"Nine years have passed. What has changed is the track, but what remains unchanged is the desire to bring something different and innovative to this track."

On August 20, Luo Yonghua announced on Weibo that his dust-covered nine-year TBT project was about to debut. While netizens speculated whether this was some revolutionary tech product, he presented a box of instant noodles - Master Kong's "Tebie Te" instant noodles (TBT stands for the pinyin initials of "Tebie Te").

The day before, his in-depth podcast program "Luo Yonghua's Crossroads" went live on Bilibili Inc., with Li Auto founder Li Xiang as the first guest. Their hours-long conversation quickly topped the platform's rankings.

From tech entrepreneurship to live streaming, from AR hardware battles to instant noodle endorsements, 53-year-old Luo Yonghua once again stands at the crossroads of cross-industry money-making ventures.

**Instant Noodle Endorsement and Podcast Ambitions**

On the evening of August 21, Luo Yonghua appeared in Master Kong's official Douyin live streaming room, enthusiastically promoting the "Tebie Te" instant noodles. He repeatedly emphasized that this product "achieves the freshness of boiling at the speed of soaking," even using the slogan "redefining instant noodles."

This instant noodle product has significant backing. It's reportedly the result of Master Kong's nine years of research and development, using single-basket boiling technology, priced at 39.9 yuan per 4-pack set. The Luo Yonghua limited edition packaging is limited to 10,000 units.

During the live stream, Luo shared the development story from a product manager's perspective: "When we made smartphones, we had to adjust the feel of a single button countless times. Now seeing Master Kong spend nine years perfecting an instant noodle product, this attention to detail is exactly the same as our original intention in making products."

Behind the marketing tactics lies the severe challenges facing the instant noodle market. Data from the World Instant Noodles Association shows that from 2020 to 2023, instant noodle consumption in China decreased by 4 billion packages. In 2024, consumption fell to 43.8 billion packages, while Q2 2025 sales dropped 8.9% year-over-year. Industry calculations suggest that for every 1% expansion in the food delivery market, instant noodle consumption shrinks by 0.0533%.

Master Kong's invitation of Luo Yonghua and Zhang Chaoyang (who gave "special edition physics classes" in the live streaming room) clearly aims to inject new vitality into the traditional instant noodle market through celebrity influence. However, whether this nine-year-perfected instant noodle can truly win back increasingly distant consumers remains to be tested by the market.

Before the noodle endorsement, Luo had just embarked on a new podcast journey. On August 18, he changed his Weibo nickname from "Luo Yonghua·Niulu" to "Luo Yonghua's Crossroads" and announced his entry into the podcast field. The next day, the first episode of "Luo Yonghua's Crossroads" premiered on Bilibili Inc., featuring Li Auto CEO Li Xiang.

This four-hour conversation was packed with insights: Li Xiang not only recalled his childhood experiences of being bullied but also tearfully thanked Wang Xing for helping Li Auto when the company was in desperate straits. Such sincere revelations made the program an instant hit, topping the platform's rankings.

Luo stated that this program will focus on technology, humanities, world patterns, era changes, and life choices, inviting heavyweight figures from different fields for in-depth dialogues. Each episode is expected to last 3 to 5 hours, emphasizing ideological collision and deep exchanges.

The podcast business wasn't Luo's invention, but it's increasingly popular. YouTube announced in February that podcast content on its platform has over 1 billion monthly active viewers. According to Himalaya's "2024 Podcast Industry Report," podcasts primarily target high-income groups earning over 20,000 yuan monthly and corporate managers - people with high education levels and strong purchasing power.

For content creators, video podcasts are better business than audio podcasts. One production can feed all platforms: long videos on Bilibili Inc., edited short videos on Douyin and WeChat Video, and exciting screenshot excerpts for Xiaohongshu and Weibo. This "Sun Wukong's clone technique" has long been proven as a traffic formula across multiple fields.

**Financial Pressure Persists**

Behind Luo's busy schedule lies continuing financial pressure. In 2020, on "Talk Show Conference," Luo joked about his debt crisis: "If you owe the bank 100 yuan, that's your trouble. But if you owe the bank 100 million, that's the bank's trouble. Thinking about my 600 million debt, I've crushed six banks, right?"

Through live streaming sales, Luo indeed created amazing money-making speed. On April 1, 2020, his live streaming debut attracted over 48 million cumulative viewers with total transaction payments exceeding 110 million yuan, setting the highest sales record on Douyin at the time. According to Tech Planet calculations, his first live stream conservatively generated 36 million yuan in revenue.

