Internet entrepreneur sentenced to 3 years in prison for online piracy to be released

The so-called father of “electronic opium” and “social sinners,” internet entrepreneur and CEO of QVOD (AKA Kuaibo) Wang Xin is to be released from prison, according to a social media post by his wife. In September 2013, Wang was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fined RMB 1 million for “distributing obscene materials for personal gain,” or simply put providing pornography. The company itself, Shenzhen QVOD Technology Co. Ltd., had to pay a fine of RMB 10 million.

The case drew a lot of attention. Previously unknown, Wang Xin gained his fame around the same time as LeEco’s Jia Yueting. At its peak in 2013, Kuaibo had 500 million users. It held about 25% of the video app download market share, more than Baidu and Youku Tudou. Kuaibo offered video streaming and torrent downloads by directing users to third-party servers.

Kuaibo’s troubles started during that same year when it was sued for $42 million for violating copyrights. Wang Xin’s platform has gained a large number of users but this came at the survival of other video sites. The company’s ascendance was often at the expense of its industry rivals which in turn decided to act.

Another blow came in 2014 after the company’s offices in Shenzhen and the Kuaibo website, computer program, and smartphone applications were taken offline for spreading lewd content. According to prosecutors, 70 percent of the 30,000 files they had found through Kuaibo were pornographic videos. Wang, on the other hand, argued that he was simply providing a platform.

The recent news of Wang’s release has brought the company back to attention and compared it with another site that is treading dangerously on the line of piracy—Toutiao. As Wang, Toutiao’s founder Zhang Yiming has also claimed that he only provides a platform for news dissemination, even though many tech companies, including Tencent and Sohu, would disagree. Toutiao lost a copyright infringement lawsuit from Tencent in July this year.