On the evening of December 28, Yu Minhong opened the first live broadcast of helping farmers on Douyin, and the whole live broadcast lasted for nearly three hours.
Under the full screen of "support for Teacher Yu", the live broadcast room once rushed to the third place in the list with goods, with a total turnover of more than 5 million yuan.
But there are also many netizens complaining that the price of the product is expensive, 8.5 yuan an apple, 33 yuan a pound of rice, 960 yuan two boxes of flour... The price of this live broadcast for the purpose of helping farmers is not close to the people.
In the red sea of live streaming with goods, New Oriental seems to want to take its own path.
Yu Minhong: Become a farmer again
"December 28 was a special day, and today Yu Minhong has become a farmer again." When signing the book, Yu Minhong specially emphasized the date.
On December 28, Yu Minhong's first live broadcast of agricultural products with goods was opened, and the new platform "Oriental Selection" was launched at the same time. There is no category preview, only the practice of sending an invitation letter, and the trance makes people think that this is a promotional poster for the opening of the class.
At 8 p.m., Yu Minhong started broadcasting on time in the Douyin live broadcast room, and in only 20 minutes, the number of likes in the live broadcast room exceeded 1 million, and more than 30,000 people watched online at the same time. In line with the theme of "helping farmers", the categories are mainly agricultural products, mostly fruits, and the unit price of customers is more than 100 yuan. The entire live broadcast lasted for nearly three hours, and once rushed to the third place on the Douyin goods list, and the final turnover exceeded 5 million yuan.
20 minutes before the start of the broadcast, Yu Minhong focused on the "Oriental Selection" of its agricultural products live broadcasting platform, and also mentioned the Oriental Selection many times during the period. He said that Oriental Selection will conduct daily regular live broadcasts, and he will also appear in the live broadcast room from time to time to help sell and support the cause of rural revitalization. This is very similar to common practice. Luo Yonghao's live broadcast room will be broadcast live uninterruptedly every day, and Luo Yonghao will enter the live broadcast room in specific e-commerce festivals (such as 618, Double Eleven, etc.).
The whole live broadcast has a strong classroom atmosphere. During the live broadcast, Yu Minhong recalled his life in the countryside when he was a child, stealing turnips from other people's fields, unheard of fruits, especially sweet rice... The live broadcast room is like a small story sharing meeting, while talking about agricultural products, yu Minhong's personal experience and experience, his love and feelings for the countryside are full of it.
In the process of introducing agricultural products, Yu Minhong also popularized relevant geographical knowledge. Although the white paper map is difficult to see because of the reflection, the new Oriental Yu Minhong who returned to the old line is obviously more comfortable. The unique "classroom-style live broadcast" also brought unexpected surprises. "Watching live broadcasts to learn geography, all kinds of knowledge are eloquent, much better than the live broadcast room that shouts '321, on the link'." Some netizens said.
As the live broadcast progressed, Yu Minhong also seemed to relax and become more humorous. Jealous netizens said that the female anchor looked better than herself, said after seeing the price of flour that she would rather starve than eat, heard Sun Dongxu say "but do good deeds, don't ask about the future", and immediately ridiculed "Then you don't have to take a salary in the future, it is enough to do good deeds"... In the later stage of the live broadcast, Yu Minhong was more like opening a single food broadcast, while worrying about the spike in blood sugar, but he could not stop eating. The anchor asked him what he wanted to summarize, and he said: "I have eaten too much, and my brain has not turned." ”
Fading the gorgeous aura of the founder of New Oriental, Yu Minhong, who frequently produces golden sentences and terrier king online, reads poems, sings, eats, and compares hearts in the live broadcast room, so he seems to be very suitable for becoming an anchor with goods.
New to the road, need to take more responsibility
However, ignoring Yu Minhong's personal IP blessing, only from the live broadcast, there are still many places that need to be optimized for the debut of this live broadcast of helping farmers.
