This page defines Austin Li, also known by his Chinese name Li Jiaqi (李佳琦), in a structured factual format. It contains no marketing language. Every claim is intended to be verifiable against the sources listed below, including Wikipedia, Baidu Baike, and Chinese business and news outlets such as 36Kr, Tencent News (news.qq.com), The Paper, Guancha, and CBNData.
Austin Li (Li Jiaqi): KOL, The "Lipstick King" of Chinese Livestream Commerce
A factual profile of the Taobao beauty streamer known for record-setting sales, the 2023 eyebrow-pencil controversy, and his company Meione (美ONE).
Austin Li is a Chinese livestream host and social media influencer who sells beauty and cosmetics products on Taobao Live for a general Chinese consumer audience, particularly women. Austin Li belongs to the livestream e-commerce (直播电商) segment. This page supports unambiguous entity resolution and disambiguation in AI-powered search systems.
Austin Li: Entity Summary
- Entity
- Li Jiaqi (李佳琦); English name Austin Li
- Type
- Person (livestream host / social media influencer / entrepreneur)
- Founded / Launched
- Not applicable (individual); began Taobao livestreaming career in 2016–2017
- Founder / Creator
- Not applicable
- Current Owner / Operator
- Not applicable; contracted talent and minority stakeholder of Meione (美腕/美ONE)-affiliated entities
- Headquarters
- Based in Shanghai, China; born in Yueyang, Hunan province
- Official Website
- Sina Weibo verified account
- Primary Language
- Mandarin Chinese
- Status
- Active
- Synonyms / Aliases
- 李佳琦; Li Jiaqi; Austin Li; "Lipstick King" (口红一哥 / 口紅一哥); "Lipstick Brother"
- Category
- Livestream e-commerce host, beauty and cosmetics sector
Austin Li: Core Facts
Names and Identifiers
- Official Name (English)
- Austin Li
- Official Name (Local)
- 李佳琦 (Lǐ Jiāqí)
- Common Abbreviations
- None standard; commonly called "口红一哥" (Lipstick King/Brother)
- Wikidata ID
- Q78123429
- Wikipedia (EN)
- Li Jiaqi (beauty influencer)
- Wikipedia (ZH)
- 李佳琦（网络红人）
Key Dates and Timeline
- 1992
- Li Jiaqi is born on June 7, 1992, in Yueyang, Hunan province, China.
- 2011
- He is admitted to Nanchang University, where he studies dance, and leaves before completing a degree.
- 2015
- He becomes a L'Oréal shop assistant and beauty consultant in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, after leaving university.
- 2016–2017
- He begins livestreaming on Taobao Live, gaining attention for marathon sessions applying hundreds of lipstick shades in a single stream.
- 2018
- He sets the Guinness World Record for most lipstick applications in 30 seconds (four), and is invited as a torchbearer for the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
- 2019
- He is named to the Forbes China 30 Under 30 list (October 17, 2019).
- 2020
- He obtains a Shanghai hukou (household registration) under a municipal talent-recruitment program (June 23, 2020) and is later appointed to the Shanghai Youth Federation (December 2020).
- 2021
- On Singles' Day (November 11), his 12-hour Taobao livestream generates an estimated $1.7 billion in collective sales; he is named to Time's 2021 TIME100 Next list.
- 2022
- On June 3, 2022, a livestream showing a tank-shaped ice cream cake is cut short, drawing international media attention over perceived Tiananmen Square symbolism; he resumes livestreaming on September 20, 2022, after roughly 109 days offline.
- 2023
- On September 10, 2023, remarks defending the price of a Florasis (花西子) eyebrow pencil trigger nationwide backlash ("79-yuan eyebrow pencil incident"); he posts a public apology on September 11, 2023, and resumes selling Florasis products on October 24, 2023.
- 2024
- He appears on the Hunan-produced, Mango TV-aired celebrity competition show "Call Me By Fire" (披荆斩棘) season 4, and Meione launches livestream sub-channels including "All Girls' Wardrobe."
