Zhong Xuegao is unlikely to become the Oriental Selection

Lin Sheng, the founder of Zhong Xue Gao, started live streaming to sell goods, trying to save the brand by selling sweet potatoes to pay off debts, but faced the challenge of replicating the success of Dongfang Selection. The article analyzes the prospects of Zhong Xue Gao's live streaming and the key to brand reconstruction, and is recommended for readers who are interested in brand transformation and live streaming e-commerce.

Can live streaming save Zhong Xue Gao? ‍‍‍‍‍The troubled Zhong Xue Gao entered the live streaming market, and its founder Lin Sheng sold sweet potatoes to pay off his debts. The Internet once again staged a "true repayment story", but Zhong Xue Gao could not become the Oriental Selection.

1. The founder of Zhong Xue Gao sells goods through live streaming and sells sweet potatoes to pay off debts

Many entrepreneurs like to brag, but few actually do what they say.

"New Product Finance" noticed that the already avalanche of online celebrity ice cream brand Zhong Xue Gao and its founder Lin Sheng have become a hot topic again. Lin Sheng really wants to sell sweet potatoes to pay off his debts. Recently, Lin Sheng registered an account named "Zhong Xue Gao Lao Lin" in the Taobao live broadcast room.

On the evening of May 27, the live broadcast room opened a warm-up live broadcast called "528 Lao Lin sells sweet potatoes". During the live broadcast, Zhong Xuegao's staff said that Lin Sheng will sell sweet potatoes live on May 28. In the live broadcast on May 27, a total of 18 products were listed in the "Zhong Xuegao Lao Lin" Taobao live broadcast room, in addition to sweet potatoes, there are also many Zhong Xuegao's star ice cream products. Although Zhong Xuegao's staff said that the purpose of the live broadcast is to allow the audience to get to know the Zhong Xuegao brand more closely, and announced that Zhong Xuegao will sell sweet potatoes live at 19:00 on the evening of the 28th, this time it is not to bring goods, but just to chat with everyone and answer everyone's questions.

On May 28, Lin Sheng appeared in the "Zhong Xue Gao Lao Lin" live broadcast room as scheduled to sell goods. The main products sold were Zhong Xue Gao ice cream, sweet potatoes, soy sauce and other foods. Ten minutes after the broadcast, the audience exceeded 80,000, and then the audience gradually increased to more than 200,000. However, the sweet potatoes sold by Lin Sheng on the live broadcast are still high-end like Zhong Xue Gao ice cream. The price of 5 kilograms of sweet potato products sold by him is 42.9 yuan. Lin Sheng said in the live broadcast room that everyone would say not to sell sweet potatoes too expensively. In fact, there are really expensive ones, but we dare not sell them for fear of being sprayed. In the future, we will gradually bring better sweet potatoes to everyone. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ But netizens did not buy it.

One netizen calculated that the sweet potatoes sold by Zhong Xuegao cost 8.58 yuan per pound, which is still very expensive! Another netizen commented: This sweet potato is almost enough for my daily meal. Lin Sheng said in the live broadcast that live broadcasting is a particularly tangled thing for me, because I have never had this option, but when I decided to do live broadcasting, I felt relieved. Lin Sheng has been associated with the label of "selling sweet potatoes to pay off debts" for a long time, which can be traced back to April this year.

On April 21, Sina Finance CEO Deng Qingxu posted on Weibo that after the founder of Zhong Xue Gao, Lin Sheng, was "restricted from moving", he took a green train to Beijing overnight. Lin Sheng told him that he would sell sweet potatoes to pay off his debts. Since then, Lin Sheng has publicly stated on many occasions that he would sell sweet potatoes to pay off his debts. Not long ago, when Lin Sheng was a guest on Wu Xiaobo's channel, he once again stated that this is his most difficult time. The lawyer had suggested changing the legal person, but he refused. He emphasized that he would definitely take responsibility for this account, and whether he would sell ice cream or sweet potatoes in the future, he would find ways to pay off the debts owed to employees and suppliers.

In any case, when Zhong Xue Gao was in trouble, Lin Sheng, as the founder, at least did not lie down, and was still working hard to save Zhong Xue Gao and repay the debt. Now, Lin Sheng has opened a live broadcast account and really wants to sell sweet potatoes to repay the debt. The Internet industry is staging a second "True Repayment Story". The last time it was staged and done was Luo Yonghao.

2. Zhong Xue Gao is unlikely to be selected by the Oriental Selection

I believe many people will be as curious as "New Product Finance". Can Zhong Xuegao really survive by selling goods through live streaming? Can Zhong Xuegao become the next Dongfang Zhenxuan? Everyone is familiar with the story of Zhong Xuegao's rapid decline after it became popular. Zhong Xuegao has been a controversial brand from the beginning, with the coexistence of two labels: Internet celebrity and black and red.

If Zhong Xuegao's success was its first time to become an Internet celebrity, and its subsequent rapid collapse was its second time to become an Internet celebrity, then this time Zhong Xuegao opened a live broadcast room, and Lin Sheng sold sweet potatoes to pay off his debts, which was his third time to become an Internet celebrity. When many friends think of selling goods through live broadcast to pay off debts, the first person they think of is Luo Yonghao. However, in the view of Xinpinlue Finance, Zhong Xuegao is already an Internet celebrity brand. Trying to save Zhong Xuegao, repay debts, and try to create a second Zhong Xuegao is somewhat similar to Dongfang Zhenxuan.

