Sold 100 million in 4 hours, what’s Dong Yuhui’s next move?

As a new anchor, Dong Yuhui showed his ability to control the whole scene, cooperated well with the team, and attached importance to fan operations. The new account has a clear positioning, and the story of self-operated e-commerce continues. Facing challenges and tests, Dong Yuhui's commercial value has attracted much attention.

5 trending searches, 1.3 billion likes, 100 million GMV, and 3.3 million followers gain: these achievements were all achieved through the first live broadcast on Dong Yuhui’s new account on January 9.

The last time the live streaming e-commerce industry was so lively was probably due to the return of the top e-commerce influencer Li Jiaqi, but this time, the one that "blew up" the live streaming industry was a new account that was established only 15 days ago.

Almost a month ago, Dongfang Zhenxuan’s CEO “stepped down” and Dong Yuhui “stopped broadcasting” because of the “small essay” incident. Later, Dong Yuhui started his last live broadcast on Dongfang Zhenxuan and announced the establishment of his own studio. On the evening of January 9, he and his team started their first live broadcast on the new account “Traveling with Hui” and introduced 7 new anchors, showing a momentum of “doing something big”.

Judging from the live broadcast that night, Dong Yuhui is in good shape as a host, and is also ready to transform into a team manager. One example is that he mentioned that he is now anxious about paying his employees, and he has thanked fans many times in the live broadcast room, operating and maintaining the fan group.

Dong Yuhui's influence is still there, but he faces more challenges - it is difficult to balance time and energy between recommending books, celebrity interviews, and cultural travel, and the positioning of the new account is not yet clear. But one thing is very clear, Yu Minhong does not want Dongfang Zhenxuan to become an MCN company. He is still telling the story of self-operated e-commerce, and he hopes that capable anchors under his company will open new accounts.

"Whether it is Dong Yuhui or Yuhui Xingtong, the primary task is to maintain stability." An industry insider told "Dingjiao" that now is the time to test Dong Yuhui's commercial value. Once the value is lower than the outside world's expectations, the one who will suffer the most is not only Dongfang Zhenxuan, but also Dong Yuhui himself.

1. Dong Yuhui’s new account is popular, not surprisingly

Amid a flood of comments of "Good luck with the opening", the "Traveling with Hui" account had 100,000 people online at the same time as soon as it went live on the evening of January 9.

For the first live broadcast, "Walking with Hui" used seven "new faces" to open the show. Hosts Panpan and Dongdong sang a song "Do You Want to Dance" by the New Pants Band, which heated up the atmosphere in the live broadcast room; then, hosts Chuanxi played guitar and Hansen played piano, showing off their talents; host Pengpeng performed magic with two ropes and talked about the universe and life; finally, hosts Anan and Xiaoxiao warmed up the live broadcast with Peking Opera performance and English reading respectively.

In between the hosts' performances, Dong Yuhui acted as the host and emphasized the benefits of the live broadcast room.

Zhou Ke, the head of an MCN agency, analyzed that the first live broadcast is usually the most popular time, and Dong Yuhui's intention is very clear, to "bring people" rather than "bring goods". But the result of bringing people remains to be seen. Fan Xiaobai joked that the anchors' "talent + golden sentences" performance felt like watching a company's end-of-term art performance, like "7 little Dong Yuhui surrounding 1 big Dong Yuhui".

In the second half, Yu Minhong came on stage and chatted with Dong Yuhui while promoting products. During the chat, he also "spoiled" the next plans of the "Walk with Hui" account.

It is reported that the "Walking with Hui" team now has more than 70 people, most of whom are employees diverted from the "Eastern Selection" team. Before the Spring Festival, the team plans to live broadcast 5 days a week, mainly chatting and selling goods. After the Spring Festival, Dong Yuhui will plan to lead the anchors to go on location and "international tours". At that time, there will be insufficient manpower and recruitment will be launched. "Don't care about sales, care about culture", Yu Minhong set the tone for the "Walking with Hui" account.

