Dongfang Selection "Small Composition" Turmoil: The impact of "Fan Circle" or "Dong Yuhui" caused trouble

A few days after the Dongfang selection "small composition" incident fermented, Yu Minhong finally expressed his position.

On December 14, Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental, issued a video statement on social platforms, saying that it was originally an internal trivial matter, but because it was not handled properly, it became a surging Internet public opinion. Yu Minhong said that he had leadership responsibilities as the chairman and also apologized to Yuhui.

Yu Minhong posted a video, saying that he had leadership responsibility. Picture: Video screenshot

On the same day, some self-media reported that the internal chat records of Oriental Selection showed that Sun Dongxu, CEO of Oriental Selection, opposed Dong Yuhui's return to Oriental Selection, and Yu Minhong is currently facing the situation of choosing between protecting CEO Sun Dongxu or anchor Dong Yuhui.

In this regard, Yu Minhong denied the choice of one or the other, saying, "It's okay, it's not so serious." Shell financial reporters asked Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui respectively, but did not receive a response as of press time.

Oriental Selection's "backyard fire" stock price once plummeted

This "small composition" crisis originated in the recent warm-up video of Dongfang Selection's "Jilin Trip", Dong Yuhui read a copy about Jilin and was praised by netizens, and some netizens asked who did it. Subsequently, the editor of Dongfang Selection said that part of Dong Yuhui's "small composition" copywriting was from the team, which caused dissatisfaction among some Dong Yuhui fans, thinking that the editor "backstabbed" Dong Yuhui and ignored Dong Yuhui's contribution to Dongfang Selection.

During this period, Sun Dongxu, CEO of Dongfang Selection, repeatedly refuted rumors and explained in the live broadcast room and video content, but the effect was not obvious. This incident also impacted the live broadcast performance of Dongfang Selection on the same day. On December 11, the number of viewers in the live broadcast room of Dongfang Selection was only 880,000, compared with 12.1 million to 16.91 million in the previous three days.

On the 11th, the share price of Oriental Selection fell by 7.13%, and its market value evaporated by HK $2.4 billion. From December 10th to 13th, in three trading days, the stock price of Oriental Selection fell by more than 19%.

In the early morning of December 13, Dong Yuhui posted pictures and texts on his Douyin account, once again detailing the division of labor in the process of copywriting for himself and his team. Sun Dongxu and Dong Yuhui both expressed in their responses that they hope fans will speak rationally and oppose the "fan circle culture".

The Shell Finance reporter noticed that in the previous trips to different regions, Dongfang Selection usually wrote some "small essays" to promote the local cultural scenery, many of which were recited by Dong Yuhui himself. At the same time, Oriental Selection will deliberately label "Dong Yuhui's small essay" when launching travel copywriting in various places.

On December 14, Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental, posted a video on his personal account on his social platform in response to the recent "small composition" turmoil between the Internet celebrity anchor Dong Yuhui, Dong Yuhui's fans and the editor of the official account of Oriental Selection. Yu Minhong said that it was originally an internal trivial matter, but because it was not handled properly, it became a surging Internet public opinion. First of all, Xiaobian, as an employee, posted his views on the official account of Dongfang Selection, and sent it again and again, which seriously lacked professionalism and also showed that there were big loopholes in the company's management. Later, when Xiao Sun (CEO of Dongfang Selection, Sun Dongxu) explained the problem, he mentioned Yuhui's salary, which was also inappropriate.

Mr. Yu said it was inappropriate to mention Yuhui's salary. Picture: Video screenshot

Yu Minhong said that he had leadership responsibilities as the chairman, and also apologized to Yuhui, Xiao Sun is young and energetic in doing things, but not mellow enough, so I believe everyone can understand.

Whether Yu Minhong's latest statement can make up for the cracks in the team still needs to be observed by the industry. As of 3:30 p.m. on December 14, Dongfang Selection's share price rose slightly by 1.65% to close at HK$27.7 per share.

"The absolute head e-commerce anchor is often the shareholder or even the boss of the company, which is a natural and relatively stable structure. Ying Zhongdi, master's tutor of Zhejiang University of Media and Communication and executive director of China (Hangzhou) Live E-commerce Research Institute, told Shell Financial Reporter that live broadcast e-commerce is the joint action of the three major elements of "people, goods and yards", similar to the director, screenwriter and actor of film and television dramas. But because the anchor appears in front of the camera, the influence of especially the excellent anchor is huge, and its role is decisive.

Ying Zhongdi said that judging from the "small composition" turmoil, there are some problems with the internal management of Dongfang Selection, and Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui are mutually accomplished relationships, but if this kind of discordant voice or incident becomes more and more frequent or becomes the norm, this may prompt Dong Yuhui to have the idea of leaving.

"Fan circle" or "Dong Yuhui"?

Shell financial reporters noticed that on December 13, Dong Yuhui changed his signature on his social media homepage. Previously, his personal signature was "used to be a teacher, now a salesperson", but now it has been changed to "don't will, don't must, don't be solid, don't me". At the same time, the IP address shows that it is currently in Shaanxi,

On the same day, the Douyin account of Dongfang Selection, which has been broadcasting daily, also suspended the live broadcast. The Oriental Selection Book Number, which used to focus on personal IP, removed the label of "Yuhui Push".

Not long ago, the live broadcast slice selling of "more than 2,000 Dong Yuhui avatars" also caused a strong protest from Dong Yuhui's fans, accusing Dongfang of dispersing Dong Yuhui's traffic, squeezing his commercial value and destroying his image. In addition to Sun Dongxu, CEO of Oriental Selection, responded to this incident, Yu Minhong himself also issued a video apology and said that he had condemned the company's management.

