Long ago, Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng said that entrepreneurship requires spending a great deal of time studying what is the right thing to do, and then figuring out how to do it correctly.

Simply put, judgment comes before execution. This philosophy has long guided all of Pinduoduo's operations and strategic layout.

In recent years, as livestream e-commerce has developed rapidly, Pinduoduo has followed the trend and actively tested the waters. Now that it has found a suitable path, Pinduoduo has begun to re-examine this track, shifting from chasing traffic to governing the ecosystem and implementing a series of platform governance measures.

Recently, Pinduoduo issued the "Announcement on Strengthening Livestream Subject Governance," which intensively tightens the entry thresholds for livestreaming activities on the platform.

This announcement directly lists a detailed ban, delineating six categories of subjects prohibited from conducting livestream activities.

Minors are explicitly prohibited from participating in livestream sales and appearing on camera, and organizing or inducing minors to conduct livestream marketing is also banned.

Individuals who have seriously violated laws or regulations, engaged in misconduct, or been placed on relevant authorities' blacklists or warning lists are prohibited from any form of livestreaming during their ban period.

Performers with illegal or unethical records, as well as persons lacking or with limited civil capacity, are similarly barred. Hosts in specific industries such as food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health supplements who cannot provide corresponding administrative permits or operational qualifications will be prohibited from promoting related products through livestreams.

Furthermore, the announcement details types of violations, including publishing illegal or harmful information, false advertising, marketing counterfeit or shoddy goods, fabricating transactions and traffic data, providing引流 services to violators, as well as harassing or defaming others, and conducting pyramid schemes or fraud, all of which are included in the key governance scope.

Previously, the outside world held stereotypes about Pinduoduo's livestreams, such as low barriers to entry, an influx of all kinds of people, and mixed product quality. This governance action is equivalent to adding an inspection checkpoint at the entrance, directly intercepting subjects with mismatched identities, missing qualifications, or negative records.

The focus of platform governance has also shifted from primarily monitoring what is said and sold in live rooms to proactively evaluating who the host is, whether they are qualified, and their past records.

Looking at the longer timeline, this move is not sudden.

By the end of 2025, Pinduoduo had already started cracking down on livestream rebroadcasting, clearing out accounts that passed off replays as real-time streams.

In June 2026, the platform launched a special campaign targeting traffic fraud, black PR, and online water armies.

Connecting these steps, the platform is expanding from governing content to governing people, shifting from post-event punishment to pre-event interception.

The announcement itself also clarifies that this is not a new regulatory requirement, but a centralized clarification and refinement of existing laws, regulations, and platform rules, making the gray areas transparent.

This is particularly apt for the livestream business.

For a considerable time, Pinduoduo's livestream volume expanded rapidly, but accompanying complaints, disputes, and negative reputation accumulated, continuously impacting platform credibility.

Under these circumstances, if the platform continues to pursue speed and scale, it would be difficult to cover the reputational losses.

Thus, this rectification carries a clear screening intent. It aims to clear out subjects prone to risk, chasing short-term gains, or habitually operating in gray areas, while tilting resources and traffic toward positive hosts with complete qualifications and standardized operations.

Exchanging a cleaner ecosystem for more sustainable growth is a logic that is becoming hard to bypass.

Notably, Pinduoduo is not alone in taking action.

Broadening the view to the entire industry, major platforms have recently been tightening their admission standards for livestream subjects.

As of the first half of this year, Douyin alone handled over 340,000 live rooms for improper inducement to consume, with more than 100,000 accounts receiving graded penalties.

Additionally, in a special campaign targeting chaos in entertainment group streams, over 30,000 person-times were penalized, livestream permissions for 4,025 accounts were revoked, and 34 agencies were dismissed.

Meanwhile, Douyin continues to refine its tiered management mechanism centered on host health scores. In 2025, the "health score" coverage for hosts increased by 60%, with over 90,000 hosts gaining high-quality or professional certification. For the full year, 370,000 violating accounts were indefinitely revoked, and 39 black industry gangs were dismantled in cooperation with police.

Taobao adjusted its livestream management rules in February, adding managerial responsibilities for live room operators. Operators must publicly display their subject information on their homepage and update it within three working days of any changes.

Before each stream, the names, ID numbers, contact details, and professional qualifications of on-camera personnel must be verified and filed, with records kept for no less than three years. Live rooms must establish training mechanisms and onboarding assessment standards, and improve pre-event compliance review and error correction processes.

New rules that recently took effect go further by deeply tying tipping privileges to violation records.

