A fire broke out in Oriental Selection’s backyard. Can big companies “not protect” super individuals?

Almost no one would have thought that the topic of internal strife in the Eastern Selection would continue to be a hot topic recently, and public opinion is constantly fermenting. This article will analyze this as a background, if you are interested, you can take a look.

Almost no one would have thought that a dispute over "who should write the short essay" would evolve into a public opinion crisis that shook Oriental Selection.

In the few days when public opinion continued to ferment, Oriental Selection became a frequent visitor on hot searches, and topics such as "Can Oriental Selection still succeed without Dong Yuhui?" and "Internal strife in Oriental Selection" emerged one after another. Yu Minhong, Dong Yuhui and CEO Sun Dongxu were also pushed to the forefront as people related to the incident.

The public can feel the changes in the situation from some minor details.

First, Dong Yuhui took leave temporarily due to "emotional problems": after missing several recent live broadcasts, Dong Yuhui's IP address became Shaanxi; on his social media homepage, his personal signature changed from "used to be a teacher, now a salesperson" to "Don't be willful, don't be certain, don't be stubborn, don't be me"; Dong Yuhui's name did not appear in the live broadcast preview posters released by Oriental Selection from December 15 to December 17.

"It was originally a small matter within the company, but it turned into a surging public opinion due to improper handling." In the clarification video on the 14th, Yu Minhong commented that the editor's approach "seriously lacked professionalism." He also said that Sun Dongxu's mention of Dong Yuhui's salary when explaining the problem was inappropriate, and expressed his apologies to Dong Yuhui.

Screenshot of @Yu Minhong's Weibo

But the situation has not yet calmed down. Although the various speculations about the nature of the storm are difficult to verify, the contradictions in the internal management of Oriental Selection have been exposed. This "unstoppable" public opinion storm has hastily put the contradiction between the super platform and the super individual with IP effect on the stage.

When the news that Dongfang Xiaosun and Dong Yuhui had to choose between them spread, Yu Minhong quickly reassured the public by saying "it's okay, it's not that serious". However, the development of the situation obviously exceeded most people's expectations. Dongfang Selection, which was busy "putting out fires", unknowingly came to a crossroads to choose its future business model.

After the storm, where will Dongfang Zhenxuan and Dong Yuhui go?

1. “Murder” caused by “Short Composition”

The public opinion storm that swept through Oriental Selection started with a "Jilin Tour" cultural tourism promotion. In the pre-show video, the essay read by Dong Yuhui received praise from the public, but when netizens asked who wrote the essay, the editor of Oriental Selection replied in the comment area, saying that the output of the essay was the collaboration of the anchor and the copywriting team, not all from the anchor. This behavior was interpreted by fans as Dongfang Selection's "backstab" against Dong Yuhui, and they produced various evidences to confront the editor.

@东方选TikTok comment area screenshot

Later, Dong Yuhui responded in the live broadcast, teasing the editor for "claiming to be very knowledgeable about the business" and "making a nonsense reply", but this explanation did not stop the two sides from arguing. In the comment area, the editor continued to refute Dong Yuhui and listed the sources of the short essays in the live broadcast room, which roughly means: in some places, such as Jilin and Shanxi, the copywriting was independently created by the team, and the anchor made few changes or did not change a word; in some places, the anchor made a lot of changes, or gave the ideas in advance, and then the team wrote; many short essays on watching the world were written by Dong Yuhui himself.

@Juliu News Tik Tok video screenshot

This response almost immediately intensified the conflict, directly leading to Dong Yuhui's absence from the last live broadcast of the "Jilin Trip" on the 10th. Combined with the previous move of Dongfang Selection to "exploit" Dong Yuhui's commercial value and the tendency to "de-Dong Yuhuiize", dissatisfied fans unfollowed Dongfang Selection while rushing into the competitor's live broadcast room "Gaotu Jiapin" to show their spending power.

After some tug-of-war, CEO Sun Dongxu came out to live broadcast and criticized the editorial team for being emotional and communicating inappropriately, but his live broadcast of smashing his phone and pointing the finger at the fan circle culture once again aroused the dissatisfaction of netizens. In the early morning of the 13th, Dong Yuhui published a long article to explain the small composition incident - of course, at this time, the focus of the incident was no longer the "small composition", and the contradiction between super individuals and corporate management was clearly put on the stage, and Sun Dongxu became the new target of netizens' attacks.

To this end, founder Yu Minhong personally came out to calm the storm, criticizing the editor for "lack of professionalism", the company's management had serious problems, and Sun Dongxu for "being young and energetic, but not round enough". He also expressed his apologies to Dong Yuhui and finally clarified the "fan circle culture" again. Afterwards, Sun Dongxu appeared again and apologized for his "aggressiveness" in the live broadcast.

Super anchors, CEOs, and founders have taken turns to appear, but the Oriental Selection has "unstoppable". According to rumors, New Oriental is facing a situation where it has to choose between CEO and Dong Yuhui, and Yu Minhong quickly came out to refute the rumor; Dong Yuhui changed his signature, and the IP location has also changed to Shaanxi, and will not start broadcasting in the near future.

In its latest response, Dongfang Zhenxuan attributed the outburst of public opinion to the "conflict between the Internet celebrity model and the product route model," and said that sticking to the product route is undoubtedly the best choice for Dongfang Zhenxuan to respond to doubts. This response is also seen as one of the signals that Dongfang Zhenxuan is "de-Dong Yuhuiizing." On the homepage of Dongfang Zhenxuan, it is almost impossible to see Dong Yuhui.

