Evaluating only 一直播 (Yizhibo)’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Competition as the #1 likely cause. That’s exactly how it died.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Yizhibo launched as Weibo's official standalone live-streaming app leveraging celebrity accounts.
PRODUCT LAUNCH
Claimed 100M users within months, riding China's 2016 live-streaming industry boom.
PIVOT
TikTok launched its live-streaming feature, pulling creators and viewers away from Yizhibo rapidly.
SHUTDOWN
Yizhibo standalone app shut down; all functionality merged back into the main Weibo platform.
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
Yizhibo launched in 2016 as Weibo's official live-streaming product and briefly claimed 100M users leveraging Weibo's celebrity network. The platform benefited from the 2016 live-streaming boom in China. However TikTok's live-streaming feature launched in 2018 and rapidly absorbed creator attention. Yizhibo could not differentiate from Weibo's own video features. By 2020 the standalone app was shuttered and functionality merged into Weibo proper, effectively ending Yizhibo as an independent product.
Lesson
“Standalone apps spun out from social platforms cannibalize the parent without ever achieving independence.”