In February this year, due to Dongfang Selection's change of the image of Dong Yuhui, the "square-faced teacher" on the packaging of its own brand steak, fans were dissatisfied, and it was rumored that Dongfang Selection was "de-Dong Yuhui" step by step. In this regard, Sun Dongxu once responded in the live broadcast room, "It is impossible for Dongfang Selection to have the idea of 'going to Dong Yuhui', and it is even more impossible to have such behavior." Just kidding, 'going to Dongfang Xiaosun' won't be 'going to Dong Yuhui'."

Zhang Shule, an Internet industry analyst, told the Shell Financial Reporter that at present, Dongfang Selection has formed its own model, even if there is no Dong Yuhui, it will not pry the foundation of Dongfang Selection. Dong Yuhui is the catalyst for the explosive development of Dongfang Selection last year, and his popularity is not only by himself, but by the team behind Dongfang Selection, because no matter what the words are, the goods must be guaranteed, and the stars at the front desk must rely on a large number of logistics behind to support. So in last year's stage, even if there is no Dong Yuhui, there will be other people who will become star anchors, although they may not suddenly become popular, but Dongfang Selection will definitely rush up step by step. ”

Although Dongfang Selection has always denied the statement of "de-Dong Yuhui", Dongfang Selection hopes to copy more "Dong Yuhui". Since the beginning of this year, the anchor team selected by Dongfang has expanded by more than 30 people, and anchors such as Dunton, Mingming, and Yoyo have become the objects of the company's support.

Up to now, there is still only one Dong Yuhui in Dongfang Selection, and Dong Yuhui has become the personified IP of "Oriental Selection". On Douyin, Dongfang Selection's topic has 32.8 billion views, while Dong Yuhui follows with 26 billion views, and even Yu Minhong's topic has only 6.6 billion views.

"The weak link is not Dong Yuhui, but word of mouth. In Zhang Shule's view, Oriental Selection is a differentiated market rather than a low-price market, which means that it must have exclusive products, and its selection is three agricultural products, but it has not yet formed a monopoly advantage, and it cannot be proved that this corn is more delicious because only one corn has the logo of Oriental Selection.

Previously, when the reporter communicated with Dongfang Selection insiders, he noticed that the anchors of Dongfang Selection did not have a performance appraisal mechanism, and sales and wages were not linked. The relevant person in charge of the Oriental Selection earnings call revealed that the company does not need to give anchors a share or buy traffic, so the take rate (acceptance rate) is relatively high in the industry. The senior management of Dongfang Selection has also publicly stated many times that Dongfang Selection is not an MCN organization (an organization that provides content planning, publicity and promotion, fan management, signing agents and other services for Internet celebrities and self-media).

In fact, not only Dongfang Selection, but also other leading live broadcast e-commerce companies are trying to reduce their dependence on big anchors and transform to "matrixing". The beauty behind Li Jiaqi and Luo Yonghao's friends have successively weakened the relationship between brands and personal IPs.

Dongfang Selection has also launched an active multi-platform layout. Since the end of last year, Dongfang Selection has launched its own APP, and started the first live broadcast on it, trying to expand private domain traffic and improve fan stickiness.

"Backyard fire" competitors are accused of "wealth from the sky"

When Dongfang selected the "backyard fire", the live broadcast room of Gaotu Jiapin under Gaotu ushered in a splashing wealth.

On the evening of December 11th, Gaotu Jiapin's live broadcast room was swiped by the mother-in-law of Dongfang Selection anchor Dong Yuhui (Dong Yuhui fans), and many netizens with orange signs of "Selection Group" poured into Gaotu live broadcast room, shouting "The splashing wealth sent by Dongfang Selection, you have to catch it".

According to the data of Cicada Mother, on December 11, the number of viewers in the live broadcast room of Gaotu Jiapin reached 594,000, and the sales reached 250,000 to 500,000. In the previous month, the average number of viewers in the live broadcast room of Gaotu Jiapin was less than 20,000.

On December 12, Chen Xiangdong, the founder of Gaotu, appeared in the live broadcast room. Regarding netizens expressing the hope that Gaotu Jiapin will dig Dong Yuhui over, Chen Xiangdong responded: "Dong Yuhui is not used to dig, Dong Yuhui is used to love." Of course, we are very welcome to anyone who is willing to come. That night, Gaotu's stock price rose sharply, rising 17.41%. On December 13, Gaotu shares rose another 7.27% to close at $3.69 per share, with a total market capitalization of $962 million.

As of 1 p.m. on December 14, the number of fans of Gaotu Jiapin was 707,000, and a total of 167,000 fans have increased in the past 30 days

Gaotu Jiapin and Dongfang Selection are both education and training companies that have transformed into live broadcasts, and in the initial live broadcast session, both sides focused on the selling point of "teachers turned into anchors". In addition, Chen Xiangdong, the founder of Gaotu, was the executive president of New Oriental Group and was the second person in New Oriental after Yu Minhong at that time.

Not only Gaotu Jiapin, but also the full-category live broadcast e-commerce "Scholar Youpin", which is also a teaching and training company Good Future, has also poured into a large number of fans. On the evening of December 11th, the number of people in the live broadcast room of Xueyoupin increased, and many fans wearing "Oriental Selection" lanterns came to the live broadcast room and left their blessings "Come on!

Oriental Selection is constantly losing fans. Chan's mother data shows that on December 9, the number of fans of Dongfang Selection was 31.159 million. As of December 14, the number of fans was 30.79 million, and more than 370,000 fans were lost in 5 days.

Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Zhao Fangyuan

Edited by Xu Chao

Proofread by Lucy