When the controversy fermented, many executives of Dongfang Selection publicly apologized.
On the evening of December 14, Dongfang Selection (01797. HK) CEO Sun Dongxu posted a video on Weibo, apologizing to netizens and Dong Yuhui himself for his recent "aggressive" demeanor in the live broadcast and mentioning Dong Yuhui's salary.
"Rejecting the fan circle culture does not mean that the fans of Dongfang Selection are fan circles. Sun Dongxu said that netizens and fans are the company's food and clothing parents, and they will improve their pattern and mind to be a more competent manager.
Earlier in the day, Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental, also issued a public statement apologizing to Dong Yuhui, saying that there were loopholes in the company's management. Previously, the "war of words" between Dongfang Selection's Douyin editor and Dong Yuhui's fans continued to ferment into a huge storm of public opinion, and the market value of Dongfang Selection once fell by more than 4 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The Paper reporter found that Dong Yuhui's social media page had changed his signature. Previously, Dong Yuhui's personal signature was "I used to be a teacher, and now I am a salesperson", but now it has been changed to "Don't will, don't must, don't solid, don't me". Dong Yuhui's IP address shows that he is currently in Shaanxi Province.
It is rumored that Yu Minhong is facing a two-choice situation between protecting CEO Sun Dongxu or anchor Dong Yuhui, which Yu Minhong denied: "It's not so serious. ”
A number of Dongfang Selection partners and internal employees told The Paper reporter that the Internet rumors were too exaggerated, and they had not heard of the discord between Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Selection's senior management, "Lao Yu (Yu Minhong) has always said that Dong Yuhui is very good, and I have seen Dong Yuhui and Sun Dongxu participate in the event together." A person close to Dongfang Selection said that Dong Yuhui's income was the highest level in the company, but it was not clearly stated whether it included equity and whether it was pre-tax or after-tax.
Regarding the above statement, the surging news reporter also consulted Dongfang Selection and Yu Minhong, and the two sides have always remained silent. As the head anchor, Dong Yuhui is the "golden signboard" of Dongfang Selection, but what happened in the past few days is indeed incredible.
Yu Minhong
The origin of the rift: "infighting" between the CEO and the big anchor?
The Paper reporter observed that as of press time, the number of fans in the Dongfang Selection Douyin live broadcast room has fallen to 30.75 million, and there is still a downward trend. On December 9, Dongfang Selection still had 31.16 million fans, which means that in just five days, the number of fans has dropped by more than 400,000, and there is still a downward trend.
It is worth noting that on December 14, Dongfang Selection released a live broadcast promotional poster for the selection of brands from 15 to 17, and Dong Yuhui was not among them.
A storm of public opinion caused by a "small composition" is affecting the future prospects of Dongfang Selection, and there are also rumors that Dongfang Selection wants to "cut" Dong Yuhui.
Since becoming popular in September 2022, the relationship between Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui has become increasingly delicate. Dong Yuhui once admitted in the live broadcast that he didn't even have a ticket for the 30th anniversary annual meeting of New Oriental, and it was Yu Minhong who gave him a ticket after he found out. Rong Gao is in charge of nothing, and he is an ordinary anchor.
Regarding the discord between Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Selection on the Internet, Sun Dongxu responded in the live broadcast that the company recognized Dong Yuhui's contributions, and his annual salary was more than tens of millions of dollars as reported on the Internet, which was only part of Yuhui's income. The company has been using practical actions to express its high recognition of Yuhui.
This remark seems to be supporting Dong Yuhui, but in fact, it inadvertently exposed Dong Yuhui's income level, as if aiming public opinion at Dong Yuhui's high income. Xiao Sun is young and energetic, but not mellow enough.
This also caused speculation from the outside world, believing that there was infighting between the CEO of Dongfang Selection and the head anchor, and Dongfang Selection intended to cut Dong Yuhui. However, a number of Dongfang Selection insiders interviewed by The Paper reporter said that the real situation is not as serious as the outside world rumors.
Some live broadcast industry insiders told reporters that at present, Dong Yuhui's total amount of goods should account for 50% of the overall quota of Dongfang Selection, which is the absolute top stream and has an important impact on the overall development of the company.
As a top-notch Dong Yuhui, he does have a large number of fans, and he has repeatedly clashed with Dongfang Selection.
Previously, about 2,000 accounts with Dong Yuhui's avatar and name had popped up on Douyin. Click in and take a look, all of them are slicing Dong Yuhui's video, and then selling goods in a small yellow car, Dong Yuhui didn't know about it, and once thought it was a fraud. After that, Yu Minhong explained that this was a new attempt by Dongfang to select the management and apologized for it.
This incident has aroused strong dissatisfaction among Dong Yuhui's fans, who believe that Dongfang Selection is "de-Dong Yuhui" on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is squeezing its commercial value and damaging its personal image.