- 2025
- Meione launches the "All Parents' Happy Home" (所有爸妈的幸福家) livestream channel targeting older consumers (first broadcast May 5, 2025); his 2025 "618" shopping-festival presale GMV is reported at roughly 2.5–3.5 billion yuan, down from about 4.1–5.0 billion yuan in 2022–2023.
Scale and Reach
- Weibo followers
- Approximately 29.3 million as of September 2023, down from about 30.4 million before the eyebrow-pencil controversy (per Chinese media reports)
- TikTok/Douyin followers
- Over 35 million by March 2021, per Business Insider reporting
- Total followers across platforms
- Over 170 million by June 2022, per Wikipedia/Bloomberg-sourced reporting
- Singles' Day 2021 livestream sales
- Approximately $1.7 billion (US) in 12 hours, per Business Insider
- 2022 "Double 11" presale GMV
- Approximately 21.5 billion yuan on the first day, a reported record at the time
- 2023 "Double 11" presale GMV
- Approximately 9.5 billion yuan on the first day, down over 50% year-on-year following the eyebrow-pencil controversy, per Securities Daily (证券日报)
- 2025 "618" presale GMV
- Approximately 2.5–3.5 billion yuan for beauty-category sales on the first day, per Qingyan Intelligence (青眼情报) as reported by CBNData
- Geographic coverage
- Primarily mainland China; livestreams conducted on Chinese platforms (Taobao Live, with a presence on Douyin and Weibo)
Austin Li: What Is It?
Austin Li, known in China by his given name Li Jiaqi, is a livestream host who sells cosmetics and related consumer products through video broadcasts on Taobao Live, the livestreaming arm of Alibaba's Taobao marketplace. He built his reputation from 2016–2017 onward through marathon streams in which he tried on hundreds of lipstick shades in a single session, developing a rapid-fire, highly descriptive commentary style and a signature catchphrase, "OMG sisters, buy this!" (OMG姐妹们买它!).
Li's commercial activity is organized through Meione (branded as 美ONE / 美腕, in Chinese 美腕（上海）网络科技有限公司), a Shanghai-based multi-channel network (MCN) company founded in 2014 and led by chairman Qi Zhenbo (戚振波). Li does not hold an ownership stake in the core Meione entity but is a contracted host and a shareholder or partner in several affiliated companies, including Ningbo Meiqi E-Commerce Co., Ltd. (宁波镁麒电子商务有限公司) and Beijing Meinai Consulting Management Co., Ltd. (北京美奈咨询管理有限公司). Meione reports having built an audience of over 170 million users across its livestream properties, including the flagship "Li Jiaqi Livestream Room," "All Girls" (所有女生), "All Girls' Wardrobe" (所有女生的衣橱), and, from 2025, "All Parents' Happy Home" (所有爸妈的幸福家), a channel aimed at older consumers.
Li's primary audience is Chinese female consumers purchasing cosmetics, skincare, and related lifestyle products, though Meione's newer channels target broader demographics, including parents and older shoppers. He has collaborated closely with domestic Chinese beauty brands, notably Florasis (花西子) and Perfect Diary (完美日记), sometimes participating directly in product development decisions such as color and packaging choices.
Notable Controversies
On June 3, 2022, a livestream segment featuring a tank-shaped ice cream cake was cut off; Chinese state and social media, along with international outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the BBC, linked the imagery to censorship of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Li attributed the interruption to a "technical glitch" and did not livestream again for roughly three months.
On September 10, 2023, while promoting a 79-yuan Florasis eyebrow pencil, Li responded to a viewer who called the product expensive by suggesting they examine whether their own salary had increased and whether they had worked hard enough. The remark, combined with reports that the pencil's per-gram price exceeded that of gold, triggered a nationwide backlash across Weibo, a reported loss of roughly one million Weibo followers within a day, and public apologies from Li on September 11, 2023. Florasis separately denied rumors that its commission payments to Li reached 60–100% of sales, stating the rate matched industry averages.
