What did Yu Minhong do to keep Dong Yuhui
A small editor, kill Dongfang Selection's 8 billion market value
It is hard to imagine that the market value of Dongfang Selection has evaporated by more than 8 billion Hong Kong dollars in the past few days, and it is because of a video editor.
The cause of the incident was that Dong Yuhui read a copy about Jilin in a video on December 8. When fans asked about the source of the copy, the editor said in the comment area that it was written by the team together, not by Dong Yuhui alone.
Source: Screenshot of Douyin
This move caused dissatisfaction among Dong Yuhui's fans, who suspected that Dongfang Selection intended to suppress Dong Yuhui, and asked the editor: "Yu Minhong said that it was written by Dong Yuhui, is it you lying or Yu Minhong lying?"
Source: Screenshot of Douyin
Unexpectedly, the editor chose "toughness" and said confidently: "The anchor sometimes writes, but the anchor usually works too hard, and most of them are written by the copywriting team." Mr. Yu is floating outside every day and doesn't know the details of the business...... However, when it comes to literary talent, Mr. Yu is really difficult to evaluate. ”
Seeing that the conflict between the two sides is intensifying, on December 12, Sun Dongxu, CEO of Oriental Selection, responded in the live broadcast room, on the one hand, he criticized the editor's team for being emotional and inappropriate in communication, and on the other hand, he said that he did not treat Dong Yuhui badly, and gave him an annual salary of more than 10 million.
At the same time, Dong Yuhui also appeared to say: "The editor who claims to know the business very well replied in the comment area, which caused many friends to feel uncomfortable, and I sued Mr. Yu directly." He asked me to communicate directly with Dongfang Xiaosun, not too polite. ”
Originally, the incident was about to subside, but the editor actually added another fire, leaving a message again saying that he did not "reply to Hu", and claimed to have suffered "cyber violence" from Dong Yuhui's fans.
Source: Screenshot of Douyin
As a result, the contradiction between Dong Yuhui's fans and Dongfang Selection has completely intensified, and caused concern in the capital market, and the stock price of Dongfang Selection has plummeted all the way in recent days, hitting a new low in five months, and the market value of more than 8 billion Hong Kong dollars has evaporated in just five days. At the same time, the fans of the Oriental Selection account have also been decreasing, and about 260,000 fans have been lost in five days.
On December 14, Yu Minhong apologized in the live broadcast room, wanting to put an end to the incident. But Dong Yuhui's fans don't seem to buy it, and requests to "poach Dong Yuhui" have appeared in major live broadcast rooms.
For example, Dongfang's competitor "Gaotu Jiapin" poured in 600,000 people in a few days, and fans swiped the screen in the live broadcast room: "Can you dig up Mr. Yuhui"?
In the live broadcast room of Crazy Brother Yang, some fans made similar requests, but they were politely rejected by Brother Xiao Yang: "How is it possible, don't say anything about digging or not digging, which company doesn't want it?"
Source: Screenshot of Douyin
Even, some fans suggested to JD's customer service that Dong Yuhui be invited to JD Live, because JD is currently lacking a head anchor.
Source: Screenshot of Jingdong APP
So the question is, is it really possible for Dong Yuhui to be poached? If so, what does Yu Minhong want to keep Dong Yuhui?
What to take to keep Dong Yuhui
As far as the first question is concerned, the possibility of Dong Yuhui being poached or "flying solo" is very low, on the one hand, because Dong Yuhui has no fundamental conflict of interest with Dongfang Selection, and on the other hand, Dong Yuhui's departure from Dongfang Selection will do more harm than good to him.
The nature of this "small composition" incident itself is not bad, but the mistakes in the internal management of Dongfang Selection magnified the impact of the incident, and it can be said that it has nothing to do with Dong Yuhui himself from beginning to end, mainly because of the contradictions between his fans and the operator.
Different from the relationship between ordinary Internet celebrities and MCN, Dong Yuhui originally worked in New Oriental and has a strong psychological identity with Oriental Selection, otherwise he would not stick to it when Oriental Selection is the most difficult. Moreover, Yu Minhong himself has a good personal relationship with Dong Yuhui. The current situation is not enough to tear the skin of the face.
In addition, Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui are mutually accomplished relationship, Dongfang Selection provides goods, Dong Yuhui provides content, "people" and "goods" linkage, complementary advantages, and today's achievements. If they are separated, it will be a loss to both parties, and Dong Yuhui will not understand this truth.