Compared with his restraint when he hurriedly went live after the "small essay" incident and the heroic spirit when he said "A gentleman will die for his friend", Dong Yuhui regained his "sense of home" in this live broadcast. Not only did he return to his form, but he also became more "mature".

This sense of control comes from the tacit understanding between the front and back teams. The host can easily and naturally exchange jokes with Dong Yuhui, and the field control will promptly remind Dong Yuhui that the link has been shot and control the rhythm of the live broadcast. On the other hand, it comes from Dong Yuhui's change in mentality and role. Yu Minhong mentioned, "Yuhui used to only listen to the arrangements to go on the air, but now he not only arranges himself, but also the team, and he feels more in control than before."

Xiao Bai observed that Dong Yuhui was very relaxed throughout the live broadcast, and his desire to express himself became stronger, and the products were basically sold out as soon as they were put on the shelves. She believes that compared with the previous style of promoting products on Oriental Selection, the biggest change of Dong Yuhui and his team is that they began to pay attention to the operation of fans, "openly pampering fans and listening to advice."

Some "mothers-in-law" (a general term for Dong Yuhui's fans) said that "So you are here too" and "Walk with Hui" are comments that mothers-in-law often post during Dong Yuhui's live broadcast. The first broadcast was chosen on January 9th, which was also a suggestion from fans, because June 9th, 2022 was the beginning of his popularity, and since then, the 9th has also become a festival for fans. At the end of the live broadcast, Dong Yuhui also specifically stated that he would not end the broadcast directly at the request of fans, but played a short video instead.

There is a short film and credits at the end of the live broadcast

At the same time, during the live broadcast, the team specially played a video thanking fans, and made a comment wall of fans' comments in the comment area, which was read by Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui in the live broadcast room. Chen Ming, a veteran in live broadcast e-commerce , said, "The focus on operating fans shows that Dong Yuhui is closer to a professional anchor, and it also means that his mentality of starting a business is more mature."

In the end, all the data in the live broadcast room also announced that Dong Yuhui had returned to his normal form.

In the lively atmosphere, the live broadcast room of the "Walking with Hui" account has basically never stopped receiving gifts. By the end of the broadcast, the number of online users of "Walking with Hui" has never been less than 100,000, and the number of likes is nearly 1.3 billion. As of press time, the number of fans of the "Walking with Hui" account has reached 7.42 million, an increase of 3.3 million from before the broadcast.

On the night of the premiere of "Along with Hui", the GMV reached more than 100 million yuan in 4 hours, and the peak number of online viewers was about 1.64 million. After Dong Yuhui was gone, the Oriental Selection live broadcast room sold about 2.55 million in 16 hours, and the peak number of online viewers was about 110,000.

The GMV of the first broadcast of "Walking with Hui" exceeded 100 million yuan. Source: New Dou Data

2. Can Walking with Hui replicate the Dong Yuhui myth?

The team of "Traveling with Hui" stands on the shoulders of predecessors in terms of live broadcast rhythm, sales tactics, and control ability, so it is not surprising that the first show was so popular. Zhou Ke said that according to industry rules, the live broadcast of such new accounts is often a "proofing" of data and performance in the first show, and the anchor team and product selection ability in the later stage are the key factors for whether the account can continue to be popular.

Judging from the product selection, "Traveling with Glory" seems to lack some distinctive features.

Except for not selling the self-owned products of Oriental Selection, most of the other products overlap with Oriental Selection, and the prices are slightly more favorable or even equal. For example, a 5kg fragrant rice from October Rice Field is 35.9 yuan in the "Traveling with Hui" live broadcast room, and the non-member price on the Oriental Selection APP is 36.9 yuan. Some members posted the previous purchase price of 31.9 yuan; another example is the Huiqi Fresh Fresh Gift Box, which is priced at 269 yuan in both "Traveling with Hui" and Oriental Selection live broadcasts.

