Dong Yuhui's new account premiered, earning over 150 million viewers overnight

Dong Yuhui took on the lead role for the first time after the essay controversy. He started broadcasting on a new account and in a new live broadcast room called "Walk with Hui" and achieved some good results. For Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Selection, new challenges will come at the beginning of a new stage. Let's take a look at the author's analysis of the current situation and future development of the two.

"The flower path has never been swept for guests, and the door is now open for you."

Dong Yuhui's new account "Walking with Hui" which has been hyped for a long time, had its first broadcast on January 9. At 7 o'clock that evening, when Dong Yuhui quoted the above-mentioned poem "The Guest Arrives" by Du Fu as his opening remarks, the maximum number of people online in the live broadcast room almost instantly reached 100,000+.

Afterwards, Panpan, Dongdong, Pengpeng and other seven anchors came out to perform their talents one by one. At around 8 pm, Yu Minhong also appeared in the live broadcast room and broadcast live with Dong Yuhui. According to Yu Minhong, "Traveling with Hui" is planning international related business, and its team members have more than 70 people.

After three hours of live broadcasting, the sales of the live broadcast room exceeded 150 million yuan. The whole live broadcast lasted for four hours, with the highest number of online users reaching 1.7 million. A total of 53.48 million people entered the live broadcast room, with more than 1.24 billion likes. The live broadcast room ranked first in the overall sales list and the instant popularity.

This is the first time that Dong Yuhui has taken on the responsibility of leading the platform after the essay scandal. The performance of the live streaming of "Walk with Hui" is not only a test of Dong Yuhui's traffic, but also a test of Dongfang Zhenxuan's stock price and Yu Minhong's decision-making level. Before the live broadcast, the number of fans of "Walk with Hui" was 4.1 million. During the 4-hour live broadcast, the number of fans increased by 3 million, and the number of fans reached 7.1 million at the end of the live broadcast.

The launch of "Walking with Glory" has not yet affected the sales of the main Douyin account of Oriental Selection. That night, the number of viewers in the Oriental Selection live broadcast room reached 14 million, with a maximum number of online users of 57,000, and sales of 10 million to 25 million yuan, which was basically the same as the previous three days.

However, unlike the "Good luck in opening" live broadcast room of "Walking with Hui", the "robot" live broadcast room of Dongfang Selection was filled with bullet screens. Before the broadcast of "Walking with Hui", some fans left farewell messages in the bullet screen of Dongfang Selection, saying "I will never come to this account again" and "We are gone", while some fans who chose to stay and support flooded the screen with messages such as "Hubei robot report", "Xinjiang robot report" and "Liaoning robot report". Some fans also commented in a self-deprecating tone, "Robots with flesh and blood are here" and "Robots that can place orders are here".

The robot meme also originated from the essay controversy. At that time, despite the loss of Dong Yuhui, the popularity and sales of Dongfang Zhenxuan's live broadcast room still doubled. In addition, during the live broadcast time of Sun Dongxu, the former CEO of Dongfang Zhenxuan, the popularity and sales were also good. There were rumors that Dongfang Zhenxuan bought traffic on Douyin and that not all users in the live broadcast room were real people. Later, fans of Dongfang Zhenxuan began to mock themselves as "robots" to fight back against external doubts.

Whether the launch of "Along with Hui" can become the optimal solution among Oriental Selection, Dong Yuhui and fans is still unclear at the moment, but what is certain is that it is at least the latest manifestation of the spirit of compromise between Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui.

The above-mentioned spirit of compromise is particularly prominent in comparison with other live broadcast MCN organizations. In 2023, there were two game battles between MCN and anchors in the live broadcast circle, namely Xinxuan and Dongfang Zhenxuan. In the game station of Xinxuan, Simba, the person in power, tilted the balance towards the big anchor and fired the professional manager Guan Qian; in the small essay storm of Dongfang Zhenxuan, Yu Minhong did his best to balance, promoting the big anchor Dong Yuhui and raising his salary, but did not directly kill the professional manager Sun Dongxu.

