By Doug Young
Former livestreaming hotshot DouYu International Holdings Ltd. (DOYU.US) is drowning, and its slow-motion death showed no signs of abating in its latest quarterly results released on Thursday. But as one of China’s oldest livestreamers, with a history dating back a decade to the start of the country’s livestreaming craze, the company still has plenty of value in its rich experience and relatively large customer base.
At the same time, there’s no denying DouYu, whose name means “fighting fish,” is fighting an upstream battle without a proper head, following the arrest of its co-founder, Chairman and CEO Chen Shaojie, last November on suspicion of setting up illegal casinos. The company is taking its time finding new top brass, reflected by the attendance of a notably un-executive sounding trio of finance vice president Cao Hao, Chief Strategy Officer Su Mingming and vice president Ren Siming on its latest earnings call.