Xuan, and even admitted that striking out on her own wasn’t exactly her original plan. Meanwhile, Meow Sister had already slipped out the door during that same stretch.
Honestly, watching those four high-profile apprentices pack their gear just painted a clear picture of what was coming next: Xinba himself was calling it quits too. Back on August 18, 2025, during their yearly “818” fan event, he finally tackled the obvious question head-on. He cited some pretty serious lung complications as the reason he needed to step off-camera permanently. In one move, he handed over his personal account—booming with 100 million followers—as a company asset, passing the keys to the whole Xin Xuan operation straight to his wife, Chu Ruixue.
For those keeping score, you might recall a quick cameo from Xinba last April. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Chu Ruixue, he helped oversee an apprenticeship signing for Xu Jie—one of their breakout stars. Xu Jie originally signed on back in 2020 and now pulls in an audience topping 46 million viewers.
Naturally, that April guest spot sent the rumor mills spinning about a potential livestreaming return. Xinba shut that down pretty fast. Later that night, he took to WeChat Moments to explain that going behind-the-scenes was actually a decision he made back in November 2023, with the final handoff scheduled for August 2025. So why make the walk then? He joked it was just to catch some residual hype and give the brand a quick morale lift, making it brutally clear that he wasn’t coming back to face the camera ever again.
Of course, nobody runs a giant e-commerce machine without hitting a few bumps. Xinba’s had his fair share of product growing pains over the years. Remember 2020, when his team pushed out a ready-to-eat bird’s nest bowl that critics pointed out was mostly just fancy sugar water? He took the L, apologized publicly, and coughed up nearly 62 million RMB in refunds. More recently, late 2024 brought complaints about a powdered milk mix making wild health claims, and just earlier this year, a luxury seafood gift basket got roasted for inconsistent quality. Sourcing and QC have clearly been a constant learning curve for the brand.
For anyone catching up late, here’s the quick bio: the man behind the name is Xin Youzhi, born in 1990. You know him as Xinba—a Gen-Z-turned-post-90s digital native, indie singer, chairman of Guangzhou Hexiang Trading, co-founder of the Xin Xuan empire, and the creative force behind the Cotton Code apparel line.