The same product, the left is the price in the "Traveling with Hui" live broadcast room, and the right is the price in the Oriental Selection APP

This kind of product selection is related to the short preparation period. It took only 15 days for "Traveling with Hui" to open an account and start live broadcasting, so it would be smoother to discuss cooperation with brands that have cooperated with them before. "Focus" found that Chengshi Yikou was also one of the domestic pet brands that had close cooperation with Oriental Selection after it expanded into the pet category. This time, two dog food products appeared in the live broadcast room of "Traveling with Hui", one of which was a new product that was released not long ago.

Chen Ming analyzed that there are two core factors that influence users to place orders. The most important one is Dong Yuhui himself. His endorsement effect is the most important. As long as Dong Yuhui appears in the live broadcast room to sell goods, people will buy the goods. The second is the price, quality, and brand of the product itself.

But except Dong Yuhui, the other 7 anchors of the anchor team are non-popular anchors of the original Oriental Selection sub-account. Why did "Walk with Hui" choose these anchors?

In fact, the eight anchors of "Walking with Hui" cover three generations, "old, middle-aged and young", and they have their own characteristics.

Dong Dong, Xiao Xiao and Yu Hui are veteran anchors who have been with Dongfang Zhenxuan since its establishment. Dong Dong started out as a behind-the-scenes anchor, and his all-round experience is helpful for the operation of the account. Xiao Xiao tells English stories to her children every night, and will be able to work hard in cultural books, world travel and maternal and child product selection in the future.

Pengpeng and Panpan are mature anchors who joined after the success of Dongfangxuan. Panpan is Yuhui's fellow countryman and undergraduate classmate, and is quite familiar with Dong Yuhui, known as his "black material excavator"; Pengpeng is regarded by fans as the person who can best catch Dong Yuhui's jokes, and both of them can cooperate with Dong Yuhui. The last three are newcomers who have joined not long ago, with both talent and appearance. Anan has experience in Peking Opera, Hansen plays piano, and Chuanxi plays guitar, so they have more room to play when broadcasting outside.

The eight anchors of "Walking with Hui"

Some people believe that the new anchors are less famous than the anchors Youyou and Dundun in Oriental Selection, but compared with the "involution" of big accounts in Oriental Selection, they have more opportunities in "Walking with Hui". "Objectively speaking, they still need to explore their own characteristics in future live broadcasts, but they have already got the 'ticket' in their careers." Zhou Ke said.

At present, the sales model and product selection categories of "Yi Hui Xing" are similar to those of the main account of Oriental Selection, and it has become one of the matrix accounts of Oriental Selection. The differentiated positioning of the account is also an issue that Dong Yuhui needs to spend time thinking about.

Currently, the account is still in the cold start phase, and the account's labels and attributes are not stable. Chen Ming pointed out that the team may want to use non-popular anchors as a test to see how fans respond to the new account, and at the same time use new anchors to take on new categories and new brands, and new anchors should also seize the opportunity to leave an impression on fans.

Top anchors are not replicable, just as it is difficult for Meiwan to produce a second Li Jiaqi, and it is also difficult for Dong Yuhui's team to produce the next Dong Yuhui. However, Yu Minhong does not need to replicate Dong Yuhui. He once said that when the influence of other anchors under Oriental Selection reaches a certain level, they will be given separate live broadcast rooms as appropriate.

"This may be what Yu Minhong wants to tell the outside world that Oriental Selection still wants to go the route of self-operated e-commerce rather than the MCN route." Zhou Ke said that the growth space for super IPs is already very limited, and it is enough to stabilize the overall pie.

Absolute "bigness" is a kind of ability, and extreme "stability" is even more of an ability.

3. It’s time to test Dong Yuhui

It can be said that it was not until the premiere of "Along with Hui" that the "Little Composition" incident of Oriental Selection truly came to an end.

In addition to being promoted to senior partner of Oriental Selection, cultural assistant to the chairman of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, and vice president of New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group, Dong Yuhui currently has a new account and a cultural and tourism business to be developed, which can be considered a new beginning.