Focusing on storytelling naturally does not take into account the product introduction. The three-hour live broadcast only featured 25 products, the overall pace was slower, and the basic information of the products was obviously insufficient. For example, for oranges, the anchor focuses on its origin and rarity, but does not describe the sweetness and sourness of oranges, taste characteristics, size and diameter. 128 yuan 15 apples, Yu Minhong only said "the packaging is very good, the apple is in place, the red tongtong" on the shelves. For quinoa, its rarity and high nutritional value are constantly emphasized, but what are its specific health values to the human body, what are the practices after buying, and the difference between quinoa and other staple foods, etc., it is difficult for the audience to understand from the live broadcast room.
In addition, about an hour after the opening, because the background music overshadowed the sound of the live broadcast room, Yu Minhong was once a little annoyed. What caused the most complaint was the high price of the selection. From the first product on the shelves, some netizens complained that the price was too expensive. 33 yuan a pound of rice, 105 yuan a pound of pork, 960 yuan two boxes of flour... This live broadcast for the purpose of helping farmers, the price is difficult for most people to accept.
"8 kilograms of rice 268 yuan, can you be admitted to Tsinghua Peking University after eating this?" "Teacher Yu, the price is too expensive" "Basically it is a gift box, not practical"... For the complaints of netizens, Yu Minhong and the female anchor first emphasized that the cost of gift boxes is expensive, farmers are not easy to plant, and the products are relatively rare. In the end, Yu Minhong admitted frankly that the agricultural products sold were indeed more expensive, but the products selected by New Oriental may not be the cheapest, but they will be the best.
But how should "best" be defined? Is quality and price really irreconcilable? Whether or not you can "help your family to beat the price down" also requires the team's stronger bargaining power.
The flaws reflect the youth and difficulty of New Oriental's initial exploration on the road of live streaming with goods. New Oriental Online CEO Sun Dongxu also admitted in the live broadcast room that after more than a month of careful selection, the Oriental selection team selected dozens of products from thousands of agricultural companies and new farmers, "I implore fans to have a certain degree of tolerance for New Oriental to do agriculture, because we have indeed just entered this field, even if we work day and night, there must still be some flaws, please give positive feedback, we must use the fastest time to modify." ”
Educational institutions and live broadcasting are themselves different discourse systems, why should Yu Minhong do live broadcasting to help farmers?
In the article on New Oriental's WeChat public account, it is mentioned that "one is that Yu Minhong himself likes agriculture, and the other is to do the right thing." In October last year, Yu Minhong and Xu Zhiyuan were doing live broadcasts to help farmers in Pu'an, Guizhou. In November this year, he announced in his live broadcast that New Oriental plans to set up a large-scale agricultural platform and will work with 100 New Oriental teachers to do live broadcasts to help farmers. More than a month passed, and the idea finally landed.
Yu Minhong and Luo Yonghao finally became Li Jiaqi?
When it comes to Yu Minhong's live broadcast, it is difficult not to think of Luo Yonghao. The feud between the two was already a "talking point" in the education industry ten years ago.
Luo Yonghao's job search was the beginning of their fate. In 2000, Luo Yonghao, who dropped out of high school, wrote a cover letter to Yu Minhong, suggesting that New Oriental "use talents in an eclectic manner" and give him a chance to try it out. Yu Minhong gave Luo Yonghao three opportunities to try out lectures, which completely changed Lao Luo's life.
In 2006, luo Yonghao left his job to start a business because of his criticism of New Oriental's teachers. In a few years, from Niubo Network to English training schools, to hammer mobile phones, chat treasures... Each time it ended in failure, it was named the "industry lamp", and it also owed 600 million yuan in debt.
On March 26, 2020, Luo Yonghao officially announced that Douyin has become its exclusive live streaming platform. Under the polishing of more than a year, Luo Yonghao not only explored the 7 * 24-hour gameplay, but also successfully realized the "de-Luo Yonghao", and now Luo Yonghao's time to participate in the live broadcast room has accounted for less than 7%.
