On the evening of December 18, Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong "combined live broadcast" in the Dongfang Selection Live Broadcast Room. This applauded and popular live broadcast has the highest number of online users exceeding 3.92 million, the cumulative number of viewers is as high as 105 million, the likes are 357 million, and the estimated sales volume of goods exceeds 100 million yuan. The "Oriental Selection" Douyin account rose by 2.73 million fans in a single day.
This may be the last time Dong Yuhui appeared in the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room as an anchor, and then he will return to this live broadcast room that became popular because of him, or he will be a guest. Later, his home stadium is New Oriental Cultural Tourism, which is a new track officially announced by New Oriental in July this year. On December 21, Dong Yuhui was interviewed by the media for the first time after the "small composition" turmoil, he said that he did not leave Dongfang Selection, the independent studio will still sell agricultural products, and at the same time, he will have more freedom to do what he wants.
Dong Yuhui's fans poured into the live broadcast room of New Oriental Cultural Tourism, and the number of viewers soared, but the sales of tourism products did not change significantly. "It's hard to support it. Many netizens believe that the project price of New Oriental Cultural Tourism is not suitable for ordinary people, and the tourism project for about a week can easily cost tens of thousands of yuan, not including round-trip transportation expenses. Fans who were persuaded to quit by the price had no choice but to swipe the screen in the live broadcast room and ask: "Where is Yuhui?"
Yu Minhong's senior PRYu Minhong personally went out for public relations and turned the "small composition" storm against the wind. As of the evening of December 18, Dong Yuhui's fans on Douyin have reached 21.71 million, with more than 4 million fans in one day. The fans of the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room also returned to 30 million, and the number of fans increased by nearly one million in two days. As of the close of Hong Kong stocks on December 18, the share price of Oriental Selection rose 21.9%, with the latest market value of about HK $32.5 billion. New Oriental's U.S. stock rose about 10% premarket to $78.97 per share.
On this day, Dong Yuhui successively had three new identities: Oriental Selection Senior Partner, Cultural Assistant to the Chairman of New Oriental Education and Technology Group, and Vice President of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group.
"Dongfang's selection of senior partners has the right to speak about the company, which is equivalent to VP, and even has the color of shareholder status. The cultural assistant to the chairman of New Oriental Education & Technology Group is not just a secretary, but also the concept of assistant to the chairman." Yu Minhong's response gave Dong Yuhui an identity, but as for the equity issue that the public is concerned about, there is still no definite answer.
On December 18, Yu Minhong said that he would set up a studio with Dong Yuhui, open another account and live broadcast room, and the income would be included in Dongfang Selection. On December 21, Dong Yuhui will return to the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room again, and then take a month off. According to Dong Yuhui, he will appear more in the live broadcast room of cultural tourism after that, and after the turmoil subsides, the new account will be launched a month later.
Before the broadcast, Dong Yuhui bowed to the audience in the live broadcast room to say goodbye, which was also believed by the outside world that he would appear in the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room again after that, or he would be a guest guest, instead of being the anchor.
Yu Minhong once talked about the reasons for the successful transformation of New Oriental in the live broadcast room of Beijing New Oriental Cultural Tourism, and if Dong Yuhui had not detonated it, he might still be struggling to do Oriental selection. "The team led by Dongfang Xiaosun worked hard, and more importantly, God sent Dong Yuhui. ”
Dong Yuhui's role in Dongfang selection is obviously not just about selling the crown. Haitong International's analysis pointed out that from August to December 2022, Dong Yuhui played a significant role in the improvement of the number of views and GMV of Dongfang Selection. By March 2023, the average daily viewership of Dong Yuhui's live broadcast will be 9.5 million, an increase of 31.6%, and the average GMV will be 17.45 million, a growth rate of 35.8%.
New Oriental's new layoutOriental Selection has always prided itself as a product and culture company, not an MCN company. In the financial report, it is positioned as "a live shopping platform focusing on carefully selecting good things for customers, a product technology company that continues to focus on the self-operated agricultural products of the Oriental Selection brand, and a cultural communication company that brings customers a pleasant spiritual experience".
We have also prepared for the product. The reputation and sales volume of self-operated products are good, and Dongfang Selection will focus more and more on self-operated products. In fiscal year 2023, the revenue of Dongfang Selection's self-operated products and live broadcast e-commerce segment will be 3.9 billion yuan, of which the total revenue of self-operated products will exceed 2.6 billion yuan.
New Oriental has successfully transformed because of Oriental Selection. New Oriental said in the report for the 2023 fiscal year that the company's revenue growth was mainly driven by new education business, Oriental Selection's self-operated products and live broadcast e-commerce business. In fiscal year 2023, New Oriental's revenue was US$2.998 billion, down 3.5% year-on-year, and its net profit was US$177.3 million, up 115% year-on-year, turning losses into profits. As of August 31, 2023, New Oriental continued to be profitable in the first fiscal quarter of 2024, with a net profit of US$165.4 million, up 150.6% year-on-year.
In July this year, New Oriental officially announced its entry into cultural tourism. According to the Qichacha APP, Beijing New Oriental Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. was established in July this year, the legal representative is Yu Minhong, with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan, and is 100% owned by New Oriental Education Technology Group Co., Ltd.