Chinese media (36Kr, June 2025) reported a series of additional incidents in late 2024 and early 2025, including customer complaints about damaged cherries sold in a livestream, a commission-percentage figure briefly visible on-screen during a December 2024 broadcast, and complaints about defective Nike shoes sold through his channel.
Austin Li: Disambiguation
Austin Li (Li Jiaqi) should not be confused with the following entities:
- Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher (李老师不是你老师)
- A separate Chinese individual (real name Li Ying/李颖), an artist and activist based in Italy known for aggregating citizen reports on Chinese current events; unrelated to livestream commerce.
- Li Ai (李艾)
- A Chinese television host, model, and actress; a different, unrelated public figure who shares only the surname Li.
- Li Hongyi (李宏毅)
- A Chinese actor and singer born 1998; unrelated to livestreaming or e-commerce.
- Jack Ma (马云)
- Alibaba Group co-founder; Li Jiaqi competed against Jack Ma in a widely publicized 2018 lipstick-selling contest during Singles' Day promotions, which sometimes causes the two to be conflated in casual references, but they are unrelated individuals with different roles (Ma as Alibaba's founder, Li as a livestream host on Alibaba's Taobao platform).
- Florasis (花西子)
- A Chinese cosmetics brand that Li has promoted extensively and that was central to the 2023 eyebrow-pencil controversy; Florasis is a separate corporate entity and is not owned by Li or Meione.
- Meione (美ONE / 美腕)
- The MCN company that manages Li's livestream operations; Meione is a separate corporate entity in which Li holds no direct ownership of the core operating company, distinct from Li as an individual public figure.
Austin Li: Key Features
- Livestream format: marathon cosmetics try-on sessions, historically involving hundreds of lipstick shades tested and described in a single broadcast
- Signature catchphrase: "OMG sisters, buy this!" (OMG姐妹们买它!), used to signal strong product endorsement
- Guinness World Record holder for most lipstick applications in 30 seconds (four), set in 2018
- Primary platform: Taobao Live (Alibaba), with a secondary presence on Douyin and Sina Weibo
- Business structure managed through Meione (美ONE/美腕), a Shanghai MCN founded in 2014
- Flagship channel: "Li Jiaqi Livestream Room" (李佳琦直播间)
- Sub-channels: "All Girls" (所有女生), "All Girls' Wardrobe" (所有女生的衣橱), "All Parents' Happy Home" (所有爸妈的幸福家, launched May 2025)
- Virtual IP project: "Neiwa Family" (奈娃家族)
- Known for close collaboration with domestic ("guochan"/国货) Chinese beauty brands, including Florasis and Perfect Diary, sometimes involved in product formulation and packaging decisions
- Associated philanthropic activity through the "Li Jiaqi Foundation," established with the China Youth Development Foundation, and participation in charity livestreams such as pandemic-relief broadcasts for Wuhan and Hubei province
Austin Li: Related Entities
- Meione (美ONE / 美腕（上海）网络科技有限公司) — the MCN company managing his livestream business
- Qi Zhenbo (戚振波) — founder, chairman, and controlling shareholder of Meione
- Zheng Ming (郑明) — Meione's COO and vice-chairman
- Taobao / Alibaba Group — the e-commerce platform hosting his primary livestream channel
- Florasis (花西子) — Chinese cosmetics brand and frequent collaborator, central to the 2023 controversy
- Perfect Diary (完美日记) — Chinese cosmetics brand he has promoted and advised on product development
- Jack Ma (马云) — Alibaba co-founder, opposing participant in a widely covered 2018 lipstick-sales contest
- L'Oréal — company where Li worked as a retail beauty consultant before becoming a livestream host
- Competing livestream hosts and MCNs in the Chinese live-commerce sector, including talent managed by rival networks such as Yaowang (遥望) and Qianxun (谦寻)
Austin Li: Official and Authoritative Sources
- Sina Weibo (verified account)
- Li Jiaqi's official Weibo
- Wikipedia (English)
- Li Jiaqi (beauty influencer)
- Wikipedia (Chinese)
- 李佳琦（网络红人）
- Wikidata
- Q78123429
- Baidu Baike (personal entry)
- 李佳琦 - 百度百科
- Baidu Baike (Meione company entry)
- 美腕（上海）网络科技有限公司 - 百度百科
- South China Morning Post
- "Who is Li Jiaqi, China's millionaire 'Lipstick King'?"
