CEO of Chinese livestreaming platform missing in latest case of billionaires disappearing

Several of China's leading financiers have fallen from grace in recent years. (Representational image)

Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of DouYu, a leading Chinese livestreaming platform, has been missing for the past several weeks, with colleagues unable to get in touch with him.

The executive has been untraceable amid investigation into illegal content on his site. Chen Shaojie had also gambled DouYu’s livestream, news agency AFP reported, quoting The Paper, a government-run outlet based in Shanghai.

DouYu is backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent and is US-listed with a market capitalisation of $268 million. A representative did not provide details when asked by AFP on Tuesday about Chen's whereabouts.

"DouYu's business operations remain normal," they said.

Chen, 39, made his last public appearance was in August for DouYu’s second-quarter results conference call, South China Morning Post reported.

Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s top internet watchdog, had launched a probe into allegations of pornography and vulgar content on DouYu.

The case Chen Shaojie going missing follows a pattern of top Chinese executives and senior members of the country’s ruling CCP (Chinese Communist Party) going incommunicado, only to be eventually revealed that they were being investigated for irregularities, thus highlighting President Xi Jinping's aggressive crackdown on corruption.

In February this year, Bao Fan, the Chinese billionaire chairman of investment bank China Renaissance had gone missing. It was later revealed that he was "cooperating" in an official investigation.

Several of China's leading financiers have fallen from grace in recent years, as Xi Jinping carries out an aggressive crackdown on alleged corruption.

Agriculture tycoon Sun Dawu was issued an 18-year jail sentence in July 2021 for a range of offences following the conclusion of a trial behind closed doors.

Chinese-Canadian business magnate Xiao Jianhua, who disappeared from a Hong Kong hotel in 2017, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in August 2022 under charges of embezzlement and bribery.