According to the official introduction of New Oriental Cultural Tourism, New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group is aimed at middle-aged and elderly people, teenagers and parent-child and other age groups, providing cultural travel, parent-child travel, domestic research, international study tours and camp education and other cultural tourism products, to create high-quality cultural tourism services with cultural happiness, knowledge acquisition and personal pursuit.
After the Oriental selection, New Oriental started a business again and officially opened up the cultural tourism industry. Since then, New Oriental has included three major areas: education, life, and cultural tourism.
After the official announcement, New Oriental established new companies in Jiangsu, Wenzhou, Fujian and other places. Since 2023, Beijing New Oriental Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. has established more than 30 companies, including New Oriental (Jiangsu) Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd., New Oriental (Wenzhou) Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd., and New Oriental Wokaide (Fujian) Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd., through direct and indirect means.
On December 15, New Oriental Cultural Tourism stated in the article "New Strategy of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group's National Multi-city Layout of Cultural Tourism" that recently, Mr. Yang Zhihui, Executive President and Chief Financial Officer of New Oriental Education and Technology Group and President of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group, on behalf of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group, has successively investigated and inspected Nanjing, Luoyang and Zhengzhou, and reached important cooperation with relevant departments of the local government on cultural tourism projects. This not only shows the strategic vision of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group, but also injects new vitality into the development of the local cultural tourism industry, and realizes the win-win cooperation between New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group and local governments in cultural tourism projects. ”
Difficulties on the road to cultural tourismIn fact, Oriental Selection has already introduced the cultural tourism sector. At the end of 2022, Oriental Selection launched the "Oriental Selection to See the World" live broadcast account, and Yu Minhong led a number of Oriental Selection anchors into various scenic spots to promote tourism in the form of "live broadcast + cultural tourism" in cooperation with the government.
On December 10, on the Oriental Selection APP, New Oriental cultural tourism products were officially launched. According to the Beijing News, Oriental Selection said that before the cultural tourism products fully landed in Oriental Selection, New Oriental had finalized cooperation intentions with more than 100 companies, and listed cultural and tourism products such as travel packages, attraction tickets, and hotel packages on the Oriental Selection APP.
New Oriental Cultural Tourism is different from other tourism products, and attaches great importance to cultural colors. The position setting is different from the traditional planning and adjustment, tour guide, etc., and recruits tourism product customizers, cultural tourism tour guides, cultural tourism live broadcast operations, cultural tourism planning and adjustment managers, tourism product managers and other positions.
New Oriental's cultural tourism products have been criticized for their high prices. In November this year, New Oriental Cultural Tourism launched a "Hangzhou In-depth Cultural Tour" product, with a 21-day tour for two people and a price tag of 29,800 yuan, including meals, 20 nights of designated hotel double rooms, paid attractions, performances and other ticket fees (at the temple's own expense), and transportation during the trip (excluding round-trip transportation). In other words, foreign tourists also need to pay for their own travel expenses to and from Hangzhou. Netizens showed incomprehension of the price and duration of the product, "The price subverts imagination, and only 21 days of vacation can be taken after retirement." ”
New Oriental Cultural Tourism focuses on the high-end market, and among the 25 products on its Douyin account, 10 products are priced at tens of thousands of yuan. Big Fish Finance reporters noticed that most of the projects do not include round-trip transportation. The cheapest is Xiamen 5 days and 4 nights tour, priced at 4699, as of December 20, only 3 orders of this product have been sold. Among the 25 tourism products, 7780 yuan for 6 days and 5 nights of "Winter Vacation Beijing, Be Your Own CEO Ten Business Growth Challenge" and 9680 yuan for 5 days and 4 nights of "Winter Vacation Independence, Beijing Little Magician Magic Academy Theme International Camp" sold more than 200 orders, and there are two kinds of 6 days and 5 nights Beijing research tour priced at nearly 10,000 yuan, with sales of more than 50 orders and 38 orders respectively, and the sales of the rest of the products are in single digits.
On December 19, Liu Tianye, deputy director of the Culture, Tourism, Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Genhe City, Inner Mongolia, stood on the right bank of the Ergun River and invited Dong Yuhui to Genhe as a guest. Not only Inner Mongolia, but also the cultural and tourism departments of Zhejiang, Hubei, Hebei and other places have shouted to him, wanting to undertake this wave of traffic exclusive to cultural tourism.
On the surface, Dong Yuhui's knowledge and user stickiness, New Oriental Cultural Tourism seems to be suitable for his development direction. However, New Oriental Cultural Tourism did not perform well in the first wave of traffic, and was criticized for its high price, and its sales were not positively affected by this wave of popularity. The cultural tourism market does not have the same chance of explosion as live streaming. Some cultural and tourism people said that cultural tourism products are highly serviceable, and users are more cautious in their choice, which is much more difficult than live broadcasting. This is the challenge that Dong Yuhui faces in his new position.
Reporter: Liu Jinyang Editor: Cao Mengjia Proofreader: Liu Tian Photography: Liu Jinyang