However, this spirit of compromise has also further led to the difficulty in unifying public opinion from the fans. Since the establishment of the new account "Walking with Hui", related disputes have never stopped. Some fans even found out that although Dong Yuhui is the legal representative of the parent company of "Walking with Hui" and "Walking with Hui (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd.", the legal representative of the holding company behind it is still Sun Dongxu, and arbitrarily believed that Dong Yuhui is still working for Sun Dongxu. In fact, the legal representative and the actual controller of the company are two different things. Whether it is Dong Yuhui or Sun Dongxu, in the final analysis, they are working for Yu Minhong.

Not all fans are on Dong Yuhui's side. In the live broadcast room that night, Dong Yuhui talked about the many insulting comments he had seen online recently. After being comforted by Yu Minhong, Dong Yuhui responded by saying "the boat has passed through thousands of mountains."

For Dong Yuhui and Oriental Selection, new challenges are coming again with the launch of the new account "Walking with Hui".

01

The people who are most looking forward to Dong Yuhui's show are the "mothers-in-law" from all over the country. For some of them, this is a victory they have won for Dong Yuhui.

At noon on January 9, a steady stream of flower baskets were delivered to the e-World Building at No. 11 Zhongguancun Street, which is the headquarters of Oriental Selection and the location of the live broadcast on Dong Yuhui’s new account "Traveling with Hui" that evening.

Along with the flower baskets, there were also blessings from the "mothers-in-law". Some flower baskets read "Wishing Dong Yuhui's live broadcast room and Hui Xingxing a great start", and some flower baskets read "March wind, June rain, September sky, December snow, it turns out we have always been here! Teacher Dong Yuhui has been out of the circle for 19 months, safe and happy". January 9, 2024 is the 19th month since Dong Yuhui came out of the circle on June 9, 2022.

According to "Tuopin New Consumption", a fan of Dong Yuhui said that the broadcast date of January 9 was almost an "auspicious day" chosen by his mother-in-law for Dong Yuhui, and even the name "Walking with Hui" was a suggestion given by fans.

These flower baskets came from all corners of the country, including Beijing, Hunan, Shenzhen, Gansu, and even overseas. A fan of Dong Yuhui said that the "mother-in-law" from other cities usually commissioned the flower shop to send them directly. There were about 100 flower baskets on the scene, filling up the upstairs and downstairs. This scene caused fans to joke, "This is the first time I see consumers sending flower baskets to merchants. Yuhui is the only one on the Internet who has such a presence."

Peng Peng, the anchor who appeared in the live broadcast room in the evening, also posted a TikTok in the afternoon, saying, "I just came to work and found that the company has become a flower shop. Love from all corners of the world has converged into a sea of ​​flowers." Dong Yuhui also said with a smile in the live broadcast room in the evening, "The aisles on this floor are full today. I don't even know who sent the flowers." Yu Minhong also joked, "When I came in, I walked between the ears of wheat and the flowers for two minutes before I got there."

It was not enough to just send flower baskets, many "mothers-in-law" even ran to the scene to support and waited outside the Oriental Selection headquarters. On the afternoon of January 9, the lowest temperature in Beijing was still below zero. According to a fan at the scene, a staff member came out in the afternoon to tell everyone that the weather was too cold and there would be a review meeting in the evening, so everyone should not wait here.

The cold weather could not stop fans from supporting Dong Yuhui. “Whatever my family needs depends on what Yuhui sells” and “Even if he sells grass, I will buy a few bundles back.”

The fans' enthusiasm for Dong Yuhui spread to the surrounding areas with Dong Yuhui as the center.

Feng Feng, the anchor of Oriental Selection, once mentioned "Walking with Hui" in the live broadcast room, saying, "They have also been preparing for the show on the 9th. You can go and have a look then."

Feng Feng's behavior has won the favor of some of Dong Yuhui's fans. "Just because Feng Feng was generous enough to tell everyone to go over there on the 9th to take a look, I think he is an upright person. Unlike some people, who were once such close colleagues, they didn't say a word in the end, as if they had never known each other."

When New Oriental Education & Technology Group CEO Zhou Chenggang sent out a congratulatory video, it also attracted thanks from Dong Yuhui's fans. One fan said, "It's obvious that it's a blessing for Yuhui. I feel that Old Zhou looks better and better the more I watch it."