According to Qichacha, the company behind the "Yihui Xingtong" account is Yihui Xingtong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., with Dong Yuhui as the legal person, executive director and manager; Yu Minhong as the supervisor, with the ultimate beneficial shares of 99%, and the other 1% belongs to Yang Zhihui, the president of New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group. At the same time, the company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing New Oriental Xuncheng Network Technology Co., Ltd., which is headed by Sun Dongxu, the former CEO of Dongfang Zhenxuan, as the legal person, director and manager, and Yu Minhong as the chairman.

This also corresponds to the content announced by Dong Yuhui in his circle of friends. " Traveling with Hui" is a new account wholly controlled by Oriental Selection. Yu Minhong revealed in the live broadcast that the income generated by this account will be included in Oriental Selection, but if Dong Yuhui leaves Oriental Selection, the ownership of the account will belong to Dong Yuhui.

At present, Yu Minhong’s way of “settling” Dong Yuhui seems to be a win-win solution.

Zhou Ke analyzed that for Dongfang Zhenxuan, Dong Yuhui has cut ties with Dongfang Zhenxuan while being able to play a greater role. While completing the "de-Dong Yuhuiization", he has avoided repeating the tragedy of Li Ziqi and Langweixian. For Dong Yuhui, he has experienced the transformation from anchor to preacher (culture and tourism) and manager, and his career aspirations have been met.

However, after being given a relatively free space for development, the future road ahead for Dong Yuhui and his colleagues is also full of challenges. Dong Yuhui has more roles. He is a host, needs to participate in product selection, and needs to manage the team. In the new year, in addition to daily live broadcasts, he will have to spare more time to interview writers, recommend books, and prepare for the "See the World" cultural tourism business.

Among the many roles, how Dong Yuhui will adapt, how to properly allocate his time and energy, and whether his movements will be distorted due to changes in his mentality are all unknowns for himself and the team.

Even Dong Yuhui himself said during the live broadcast, "I couldn't sleep before because I didn't know where to go and was confused; now I can't sleep because I have to think about how to pay my employees as soon as I wake up, which is stressful." In addition, Dong Yuhui is also responsible for the promotion of cultural tourism. New Oriental's cultural tourism road has previously been affected by high pricing, and the topic of "Dong Yuhui's fans were discouraged by the price when entering the cultural tourism live broadcast room" has also been a hot search on Weibo. New Oriental Cultural Tourism Douyin Store currently has 17 products online, with the lowest price of 4,798 yuan and the highest price of 29,600 yuan.

Image source: TikTok screenshot

The cultural tourism business has a lot of room for development, but the difficulty is like snatching food from a tiger’s mouth. “The competitors behind are not only anchors, but more are local life, cultural tourism groups and OTA platforms,” said a travel industry analyst.

During the first live broadcast, Dong Yuhui's live broadcast room was instantly flooded with too much traffic. There was a certain overlap with the users of Oriental Selection's live broadcast room, and there was also a lot of people who came to watch the fun. The orders and attention of these consumers were random. Whether the results of the first broadcast could be sustained, how to control the growth period of the new anchor, and how to expand the user circle are also major challenges.

However, industry insiders commented that Dong Yuhui is the only anchor who has become a super-head without relying on his low price advantage. His audience appeal, emotional value and instant knowledge satisfaction are his killer skills. "Now is the time to verify Dong Yuhui's commercial value and personal ability," said Chen Ming.

Dong Yuhui's return to broadcasting is not only the beginning of an account, but also the re-start of an IP. In the past, under the leadership of Yu Minhong, Dongfang Zhenxuan has made many attempts - building its own APP, developing its own e-commerce and cultural tourism, entering Taobao live broadcast, etc. "The boat has passed through thousands of mountains", Dong Yuhui mentioned this poem several times during the first broadcast, and he can't relax, because a tough battle for him has begun.

At the request of the interviewees, Zhou Ke, Chen Ming and Xiaobai are pseudonyms in this article.

Author: Su Qi, Editor: Jin Yufan

WeChat public account: Dingjiao (ID: dingjiaoone)