Will Dong Yuhui stay in Oriental Selection?
Where will Oriental Selection go after the controversy subsides? After the transformation of
two years ago, Oriental Selection is facing crisis again. On the surface, it is a dispute between the editorial team of Oriental Selection and Dong Yuhui over the authorship rights of the "essay". In fact, it is a trial by Oriental Selection to "de-Dong Hua". In the era of live broadcast e-commerce, anchors are the ones who face consumers directly and are recognized by them. The CEO as a business manager does not seem to be important to consumers.
"Essay" Controversy
On December 6, the Douyin account of "Oriental Selection" commented under its account video, saying that Dong Yuhui's essay about Jilin was written by the editor's team. After Dong Yuhui responded, the incident was not calmed down. On the contrary, it got worse.
This seems to be the editor's team expressing dissatisfaction with their contribution being ignored. However, Oriental Selection allowed this matter to ferment for several days and failed to stop it in time. Many people speculated that the editor had a signal from the company's senior management behind his back.
On December 12, Oriental Screening CEO Sun Dongxu "came out" and held a "meeting" with the live broadcast room audience. Although he criticized the editor's emotional work, he also blatantly accused fans of the "rice circle culture."
This also inspired more netizens to be very dissatisfied: Do you usually have too few meetings at work? Are you here to buy something and have a meeting with me?
seemed to be giving the audience an explanation, but it turned out to be a "disastrous public relations". For a time, the fermenting public opinion drove the direction of the Oriental Selection live broadcast room and the stock price.
On December 11, the Oriental Selection live broadcast room had only 8.18 million viewers, while this figure was 12.10-16.91 million in the first three days, and the number of fans of the Douyin account also decreased significantly. As of December 15, Oriental Selection’s stock price continued to fall, and its market value had evaporated by more than HK$6 billion.
This controversy seems to have nothing to do with the authorship rights of the "little essay", and the conflict points directly to the internal affairs of Oriental Selection.
"De-Donghua" encountered "unjust"
Two years ago, New Oriental transformed into a live broadcast e-commerce. At that time, Yu Minhong said that New Oriental had reached the most dangerous time. Dong Yuhui's explosive appearance allowed Oriental Selection to successfully counterattack.
According to Oriental Selection’s performance report for fiscal year 2023 from June 1 last year to May 31 this year, Oriental Selection’s net revenue was 4.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 651%; net profit was 971.3 million yuan, a net profit of 971.3 million yuan. The loss was 71 million yuan, turning losses into profits.
In terms of live streaming e-commerce, Oriental Selection’s annual GMV (total merchandise transaction volume) reached 10 billion yuan, of which GMV from Douyin accounted for the vast majority of the total GMV. It can be said that the live broadcast e-commerce business led by Dong Yuhui has supported Oriental Selection.
Why does Oriental Selection now put Dong Yuhui on the opposite side? Perhaps we can get a glimpse of it from the content of Sun Dongxu's live "meeting". During the
live broadcast, Sun Dongxu said that Dong Yuhui’s annual salary is more than tens of millions.
Dong Yuhui's success is partly due to the support of the behind-the-scenes team, but his salary is dozens or hundreds of times that of others. This exposes the possibility of uneven distribution of interests within Dongfang Selection. In addition to the interests involved,
may also have a key reason - "high achievements shake the master".
Dong Yuhui is a low-ranking, high-income anchor in Oriental Entertainment, but he is the main force supporting the company's sales. He attends daily activities on an equal footing with New Oriental founder Yu Minhong, and has more fans than his own boss. Perhaps this seems to some people There are greater risks.
anchor is a major uncontrollable factor for many live streaming e-commerce companies. You can refer to the recent conflicts and disputes between Gree Chairman Dong Mingzhu and Meng Yutong. When the two have inconsistent concepts and interests and lead to parting ways, it will also have a negative impact on the company.
This turmoil may be regarded as a test of "de-Dong Yuhui". From the perspective of management, it is understandable to want to avoid risks, but the approach is really not decent. It not only offended many consumers who like Dong Yuhui, but also triggered a series of public opinions.
As the matter continues to ferment, companies or individuals such as Gaotu, Xiao Yangge, JD.com, Luo Yonghao, etc. have come forward to defend Dong Yuhui.
Brother Yang was also asked by netizens during the live broadcast whether he could "dig" Dong Yuhui. To this, Brother Yang replied: "How is it possible? Don't talk about poaching. What company wouldn't want it? Many people admire the power of his knowledge." ."
A large number of Dong Yuhui's fans flocked to Gaotu Live Room, which is also engaged in live broadcasting in the education and training industry. On the morning of the 15th, "Gaotu Jiapin" broke into the top three of Douyin's "Eat All Over the World" list for selling goods. Gao Tu responded to "dig" Dong Yuhui: Dong Yuhui is not for digging, but for loving. He instantly won the favor of many fans, and the number of fans and sales in the live broadcast room increased significantly.