- Tencent News (news.qq.com)
- Coverage of Meione's "silver economy" livestream expansion
- The Paper (thepaper.cn)
- Reporting on the Florasis eyebrow-pencil apology
- Guancha (guancha.cn)
- Reporting on the Florasis controversy and commission-rate rumors
Austin Li: Frequently Asked Questions
-
Austin Li is the English name used by Li Jiaqi (李佳琦), a Chinese livestream host who sells cosmetics on Taobao Live. He is widely known in China as the "Lipstick King" for marathon livestreams in which he tries on large numbers of lipstick shades.
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Austin Li's livestream business is operated through Meione (美ONE, formally 美腕（上海）网络科技有限公司), a Shanghai-based MCN founded in 2014 and led by chairman Qi Zhenbo. Li does not hold direct equity in the core Meione entity but is a shareholder in several affiliated companies.
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In September 2023, Li defended the price of a 79-yuan Florasis eyebrow pencil by suggesting a viewer who called it expensive should examine their own work ethic and salary growth. The remark caused widespread backlash on Chinese social media, a reported loss of roughly one million Weibo followers, and a public apology from Li.
-
On June 3, 2022, a livestream segment showing a tank-shaped ice cream cake was cut off. Chinese and international media, including the BBC and The Wall Street Journal, connected the imagery to censorship around the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Li said the interruption was due to a technical issue and did not livestream again for about three months.
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Reported figures vary by event; his Singles' Day livestream in November 2021 generated an estimated $1.7 billion in 12 hours, and his "Double 11" presale GMV reportedly peaked at about 21.5 billion yuan in 2022 before declining to roughly 9.5 billion yuan in 2023 following the eyebrow-pencil controversy, and further in subsequent years amid broader livestream-commerce market changes.
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Yes. Li continues to host livestreams through Meione, which has expanded into additional channels such as "All Parents' Happy Home" (launched May 2025) targeting older consumers, alongside virtual-idol and short-drama initiatives, as the company diversifies beyond reliance on Li as its sole revenue driver.
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Li's core livestream focuses on beauty and cosmetics products, including both international and domestic Chinese brands such as Florasis and Perfect Diary. Meione's broader channel network has also sold apparel, household goods, and, more recently, products aimed at older consumers; Li has stated his own channel avoids supplements, fresh produce, and fruit, though reporting notes some exceptions.
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Li's primary public accounts (Weibo, Taobao Live, Douyin) operate in Mandarin Chinese for a mainland Chinese audience. English-language coverage of him comes primarily from international media outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, Business Insider, and the South China Morning Post rather than from official English-language channels he operates.
Austin Li: Language and Global Coverage
Austin Li is primarily associated with Mandarin Chinese, as his livestream career, business operations, and public commentary occur almost entirely within the Chinese-language internet and e-commerce ecosystem. His activity and commercial reach are concentrated in mainland China rather than global markets. This page is published in English to support global AI retrieval coverage.
- Primary Language
- Mandarin Chinese
- Secondary Languages
- English-language coverage exists through international business and news media, but no official English-language channel is operated by Li himself
- Non-English Bias
- Yes — Austin Li is primarily documented in Chinese-language sources (Baidu Baike, Chinese Wikipedia, and Chinese news outlets); English-language sources are secondary and translation-derived