As the soul of New Oriental, Yu Minhong has expressed his recognition of Dong Yuhui in public many times. previously publicly mentioned that Dong Yuhui was considering taking over from New Oriental. Dong Yuhui also said in the live broadcast that his salary is now the group's executive-level treatment, and he is very satisfied, "The old man (Yu Minhong) promised to give Dong Yuhui a share, and it was a lot." Specifically, it cannot be said that the company requires confidentiality. ”
In June 2022, because of a bilingual live video of Dong Yuhui, the live broadcast room of Oriental Selection suddenly became popular on the whole network, which also became the key reason for the success of New Oriental's transformation. At that time, Dong Yuhui said with a smile in an interview with The Paper reporter how he felt after becoming popular: When you walk on the road, everyone will pull you to take a group photo, and the news of WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo can never be returned, even if you work hard, you can't do it.
Dong Yuhui's income belongs to the highest level
Regarding the rumors that Dong Yuhui was treated unfairly, Dongfang Selection did not speak out again, nor did it clearly disclose Dong Yuhui's specific salary.
However, an insider told reporters that Dong Yuhui's income is at the highest level within the company.
Dong Yuhui
According to the latest annual report of Oriental Selection, as of May 31, the company had a total of 1,479 full-time employees and 486 part-time employees, with a total salary of 736 million yuan, an increase of 62.4% year-on-year, including the salary of anchors such as Dong Yuhui.
According to Wind data, the current executives selected by Dongfang are Yu Minhong (chairman of the board of directors) with a salary of 10.6903 million yuan, Yin Qiang (executive director) with a salary of 5.2738 million yuan, and Sun Dongxu (executive director) with a salary of 18.1373 million yuan.
In the current public information, Sun Dongxu is the highest-paid employee selected by Dongfang, with an annual salary of 10 million.
It is worth noting that on April 11, Dongfang Selection issued a share "red envelope" and granted 30.459 million shares to 154 qualified participants (grantees). Based on the closing price of HK$29 on the day, the total value is about HK$883 million.
Among them, Sun Dongxu obtained a total of 3 million shares, worth about HK$87 million based on the closing price on April 11, Yu Minhong obtained 1.5 million shares, worth about HK$43.5 million, and Yin Qiang received 600,000 shares, worth about HK$17.4 million.
The remaining 151 participants were all employees of Oriental Selection. They will receive a total of 25.359 million share incentives, with an average of HK$4.87 million in shares per person. However, the announcement did not disclose the amount of equity Dong Yuhui obtained.
Intriguingly, Sun Dongxu once cashed out New Oriental shares in February this year with a high amount of money, and never explained the reason.
On February 7, Sun Dongxu sold 1.93 million shares at an average price of HK$556,115, involving HK$107 million, and the shareholding ratio decreased from 1.57% to 1.38%: On February 8, he sold 1.93 million shares at an average price of HK$569,451, involving HK$110 million, and his shareholding decreased from 1.37% to 1.18%. A total of nearly 4 million shares were sold in the two days, and HK$217 million was cashed out.
As of the close of trading on the 14th, Oriental Selection closed at HK$27.8, up 2.21%.
The trend of de-heading live broadcast platforms
"Regarding the rumors of infighting between the CEO of Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui, it is difficult for outsiders to get a glimpse of the truth. Zhai Wei, executive director of the Competition Law Research Center of East China University of Political Science and Law, told the surging news reporter that in his opinion, there are two main reasons for the public opinion turmoil, one is the internal communication management mechanism of Oriental Selection, which makes the internal communication problems of the "storm in the teapot" spill over into a major event affecting the market value and image of Oriental Selection, and the second is that the fan circle culture has played a role in fueling the impact to a certain extent.
Zhai Wei said that the live broadcast platform should avoid over-reliance on a single head anchor, if the live broadcast platform mainly relies on a single head anchor, it will be difficult to resist the uncontrollable risks of the market, and may form a symbiotic pattern of "one prosperity and one loss" with the head anchor, and it will not be able to achieve the development goal of stability and long-term development.
"From the perspective of Oriental selection, Dong Yuhui is the top brand and ballast stone, and he has become a certain symbol or symbol. Cui Lili, a professor at the Department of Digital Economy of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told reporters that when he has come to the front of the stage and into the hearts of the audience, he needs to continue to shape his personality and image. The live broadcast platform must have a top brand but cannot rely too much on a few anchors, which is the same principle as a star brokerage company. A good brokerage company still needs to be able to empower each other with the anchor.
For many live broadcast platforms, "de-heading" has become a consensus.
Make a friend CEO Huang He once told the surging news reporter that the company is downplaying the impact of Luo Yonghao's personal IP on the business of the entire team, and the goal is that Lao Luo's income only accounts for 10%-15% of the entire team, "Mr. Luo himself and the company's founding team hoped that the company could do this at the beginning of the live broadcast room of Make a Friend." ”
"The live broadcast platform relies on top anchors, and this development model is unsustainable. Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Consulting, told reporters that there are many similar cases, such as Li Ziqi, Wei Ya, etc., which have had a huge impact on the platform. ”
Source: The Paper B51