Illustrations: Peter C. Espina/GT

Almost every young Chinese lady who is fashionable knows Austin Li. The Chinese livestreamer commands 5.57 million followers on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo and over 34 million on TikTok. Like other famous beauty bloggers, Austin has taken advantage of his fame to get involved in online marketing. He once sold 15,000 lipsticks within 15 minutes. The style maven has expanded his business beyond cosmetics, but things don't seem to be going that well. While livestreaming for a non-stick brand of wok, Austin was left with egg on his face when the eggs stuck on almost every part of the utensil. Customers started doubting the quality of the goods promoted by him. It may be only the tip of the iceberg as far as quality of products advertized by social media celebrities are concerned. As fame doesn't come easily, these cyber stars should cherish their reputation by being sure of the quality of goods they sell and attach importance not only to immediate interests. On the other hand, followers should be rational in acting on the recommendations of online celebrities, be capable of judging the products, and avoid blindly purchasing everything they advertize.