By 2021, Luo stated that the 600 million yuan debt originally planned to be cleared in 5 years could be paid off within 3 years if nothing unexpected happened. This means he earned 600 million yuan in three years, averaging 200 million yuan annually. According to Titanium Media, Luo's team earned more in one year than the annual net profits of 60% of A-share listed companies (2,659 companies) in 2020.

However, after clearing his debts, Luo's financial pressure wasn't completely relieved. Although he claimed to have basically paid off previous debts by 2022, his affiliated company Smartisan Technology still faces new enforcement cases. Recently, Smartisan Technology (Chengdu) Co., Ltd. added two new enforcement records totaling over 21.42 million yuan.

According to Tianyancha, 33 companies are affiliated with his name, with only 11 existing or relocated, including Chengdu Smartisan Technology Group Co., Ltd. and Chengdu Yewang Digital Technology Co., Ltd., while over 20 others have been cancelled.

**Entrepreneurial Twists and Turns**

Luo's entrepreneurial journey has always been full of twists and transformations. In 2022, Luo high-profile exited live streaming, betting big on AR by establishing Thin Red Line Technology, declaring he would "stake everything" to impact becoming "the Apple of the AR era."

But after burning money on R&D and painfully realizing it would take ten years to turn profitable, he tearfully abandoned the venture. His Thin Red Line Technology laid off multiple departments, disbanded the hardware team, and moved headquarters to Shanghai.

At the AGI Playground 2025 conference in June this year, Luo admitted: "After more than a year, burning a lot of money, we proved that AR glasses are unlikely to be commercialized within ten years." "We spent another year-plus on AI software-hardware integration solutions, but while hardware had no problems, software encountered engineering disasters." He revealed that pure software solutions might go online within two to three months.

Meanwhile, Luo's AI startup project Jarvis has quietly launched overseas, introducing an aggregated AI assistant software called J1 Assistant.

From smartphones to live streaming, from AR to AI, and now to podcasts and instant noodle endorsements, Luo's entrepreneurial trajectory can be called a "trend-chasing history," but he seems to have never found a truly stable foothold.

Luo's personal image has always been controversial. He's been mockingly called an "industry death star" - every industry he enters seems doomed. From early "parents owe no favors" theories to 10,000-word counterattacks against investor Zheng Gang as a "giant baby capitalist who talks nonsense and throws dirty water," Luo has always stirred waves in public opinion with his "angry confrontation" stance.

In recent years, his feud with Yu Minhong has been particularly attention-grabbing. From supporting Dong Yuhui during the "small essay incident" to harshly criticizing Dongfang Zhenxuan for selling "trough meat," Luo even released explosive information about New Oriental in a 5,600-word article, threatening to make Yu Minhong retire if provoked again.

In August 2025, Luo fell into another public opinion vortex for speaking up for Yang Mouyuan in the Wuhan University library incident. When most people criticized Yang for academic fraud and arrogant attitude, Luo stood on the opposite side: "I don't care about her character or whether she committed fraud. I only look at the sexual harassment case she reported. In that matter, she wasn't wrong." This statement sparked huge controversy, with some criticizing him for "avoiding important issues to grab attention," while others praised his principled stance.

**At the Crossroads**

In June this year, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng posed a question to Luo: "Why do you insist on doing technology?" Liang frankly stated that if someone can reach national top level in any field, they shouldn't waste that talent. He bluntly said Luo's talent for "making a living by talking" ranks among the nation's best.

Now, Luo seems to have taken Liang's advice, making the video podcast track his new entrepreneurial starting point. But this podcast project hasn't been smooth sailing either. "Luo Yonghua's Crossroads" has been criticized for sharing the same name as the existing podcast "Crossroads Crossing," causing controversy.

"Crossroads Crossing" is a tech interview podcast focusing on new-generation AI entrepreneurs, updating since January 2024 with high subscription numbers and influence. After learning that Luo chose the same name, the team communicated hoping he would change the name to avoid confusion, but Luo's side refused the request.

Tianyancha information shows Luo's side applied to register the "Crossroads" trademark in June this year, but the trademark status is currently awaiting substantive review.

From AR to podcasts to instant noodles, 53-year-old Luo truly seems to stand at life's crossroads. His business stories never lack drama, but what's missing is a stable successful ending.

Nine-year "Tebie Te" instant noodles, "Crossroads" podcast, AI assistant software - can Luo's new stories bring in new money? Only time can provide the answer. But it's highly likely that regardless of success or failure, Luo will continue his ventures, because "stability" has never existed in his dictionary.