"Oriental Selection may be the most unfair, ridiculous, and most bullying and squeezing of young people I have ever seen since the birth of live streaming e-commerce in China." Luo Yonghao posted an article criticizing Oriental Selection. He believes that Oriental Selection failed to give Dong Yuhui the rewards he deserved, and was ruthlessly depersonalized in accordance with the facts and laws of the industry.
There was even news that JD.com was going to "poach" Dong Yuhui. On December 15, JD.com's US stock price followed the trend and rose by more than 5% before the market opened. Later, Dong Yuhui clarified that "it is not true and he has not contacted any company at present."
It can be seen that Dong Yuhui has great temptation on major company platforms. As of 7:00 on the 18th, the number of Dong Yuhui’s fans has skyrocketed to 21.245 million. Eastern Selection fans continue to fall after falling below 30 million on December 16, and currently stand at 28.71 million.
"If the boss had worked less hard, we would have succeeded long ago."
This is what Dong Yuhui said when Dong Yuhui made fun of Sun Dongxu in the live broadcast room just after Dongfang Selection became popular with Dong Yuhui more than a year ago. It is still very relevant now. .
In the era of live broadcast e-commerce, it is the anchors who are in front of the stage who can make consumers pay, and they are no longer the CEO executives who run the company in the traditional model.
Live broadcast e-commerce has achieved wild growth in recent years. Many live broadcast e-commerce companies have expanded rapidly in a short period of time, but they have still failed to adapt to the new order of the Internet era and still follow the operating methods of traditional enterprises.
live broadcast "bringing goods" is essentially "influence economy". The head anchor is the pillar of the company and has great appeal to users, while the CEO is the decision-maker of corporate management and is in charge of the normal operation and development of the entire company. The delicate relationship between the anchor and the CEO needs to be handled carefully.
Coincidentally, Xinxuan Group, founded by top Kuaishou anchor Simba, has also experienced high-level turmoil recently. Xinxuan Group issued the "Notice on the Appointment and Removal of Xinxuan Group Personnel", and CEO Guan Qian was fired. Xinba's apprentice, Dandan, who is also a top anchor, directly asked Guan Qian in the internal WeChat group: "In addition to bragging about There are big differences in business philosophy. Xinxuan, who relies on "family" relationships for maintenance, is obviously incompatible with the more standardized management style of big factories.
Some people always feel that Dong Yuhui’s popularity is due to his talent. Anyone who can say something similar to him can become as popular as him. But the fact is that even if the team can write countless high-quality "essays" and have many eloquent anchors, Oriental Selection has not been able to copy the second "Dong Yuhui".
This also means that a large number of fans of Oriental Selection still only recognize Dong Yuhui. Dong Yuhui is still the only "number one" in the company, controlling most of the company's core assets.
’s hasty decision to “remove Dong Yuhui’s transformation” was met with dissatisfaction from fans. On December 16, the number of Oriental Selection fans fell below 28.4 million.
That night, Yu Minhong finally came out as the "peacemaker" and started a "reconciliation" live broadcast with Dong Yuhui. In the live broadcast room, Yu Minhong said: "Sun Dongxu made a major mistake in management. Dong Yuhui will definitely have a say in the future development decisions of Oriental Selection."
Yu Minhong believed that this incident was within his expectation, saying, " What happened with Dongfang Selection this time is that the management team’s thinking has not changed and they manage these outstanding employees with traditional thinking."
On the evening of December 17, Oriental Selection announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the company's board of directors had resolved to remove Sun Dongxu from the position of CEO of the company on December 16, remove him from his position as executive director, and appoint Yu Minhong as the company's new CEO. Effective immediately.
At present, the executive directors of Oriental Selection are Yu Minhong and Yin Qiang, the non-executive directors are Sun Chang and Sun Dongxu, and the independent non-executive directors are Lin Zheying, Dong Ruibao and Kwong Wilson.
In the early morning of December 18, Oriental Selection released a live broadcast preview showing that Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui will be broadcast live at 8 pm on December 18. The event poster shows that Dong Yuhui’s identity has become the “Senior Partner of Oriental Selection.”
In the afternoon of the same day, Yu Minhong announced on his personal Douyin account: After research and decision by the group’s board of directors, Dong Yuhui was appointed as the cultural assistant to the director of New Oriental Education Technology Group, and concurrently serves as the vice president of New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group.
On December 18, Hong Kong shareholder Fang Zhenxuan rose by more than 15% at the opening, and rose by more than 20% in the afternoon. As of the close, Dongfang Zhanxuan rose by 21.9% to HK$32. / share, with a total market value of HK$32.48 billion.
In the live broadcast on December 18, Dong Yuhui returned to the Oriental Selection live broadcast room three days after being suspended. The number of real-time viewers exceeded 3 million, and the number of Oriental Selection fans returned to 31 million.
At this point, The short-term decline in live broadcast room popularity and sales caused by the "Little Composition" incident has finally subsided. However, after this incident, the relationship between the anchor and the CEO within Oriental Selection still needs some time to digest and adjust.
Oriental Selection needs Adapt to the new business system of the Internet as soon as possible, find a suitable management model and structure, and balance the internal profit distribution and incentive mechanism. Only in this way can the enterprise continue to go forward in the long term.
HIGH Caimei