As the first writer to post a video to support "Walking with Hui", many fans of Dong Yuhui expressed their gratitude in Yue Nan's comment section, and some even followed Yue Nan.

It is worth noting that the overlap between the fan base of "Walking with Hui" and that of Oriental Selection is not high: in terms of user age, Daduoduo data shows that the fan base of "Walking with Hui" is mainly composed of users aged 24-30, accounting for 90%; the fan base of Oriental Selection is mainly composed of users aged 31-40, accounting for about 54%; in terms of user city distribution, 40% of the users of "Walking with Hui" are from fourth-tier cities, which is the same as the proportion of users in first-tier cities; the proportion of users from fourth-tier cities among Oriental Selection users is only 13%.

Distribution of fans of Walking with Hui by city level, source: Daduoduo

The above data further shows that there is no direct competition between the two live broadcast rooms of "Traveling with Hui" and Dongfang Zhenxuan. In the live broadcast room of "Traveling with Hui" that night, the yellow cart products were all third-party brands, and there were no Dongfang Zhenxuan self-owned products. This may also mean that the supply chain of "Traveling with Hui" may be separated from Dongfang Zhenxuan's self-owned products, and further distinguished from Dongfang Zhenxuan's high customer unit price in terms of product selection.

02

After the short essay incident, both Oriental Selection and Dong Yuhui have undergone new changes.

Yu Minhong began to increase the allocation of resources to anchors, especially big anchors, seeking harmonious coexistence with big anchors: on the one hand, he deeply bound himself to Dong Yuhui and gave Dong Yuhui new identities such as senior partner of Oriental Selection and vice president of New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group; on the other hand, he began to physically separate himself from Dong Yuhui to some extent, setting up an independent studio for Dong Yuhui and opening a new live broadcast room.

Yu Minhong's support for anchors is not limited to Dong Yuhui alone. Dong Yuhui once said that Yu Minhong said that if the energy of other anchors in the live broadcast room reaches a certain level in the future, he will also open up separate live broadcast rooms for other anchors as appropriate, with the aim of allowing everyone to fully unleash themselves. However, these independent live broadcast rooms will still be 100% controlled by Dongfang Zhenxuan to a large extent. Referring to "Walking with Hui", the GMV (total transaction volume) of the new account will be included in the financial report of Dongfang Zhenxuan.

However, behind the promotion and salary increase, Dong Yuhui may be facing new challenges on the way.

The first challenge is that Dong Yuhui will face a traffic competition with Dongfang Zhenxuan for a long time. Dong Yuhui revealed that the plan before the New Year for "Walking with Hui" was to broadcast five days a week, and he would broadcast for two hours every day, with a fixed time of 8-10 pm. Although Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong said in the live broadcast room that "Walking with Hui" had no sales performance, every move of "Walking with Hui" will be watched and compared by the outside world, and whether "Walking with Hui" can continue the good momentum of its debut still needs time to test.

As the newly appointed vice president of New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group, Dong Yuhui will also take on the important task of revitalizing the culture and tourism business. Like live streaming, as one of the two new ways out for New Oriental after its transformation, culture and tourism is another venture of Yu Minhong after Oriental Selection.

According to data from Chanmama, cited by Jiemian News, after Dong Yuhui took office as vice president of culture and tourism, the followers of each account of New Oriental Culture and Tourism increased wildly, and the number of viewers in the live broadcast room soared, but sales did not increase at the same time. In the comment area of ​​the Douyin live broadcast room of New Oriental Culture and Tourism, many fans were discouraged by the price, "It's too expensive, not affordable for ordinary people." For "mothers-in-law", compared with food and daily consumer goods that cost dozens of yuan, facing travel packages that cost tens of thousands of yuan, their support threshold is infinitely raised.