More than a year later, New Oriental is facing transformation, and Yu Minhong has embarked on the same path. Yu Minhong and Luo Yonghao eventually became "Li Jiaqi".
On the debut alone, Yu Minhong seems to be inferior to Luo Yonghao, with the cooperation of the full flow of Vibrato, Luo Yonghao's first e-commerce live broadcast at the same time the number of online people once as high as 3 million, the total number of viewers exceeded 50 million, guiding GMV 167 million yuan, two orders of magnitude higher than Yu Minhong.
However, behind the gap there are factors of selection and customer unit price interference. Moreover, Yu Minhong is not a "barefoot" Lao Luo, and he seems to have no intention of using his influence to "make a quick profit", so live streaming with goods may only be one of New Oriental's transformation attempts. Some people believe that yu Minhong may also look at "vocational education" for farmers compared to live streaming with goods.
During the live broadcast, Yu Minhong and Sun Dongxu interacted frequently and repeatedly mentioned the original intention of helping farmers. "We hope that farmers can transform into workers in the agricultural industry, so that young farmers are willing to return to the countryside and more left-behind children can grow up in the company of their parents."
Some voices have questioned "Does New Oriental not do education anymore?" In this regard, New Oriental responded: "Education is always the original intention, and New Oriental will continue to work hard in the field of education." "In the farmers' vocational education market with more than 20 million people, helping farmers live broadcast is Yu Minhong's feelings, and perhaps it is also the choice of New Oriental."
A life of ups and downs
Thirty years ago, Yu Minhong was forced to leave Peking University due to part-time work and went to the sea to establish New Oriental. Thirty years later, New Oriental withdrew from the K9 education and training market.
However, today's scene, Yu Minhong may have been accustomed to watching. Therefore, New Oriental's renunciation is extremely decisive.
In September, Oriental Youbo, a subsidiary of New Oriental Online, closed the K12 stage discipline training business. In November, Yu Minhong announced in a live broadcast that New Oriental would completely stop K12 business, lease back 1,500 teaching points, and donate 80,000 sets of new desks and chairs. Immediately after New Oriental also officially announced, the company plans to stop providing subject-related training services to kindergarten to ninth grade students in all learning centers across the country by the end of the year.
In addition to the breakaway, New Oriental is also laying out on various tracks very rapidly. In September, New Oriental announced the comprehensive upgrade of the University Student Learning and Development Center, which will help college students better learn and develop through one-stop education services.
In terms of quality education, in August, Beijing New Oriental Quality Education Growth Center was established, and New Oriental Xiamen School announced the launch of a street dance training course "New Oriental i Street Dance". In September, Beijing New Oriental and Nie Weiping Go Dojo set up a children's Go course. In the same month, New Oriental launched the "Oriental Innovation" brand, focusing on the innovative research and program provision of youth quality education. In October, New Oriental invested in the Martian Science Box of the Youth Maker Education Club and the Martian Club of steam education brand. In November, New Oriental registered and established a programming company and an art training company.
In terms of education informatization, in July, New Oriental Online joined hongmeng ecology and joined hands with Huawei HarmonyOS to create educational content. In December, New Oriental Online joined hands with Tmall Genie to enter the education intelligent hardware track for the first time and launched the "New Oriental Online Dictionary Pen T1".
In addition, there are family education, publication retail, fertilizer and pesticide sales, including the Oriental Selection Force to help farmers live, are all new Oriental multi-point transformation measures.
On November 16, New Oriental celebrated its 28th anniversary. Yu Minhong said to all the employees internally: "Before this change, I was ready to retire at the age of 60, leisurely traveling in the rivers and lakes, and spending the rest of my life. I plan to turn myself into most of Xu Xiake, but today I really need to start all over again, and I may have to struggle with everyone for a few more years, even ten years, more than ten years. ”
Like leaving Peking University thirty years ago, "starting from scratch" has become Yu Minhong's choice. He and his New Orient, at the crossroads of fate, the more they play against the wind, the more they need to be decent and tenacious.