Zhong Xue Gao fell into trouble due to multiple internal and external reasons. At that time, New Oriental was passively in trouble due to the major adjustments in the education and training industry. Although the reasons for the two companies' difficulties were different, the purpose of getting involved in live streaming sales was the same: to save the company through live streaming sales. Now, Dongfang Zhenxuan has indeed become popular through live streaming sales and has carved out a bloody path. It has not only saved the troubled New Oriental, but also created a second life for New Oriental.

So, can Zhong Xue Gao become the next Oriental Selection? Xinpinlue Finance believes that it is difficult for Zhong Xue Gao to become the next Oriental Selection, which is determined by various factors such as the Internet live streaming environment and the company itself.

First, Zhong Xuegao has missed the trend of live streaming sales and missed the golden period of live streaming sales.

Although live streaming sales have become popular during the epidemic, from the first leading anchors such as Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi, to the mid-term entry of Luo Yonghao and Li Guoqing, and later Xiao Yangge and Dongfang Zhenxuan, these people all stepped on the right time point in the environment at that time. Now live streaming sales have entered the deep water period and no longer have the initial first-mover advantage. Obviously, Zhong Xuegao has missed the golden period of entering live streaming sales and is late.

Second, Zhong Xue Gao has not yet hit the mark and it is difficult for it to become the next Oriental Selection.

As we all know, Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental, has always been an Internet celebrity and is extremely sensitive to the Internet. When New Oriental fell into despair, Yu Minhong would definitely think of starting with the Internet, and the hot topic at the time was live streaming. The key to Dongfang Zhenxuan's counterattack is that there is a hot spot, that is, Dong Yuhui. Dong Yuhui relied on his unique live streaming method to attract fans and also formed the core competitiveness of Dongfang Zhenxuan's live streaming. But if you look at Zhong Xuegao, apart from the fact that Zhong Xuegao was an Internet celebrity brand before, it no longer has much brand assets, and its founder Lin Sheng is also a controversial figure. Although selling sweet potatoes also requires paying off debts, this is not enough to become the hot spot for Zhong Xuegao's live streaming.

The live streaming e-commerce industry is changing extremely fast, regulations are becoming stricter, and homogenization is very serious. In such an environment, Zhong Xuegao may be destined to fail in its bid to become Oriental Selection.

3. Livestreaming cannot save Zhong Xuegao

A few months ago, Lin Sheng said he wanted to sell sweet potatoes to pay off his debts. Although Zhong Xuegao and Lin Sheng have been on the hot search many times, after several months of preparation, they did what they said, opened a live broadcast room, and started live streaming. However, in the view of Xinpinlue Finance, live streaming is an exploration of Zhong Xuegao in a difficult situation. It may bring traffic and create certain achievements for Zhong Xuegao in the short term, but in the long run, live streaming is more like icing on the cake, and live streaming cannot save Zhong Xuegao.

Judging from the past and current top live streaming anchors and organizations, they either have the support of big platforms, have unique personal charm, or have created unique labels. For example, the joke teller Luo Yonghao, the eloquent Li Guoqing, and the gentle and elegant Dong Yuhui, each of them has something attractive, especially Dong Yuhui. Even though he later founded Yuhuixing, he quickly became a top live streaming anchor with strong fan-attracting ability.

Every top live-streaming anchor is unique and can never be replicated. A very direct example is that New Oriental, as an educational institution, established Oriental Selection and became popular thanks to Dong Yuhui, while its competitor Xueersi also tried to replicate the path of Oriental Selection but never succeeded.

Therefore, at least among the current top live-streaming anchors, Zhong Xuegao has no direct reference. What is more important is that behind these top anchors, there are company brands, live-streaming platform support, and a strong product supply chain team, which are indispensable basic resources for live-streaming anchors.

Obviously, Zhong Xuegao, which is currently in trouble, can hardly come up with a lot of money to invest in traffic and more resources in various aspects to build Zhong Xuegao's live broadcast room. Although in Zhong Xuegao's view, Zhong Xuegao itself is an Internet celebrity brand, and Lin Sheng also has a certain amount of traffic, and can definitely bring traffic to Zhong Xuegao's live broadcast room in the early stage, but Lin Sheng still has a long way to go to make himself the next top anchor. Since it got into trouble, Zhong Xuegao has been facing various ridicules. Although Zhong Xuegao is in its darkest moment, its core competitiveness is still in ice cream and related products.

In 2024, Zhong Xue Gao changed the theme of the dealer conference to "In the darkest hour, walk towards the light", and revealed that it will launch new products such as the fourth apple popsicle, apple maple syrup cinnamon ice cream, and pink coconut ice cream. "New Product Finance" believes that the key to Zhong Xue Gao's future rebirth lies in being down-to-earth, making products seriously, and reshaping the Zhong Xue Gao brand. Don't be a short-lived Internet celebrity brand, but be a long-lasting brand.

Zhong Xuegao does not need to benchmark anyone, surpass anyone, or become the second anyone. The most important thing is that Zhong Xuegao should be itself. In the short term, live streaming can bring certain traffic and returns to Zhong Xuegao, but live streaming is just a sales platform for Zhong Xuegao. Zhong Xuegao needs to do more thinking and new attempts. Zhong Xuegao does live streaming and Lin Sheng sells sweet potatoes to pay off his debts. In fact, we don’t need to ridicule and mock them. At least Zhong Xuegao and Lin Sheng did not disappear directly on the spot after the avalanche like many other Internet celebrity brands. Is Zhong Xuegao’s entry into live streaming a helpless choice, or is it a desperate survival? Is it icing on the cake, or a long-term solution? Only time can tell us the answer in the future.

So, are you willing to buy something in Zhong Xuegao's live broadcast room? Are you willing to buy sweet potatoes to support Lin Sheng in paying off his debts?

Author: Wu Wenwu Source Public Account: Xinpinlue Finance (ID: 1075249)