Mother sues live-streaming firm after daughter tipped US$98,000

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According to the recent report of the Legal Evening News, a woman, surnamed as Mrs. Liu, was shocked to discover that her 16-year-old daughter had spent 650,000 yuan (about 98,000 US dollars) within three months on virtual gifts for the male hosts on China’s top live streaming app Inke last year.

Liu sued Beijing MeeLive Network Technology Co, the owner of Inke, claiming that her daughter registered the account in her name and is demanding a refund, but the court ruled against Liu because she had failed to prove that she was not the one who made the payments.

Liu’s daughter, who was identified as “Xiaoya”, became addicted to Inke while she was studying in Canada. Xiaoya secretly changed the payment password of her mother’s bank card and transferred the money to her Inke account with online platforms Alipay and Wechat Wallet. The girl even used tuition money for her Inke account.

Liu did not notice that the money was gone until she was preparing to buy a plane ticket with Alipay. Tracking her payment record - which her daughter had deleted earlier - Liu found how the money had been spent.

To the mother’s surprise, her daughter does not think tipping hosts that much is a big deal. “Everyone is playing, even my classmate's dad is playing,” Xiaoya said. She told her mother she sent the virtual gifts to male hosts so that they would talk to her.

Liu is a senior executive of a company and has lived alone with her daughter for several years. Liu sent Xiaoya to Canada when she was 15 years old, believing there were too many challenges in China for an introverted girl like her daughter.

The personal homepage of a male host Xiaoya has tipped on Inke. /Photo from Kanfa News

The journalist found that the four male hosts rewarded most by Xiaoya have a similar appearance: young and fashionable, with a warm personality and a cute demeanor. Although Xiaoya has been off Inke for a long time, she is still the top 3 on the contribution list of one of her favorite hosts.

MeeLive stated in the trial that because the account was registered under Liu’s identity card number and all the payments were under Liu’s name, it was not possible to refund her. But when the lawyer of Liu asked the company to offer the IP address of Xiaoya's login, most of which were from Canada, while Liu was in China, Inke refused.

This is not the first case of kids making pricy in-app purchases on Chinese live streaming sites. A 13-year-old girl in Shanghai reportedly tipped a male host 250,000 yuan (about 37,700 US dollars) earlier this year.

Liu appealed against the court’s decision and the case is now being heard by Beijing No.3 Intermediate People’s Court.