If a host has violations, they may reapply for the tipping function three months after the penalty period ends. For muted hosts, tipping privileges are simultaneously suspended for two to three times the muting duration. Those with serious violations within the past 90 days will be restricted from applying for tipping.

Kuaishou has also taken severe measures. In July, Kuaishou E-commerce announced a special campaign against "scripted drama引流 plus PK连麦 selling" as a违规 operating model, with immediate disposal upon discovery, without warning or rectification periods.

The safety center persistently combats fabricated persona fraud. Concerning gangs pretending to be tycoons, masters, or high officials using scripted performances to sell low-value goods at high prices to middle-aged and elderly users, 34 individuals have been apprehended this year alone.

For minors aged 16 and below, Kuaishou maintains zero tolerance, immediately shutting down streams and revoking livestream permissions upon discovery. Kuaishou also partnered with WeChat Channels to target违规 behavior exploiting religious pretexts in live rooms, employing warnings, traffic limiting, stream interruption, and banning as graded penalties.

When multiple platforms almost simultaneously strengthen livestream subject governance, this is clearly not an isolated adjustment by a single platform, but a signal that the entire industry is trending towards compliance.

In Li Xiang's view, multiple factors are driving this round of governance actions.

The "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Livestream E-commerce," officially effective from February 1, 2026, clearly defines the responsibility boundaries for four types of entities—platforms, live room operators, hosts, and service agencies—and delineates clear behavioral red lines. Simultaneously, the measures explicitly require the establishment of a blacklist system, making rigid regulatory constraints a reality.

Deeper changes originate from the consumer side. Users whose patience has been repeatedly worn down by low-quality scripts have decreasing tolerance for exaggerated plots and fake personas.

The weight of trust costs in the transaction chain continues to rise. A live room filled with inducement, fraud, and shoddy goods faces increasing difficulty in achieving short-term gains, while long-term operations accelerate the depletion of user wallets and goodwill.

Platforms are beginning to tilt traffic toward hosts with complete qualifications and good credit. This is no longer just a cleanup action but an attempt to guide supply-side upgrades through resource allocation.

Under these circumstances, whoever can gather a group of compliant, professional, and consistently capable high-quality hosts will gain a differentiated advantage in the next phase of competition.

The entire industry's proposition is shifting from having livestreams to having quality livestreams. Standardization and high-quality transformation have moved from slogans to reality.

Pinduoduo has always been sharp in judging timing, understanding clearly that the livestream business cannot continue to advance relying solely on a sheer number of people.

When overall growth slows and incremental users no longer surge in, the platform's quality must be supported by repurchase rates and reputation.

Those operating entities prone to causing trouble, if not orderly cleared out, will become hidden dangers within the ecosystem, potentially shattering the user trust painstakingly accumulated at any moment.

This announcement is essentially advancing two things simultaneously.

One is raising the entry threshold, barring clearly不合格 subjects at the door, which is defensive.

The other is clarifying违规 behavior types and disposal measures, drawing clear boundaries for existing hosts, which is constructive. Defense and construction proceed in parallel, aiming to transform Pinduoduo's livestream ecosystem from an almost freely accessible marketplace into a business district with entry standards emphasizing credibility and quality.

The entire livestream e-commerce industry is undergoing a deep adjustment. The phase of粗放 growth has passed, and platforms no longer have the space or willingness to tolerate expansion with hidden problems, because the deeper the accumulated hidden dangers, the greater the future cost.

Compliant operations, high-quality host resources, and a healthy ecosystem—these might have been bonus points in the past, but have now become fundamental questions that must be correctly answered.

Pinduoduo's governance this time has removed a portion of high-risk and non-compliant supply while establishing clearer behavioral boundaries and entry barriers.

On the surface, the threshold for livestreaming has risen, but for merchants and hosts genuinely willing to operate long-term and abide by rules, it conversely signifies a cleaner and fairer competitive environment is gradually forming.

Pinduoduo's efforts stem from recognizing the key winning factors in the second half of the livestreaming game. Slowing down the pace and laying a solid foundation may lead to more substantial long-term gains.

Seller's Home Commentary

Pinduoduo's "一刀" aimed at livestream e-commerce is essentially a reconstruction of traffic allocation. Sellers should focus on the combination points between its interest-based recommendations and low-price algorithms to seize this wave of traffic dividends. The core action is: activate mid-tier host resources and test the new pool with "good prices +泛 entertainment" content.

Source: E-commerce Pai
Original link: https://www.pai.com.cn/p/01kxdw2zwfgx2jg2anw36rgxfb