President and CTO of internet data analysis company iResearch “disappear” for investigation

The disappearance of high-level officers at China’s leading research, statistics, and consulting group iResearch is causing a stir on Chinese social media. iResearch president Henry Yang (Yang Weiqing) and CTO Jason Hao (Hao Xincheng) have been incommunicado, WeChat subscription account Damo Finance (大摩财经) focusing on financial news reported on September 19.

iResearch specializes in statistics about China’s online businesses as well as consumer insights. During the same day, the company published an official response to the suspicion and panic raised over the disappearance. The announcement stated that “some managing officers” are “assisting investigation performed by some relevant departments” and therefore cannot be contacted. iResearch also said that the company is operating well and will cooperate with the relevant departments for the investigation.

According to people familiar with the issue, the iResearch case is not likely to be a sensitive one.

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