On August 27, Yiyaogou announced that Chairman and General Manager Chen Shunjun had resigned from all his positions as chairman, director, and general manager due to "omissions in providing information about his associates to the company and auditing institutions". The company stated that he will remain with the company in a management role, focusing on "new growth businesses".
The day after Chen Shunjun resigned, Yiyaogou announced that Zhou Yuewu would take over as chairman and general manager. Zhou has been a director of Yiyaogou since 2016 and holds an even more important identity: he is the husband of Li Yanfei, the founder and actual controller of Yiyaogou.
There are only a handful of instances in A-share history where a chairman of a listed company has publicly resigned to take responsibility, with most departing quietly due to various issues. One notable precedent is from 2019, when Shendaitong Chairman Yuan Na resigned to take responsibility after the company organized employees to violently resist the law. Chen Shunjun's resignation as both chairman and general manager is extremely rare.
Chen Shunjun has been the chairman of Yaoyigou for only 13 months, during which time "related-party information has been omitted," but it is unclear what exactly was omitted. However, based on publicly available information, the companies affiliated with Chen Shunjun have a complex relationship with Yaoyigou.
What was missed in the end?
Chen Shunjun is also the actual controller of Sichuan Shen Niao Century Technology Co., Ltd., which provides services including membership systems, new retail promotion, and transaction matching, mainly focusing on pharmaceutical retail and supply chains. Simply put, it helps pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, and grassroots medical terminals use data and the internet for membership operations, product promotion, and facilitating transactions.
Shen Niao Century itself has invested in multiple companies, which in turn have made further investments through their subsidiaries, ultimately forming a complex web of relationships involving several enterprises, including Jian Tu Health, Yao Ju Li, Shen Niao Data Intelligence, Shan Song Easy Purchase, and Shen Niao Shang Medical Cloud, among others.
Yiyaogou originated from pharmaceutical wholesale and its main business is in Sichuan, targeting small and medium-sized pharmacies, grassroots hospitals, and clinics. This market is actually highly competitive, so Yiyaogou needs to expand its scale to reduce costs and deeply bind its downstream customers. Possibly seeing the complementary nature of Chen Shunjun's business and company, in 2019, Yiyaogou acquired a 10% stake in Shen Niao Century, with Chen Shunjun holding the remaining 90%.
After Yiyaoguo's listing in 2021, it successively made joint investments with enterprises controlled by Chen Shunjun, increased capital in and acquired shares of its affiliated enterprises, and procured new retail promotion, traffic investment, platform matching, and outsourced operation services.
Yao Yi Gou disclosed in an announcement released in April this year that it is expected to conduct transactions with 13 affiliated parties in 2026, with a total amount not exceeding 629 million yuan. Among them, the company only purchased promotion, advertising, and commodity services from Shen Niao Century and Zhendu Health, which are controlled by Chen Shunjun, with an expected upper limit of over 200 million yuan.
Based on Yiyaogou's current revenue situation, the company's operating costs are estimated to be around 4 billion yuan this year, with associated transactions with the two companies controlled by Chen Shunjun accounting for about 5% of the total cost. This is the financial pitfall of Yiyaogou: the then-chairman had a large external investment network, and these companies frequently engaged in procurement, investment, and acquisitions with the listed company, relying solely on voluntary declarations by executives, which can easily leave blind spots in identifying and disclosing associated parties.
In 2025, Chen Shunjun took over as chairman and general manager of Yao Yi Gou, possibly because the 48-year-old founder, Li Yanfei, wanted to step back. On the other hand, Chen Shunjun, who has long been involved in artificial intelligence, big data, and medical new retail, has many companies under his control that can provide Yao Yi Gou with a large amount of innovative business support.
A tough hand to play
Yiyaogou's half-year report for 2026, disclosed on August 25, shows that revenue for the first half of the year was 2.181 billion yuan, a slight increase of 0.80% year-over-year, but the company reported a net loss of 9.5268 million yuan to shareholders. The digital pharmaceutical distribution business, which accounts for the majority of the company's revenue, generated 1.96 billion yuan in revenue, with its scale remaining largely stable. However, the gross margin for pharmaceutical distribution was only 4.35%, and the gross margin for pharmaceutical agency services was 7.23%, both of which decreased compared to the same period last year.
Yiyaogou targets small to medium-sized pharmacies and clinics with a high degree of commercialization, which are heavily affected by costs and must compete with township health centers and county hospitals. In recent years, the national grassroots medical system has itself contracted, with a large number of pharmacies closing, and medical demand has shown a trend of concentrating in central hospitals and large hospitals.
Yiyaogou's highly anticipated new businesses have also failed to make a significant impact. In the first half of the year, the pharmaceutical industry's self-produced and branded operations revenue was 167 million yuan, down 9.27% year-over-year. Chongqing Yaodamai achieved revenue of 132 million yuan but incurred a loss of 6.66 million yuan; Jiankang Zhijia Pharmacy's chain stores had negative net assets; Shutan AI had revenue of 5.6 million yuan and incurred a loss of 2.12 million yuan.
To make matters worse, Yaoyigou's books are still not fully sorted out. Its 2025 financial report was issued with a qualified opinion by auditors, citing accounting errors involving changes in consolidation scope, presentation of long-term equity investments, and credit impairment loss provisions. Yaoyigou has postponed disclosure of the corrected financial information three times, and acknowledged in its semi-annual report that these issues could affect related-party identification, transaction quota approval, and information disclosure.
The first tough battle for Zhou Yuewu after taking office is not to continue expanding, but to make up for the shortcomings in internal controls.
Zhou Yuewu served as chairman and general manager of Suining Hongqi Chain Co., Ltd. from 2003 to 2016, with 13 years of experience as the "number one" in retail chain enterprises, having gone through the complete cycle of store expansion, supply chain construction, and profit model refinement. This experience is directly relevant to Yiyaogou's terminal businesses, including Health Home pharmacy chain and unmanned intelligent pharmacies.
Zhou Yuewu has also been in charge of Suining Zhonghai Hefei Nongte Special Product Cold Chain Logistics Co., Ltd., with some practical experience in cold chain storage and distribution systems. He currently serves as the executive director and general manager of Sichuan Zhonghai Hefei Health Management Co., Ltd., and has previously been a director of Sichuan Jingcheng Mingyi Medical Co., Ltd., accumulating experience in health services and chronic disease management. This experience intersects with Yao Yigou's current layout of new businesses, including chronic kidney disease management and traditional Chinese medicine cloud pharmacies.
At the same time, Zhou Yuewu and Li Yanfei together control about 40% of the company's shares, with Zhou holding 3.45% directly. The company's return to the founder's family from partners should be beneficial for resolving previous financial issues.