It's time to test Dong Yuhui. The cultural tourism industry involves catering, accommodation, scenic spots and other links, and different regions have different characteristics. It's time to test Dong Yuhui. The cultural tourism industry involves catering, accommodation, scenic spots and other links, which puts higher demands on the supply chain coordination and resource integration capabilities of the management. Compared with the vertical segmentation and long-term standardization promotion of old OTA platforms such as Ctrip and Tongcheng in this field, Dongfang Selection has not yet been deeply integrated into the industrial chain.

03

With his independent studio, Dong Yuhui will also bring new challenges to Oriental Selection.

Although Dong Yuhui has not left Oriental Selection, after focusing on Walking with Hui, Dong Yuhui's investment in Oriental Selection is bound to be less than before. The Oriental Selection live broadcast room has invisibly lost a traffic leader like Dong Yuhui.

Sun Dongxu, who became more famous during the essay controversy, seems to have become the new candidate to fill the traffic gap of Oriental Selection. On January 5, Sun Dongxu's live broadcast on Douyin attracted 30 million viewers, three times the number of viewers the day before. The live broadcast room sold 25 million to 50 million yuan. The daily sales of the live broadcast room in the previous few days were 10 million to 25 million yuan. Sun Dongxu couldn't help but joke that he was "highly famous, but not well-known."

But when the short essay scandal has completely disappeared, it remains an unknown whether Sun Dongxu's image as a traffic star can continue to be stable.

It is worth noting that although the two price-cutting promotions launched by Oriental Selection to cope with the crisis made up for the missing traffic and sales, they were largely contrary to the high-premium boutique strategy pursued by Oriental Selection.

At the end of July last year, Douyin shut down the Dongfang Zhenxuan store and live broadcast room for three days. Yu Minhong's solution at the time was to reduce prices and promote sales to divert traffic to the Dongfang Zhenxuan APP. Data at the time showed that the sales of the Dongfang Zhenxuan APP exceeded 110 million yuan in four days of promotion.

The subsequent short essay incident caused a large number of fans to leave Oriental Selection and its stock price plummeted. Yu Minhong's initial solution was still to reduce prices and promote sales. For this reason, even after Dong Yuhui suspended the live broadcast, the sales of Oriental Selection's live broadcast room were still between 50 million and 75 million yuan for two consecutive days.

However, the price Yu Minhong paid for choosing to lower prices was in conflict with the high-premium boutique strategy he had pursued when Oriental Selection was first established.

What’s worse is that price cuts and promotions not only damage the brand image, but also cause emotional damage to old users. Previously, Dongfang Zhenxuan’s repeated price cuts caused dissatisfaction among consumers on social platforms. “Dongfang Zhenxuan’s continuous price cuts make me feel like a big victim.” One fan said that she accepted a price that was significantly higher than the market price because of the quality of Dongfang Zhenxuan’s products, but the repeated price cuts made her feel that her feelings were misplaced.

It remains to be seen whether Oriental Selection will swing back and forth between the boutique strategy and price cuts, but users who have already managed their expectations about prices may find it difficult to accept Oriental Selection's price increases. One user said that she had bought a 30-40 Ecuadorian white shrimp from Oriental Selection for 128 yuan, 118 yuan, and now it has been 88 yuan for almost a month. "If it goes back to 128 yuan, I may not buy it again."

Dongfang Zhenxuan has already chosen to maintain its sales momentum by cutting prices, and price cuts and promotions are likely to become another trump card of Dongfang Zhenxuan for a longer period of time. On January 8, Dongfang Zhenxuan announced a new price guarantee mechanism: 7 days price guarantee for self-operated food and 30 days price guarantee for non-food products.

However, problems still loom over Dongfang Zhenxuan's head. To be a high-premium agricultural product technology company, Dongfang Zhenxuan obviously cannot survive by constantly lowering prices.

References:

"Walking with Glory" Who to Walk With? Beijing Business Daily

"Dong Yuhui explodes again tonight!" China Securities Journal

"Behind the Launch of Dong Yuhui's Personal Live Broadcast Room on the 9th" Expanding New Consumption Products

"Will New Oriental Culture and Tourism be better with Dong Yuhui's "airdrop"? "Dumou

Author: Xue Yaping; Editor: Zhao Jinjie

Source: Hefan Finance (ID: daxiongfan), the most insightful business ideas.