Who is live-streaming e-commerce star Viya and how did she become famous?

It has been a spectacular fall from grace for Chinese online influencer Viya, who went from being the country’s most bankable live-streaming e-commerce star to a virtual pariah overnight after authorities in the eastern city of Hangzhou slapped her with a record 1.34 billion yuan (US$210 million) fine for tax evasion.

One of China’s rare one-name celebrities, Viya – whose real name is Huang Wei –saw her widely followed social media account on microblogging platform Weibo and her online presence on Taobao Marketplace, the social commerce operation of Alibaba Group Holding, become immediately inaccessible just hours after the tax bureau of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, announced her steep penalty.

That has temporarily derailed Viya’s online business empire that she built from scratch through years of hard work, which included collaborating with American celebrity Kim Kardashian during Alibaba’s Singles’ Day campaign in 2019 to sell the US reality television star’s KKW fragrance. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Viya, 36, cemented her lofty position in live streaming and role as an online influencer in October this year, when she sold a whopping 8.5 billion yuan worth of goods during her 14-hour live-streaming session on Taobao Live as part of Alibaba’s presales programme for Singles’ Day in November.