However, it does not mean that the probability is low that it will not happen, as a listed company, it is necessary to control the risk and minimize the possibility of Dong Yuhui leaving. So what does Dongfang Selection need to do for this?
First of all, it is certain that if you want to keep Dong Yuhui, it is not a simple salary that can be solved. Dong Yuhui's salary is not much compared to other big anchors, but it is not less. According to the 2023 annual financial report of Oriental Selection, the salary range of the highest paid employee (non-company director or top executive) of the year is HK$34 million - HK$34.5 million, which is basically consistent with CEO Sun Dongxu's statement.
Source: Oriental Selection Financial Report
What's more, in June this year, Dong Yuhui said at Xi'an University of Foreign Chinese Studies that when he was just a month old, someone offered a salary of 200 million yuan after tax for one year, and if he was not satisfied, he could raise it again. But Dong Yuhui didn't go, he said: "If you take too many things, you will definitely be counterattacked, don't earn money that shouldn't be earned, and don't take things that shouldn't be take." ”
What Dongfang Selection really needs to do is to face up to Dong Yuhui's contribution and status.
Live e-commerce is essentially a business about traffic, and it is "people" who produce traffic. Different from ordinary "live broadcast specialists", phenomenal Internet celebrities like Dong Yuhui are irreproducible and have strong accidental attributes. There may be a certain role of the platform in fueling the fire, but it is undeniable that there is no second Dong Yuhui to this day, and there is not even a substitute for the same ecological niche.
And Dongfang Selection is likely to regard this kind of accident as inevitable, thinking that even if there is no Dong Yuhui, there are other bilingual teachers out of the circle. However, any assumption is pale in the face of "results", the fact is that Dong Yuhui is the largest traffic entrance of Dongfang Selection, and the biggest contributor to Dongfang Selection's current status. The attitude of Dongfang Selection Xiaobian reflects that some people within the company cannot face up to Dong Yuhui's contribution, so they are psychologically unbalanced.
More importantly, Dongfang Selection did not elevate Dong Yuhui to the strategic position of the group. At this year's New Oriental 30th anniversary celebration, Dong Yuhui didn't get a ticket to participate in the celebration, and it was Yu Minhong who quickly called someone to invite him over after he found out. Dong Yuhui later explained that he was just an actor, not an executive, so he did not enter the scene.
It's unimaginable for this kind of thing to happen to any live streaming e-commerce company. Looking at all the top anchors, they are the absolute core of their company, and some of them are their own bosses. Take Li Jiaqi as an example, Li Jiaqi was originally just an "employee" of Mei ONE, but as its sales grew, he quickly became an executive of Mei ONE, and now he is a partner of equal status.
Dongfang Selection still seems to only regard Dong Yuhui as a "sales champion", but in fact, Dong Yuhui's status is closer to a "core technology", which is an important part of the company's strategy.
When a person achieves financial freedom, he only pursues the value of "self-realization". If Dongfang Selection can't affirm the value of Dong Yuhui, it will inevitably be chilling, resulting in suspicion.
Therefore, if Dongfang Selection wants to retain Dong Yuhui, it must let the group face up and down Dong Yuhui's contribution and give him the corresponding right to speak. What to do, just see how Mei ONE treats Li Jiaqi.
Don't let Dong Yuhui become the second Li Ziqi
Dong Yuhui's experience reminded many people of another Internet celebrity - Li Ziqi.
Li Ziqi's experience is more suffocating than Dong Yuhui, although they are all contradictory to the company, but Li Ziqi's popularity was long before he joined the company. There is no Dongfang Selection, or there is no Dong Yuhui who is popular, but without Weinian, there is still Li Ziqi who is popular all over the Internet.
The dispute between Li Ziqi and Weinian finally ended in a lose-lose result, which made the Internet temporarily lose a high-quality content blogger at the level of "cultural output", which is indeed a pity.
The appearance of Dong Yuhui made people discover that in addition to shouting and being funny, there is also this way of bringing goods, which can also get out of the circle by relying on high-quality content, opening up a new track for live broadcast e-commerce. If the cooperation between Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Selection breaks down, it will be a loss for the industry.
Therefore, don't let Dong Yuhui become the second Li Ziqi, I hope that valuable people can go to a high place and continue to shine.
Author | The wind is clear