The impact of public opinion on Oriental Selection is also reflected in more aspects. In order to boost sales, Oriental Selection discounted the goods in the live broadcast room; on Douyin, Oriental Selection's matrix accounts have all experienced a loss of fans. Among them, the main account with the highest number of fans has been in a state of continuous loss of fans since December 9, with a total loss of more than 500,000 fans in 6 days. Fans squatted in the comment area to monitor the real-time data of Oriental Selection's fan loss, mocking it, "It's the end of the year, let's lay off a sales champion" and "If Oriental Selection wants to go Dong Yuhui-like, we will go Oriental Selection-like."

According to financial news, in the early trading of the 15th, in the Hong Kong stock market, the share price of Oriental Selection plunged rapidly, and is currently down more than 7%. Since the "Little Composition Storm", the market value of Oriental Selection has evaporated by more than 5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In contrast to the setbacks of Dongfang Zhenxuan, Gaotu Jiapin unexpectedly rose. The first wave of traffic from "Dongnancai" flowed directly into Gaotu Jiapin's live broadcast room.

Previously, Gaotu's live broadcast room was weak, with the lowest number of people online at the same time in previous live broadcasts being only 8. As of December 9, Gaotu Jiapin's live broadcast room still had only 17,000 viewers. But two days later, the overwhelming wealth brought by the "fall" of Oriental Selection descended on Gaotu. According to Chanmama data, in the past 7 days, Gaotu Jiapin's average number of viewers reached 1.737 million, with the highest number of viewers reaching 8.08 million, and sales of 5 million to 7.5 million.

Screenshot of @高途佳品's Douyin live broadcast room

At the same time, the onlookers were more or less "enjoying the fun": Shaanxi Tourism Group told Dong Yuhui, "If you are really unhappy outside, just go home"; Brother Yang commented on Dong Yuhui, "Don't talk about poaching. Which company doesn't want him? He is truly a talent among talents"; Gaotu CEO Chen Xiangdong, who was repeatedly urged by netizens to "poach" people, said, "Dong Yuhui is not meant to be poached, but to be loved"; Luo Yonghao also stepped forward and said he was willing to support Dong Yuhui's entrepreneurship.

2. Yuhui is the reason for success and failure

June 10, 2022 is undoubtedly the day that changes the fate of Oriental Selection and Dong Yuhui.

On that day, the number of online viewers of @东方甄選's Douyin live broadcast room exceeded 100,000, and the "New Oriental anchor group" represented by Dong Yuhui successfully brought the new form of "knowledge-driven sales" into the public eye. Data showed that the account gained more than 470,000 followers that day, and the GMV of the live broadcast room reached 14.57 million yuan, more than ten times the previous data.

In addition to Douyin, netizens are also very interested in the Oriental Selection live broadcast room. Weibo, Baidu, Xiaohongshu and other platforms have appeared on many related hot searches. The high attention has also driven the stock price of New Oriental Online to soar. On that day, the Hong Kong stock of New Oriental Online closed up 39.37%, and the US stock of New Oriental closed up 10.12%.

Everyone knows the story that follows. Oriental Selection has become the top streamer in Douyin’s live streaming sales room, frequently ranking in the top 3 of the monthly sales list.

It can be said that no matter from which dimension, the live broadcast on that day was a key step in changing the fate of Oriental Selection, and Dong Yuhui played a vital role in it.

Screenshot of @东方选TikTok live broadcast room

This former New Oriental famous teacher has a profound cultural background. After becoming a live broadcaster, he also has a strong personal style. During live broadcasts, he often sells goods while "answering questions". He chats with netizens about poetry, history, life, and the future. His fresh, refined, and literary expression style is more in line with the Chinese users' inner aesthetic pursuit of culture and talent, and has attracted a large number of fans.

Amid the overwhelming hot search offensive in mainstream media reports and on platforms such as Weibo, Dong Yuhui completely stood out and became the most recognizable anchor of @东方甄選. In many people's minds, Dong Yuhui is even synonymous with 东方甄選.

@东方贞选 will naturally not "waste" Dong Yuhui's super high popularity. Dong Yuhui can be seen in many of the company's "new trends" after this.

For example, in the process of building the Oriental Selection Matrix Account, Dong Yuhui not only became the "soul" figure of @东方选之的书 which conforms to his personal characteristics, but also the first anchor of Oriental Selection's outdoor live broadcast account @东方选看世界.

When Oriental Selection was controversial due to its product prices, it was also Dong Yuhui who came out to explain and said that "low grain prices hurt farmers", which calmed the public's anger.

@Entertainment Express Station Tik Tok video screenshot

For the newly started @东方选, Dong Yuhui means huge traffic and sales. But as his voice grows, some crises gradually begin to emerge.

The most obvious one is the "fan circleization" controversy that has been mentioned many times in this incident.

Previously, the technology self-media "Zi Zi Bang" reported that during the Spring Festival holiday this year, Dong Yuhui did not appear in @东方选直播室 for 17 days. The GMV of these 17 days was estimated to be 100 million to 250 million, which is significantly different from the previous average sales of 250 million to 350 million yuan per half month. The decline in sales may be related to the Spring Festival holiday, but another possibility cannot be ruled out - Dong Yuhui's personal IP influence is too great, and his fans have given up paying for other anchors.

After all, as early as November 22, some netizens expressed dissatisfaction with "Dong Yuhui's live broadcast time is getting less and less, and he no longer broadcasts during the prime time of 7-10 pm." In December of that year, after Dong Yuhui and Dun Dun joined forces for a live broadcast, Dun Dun revealed that "he might take a break for a while in the next period of time!" This made many people suspect that Dongfang Zhenxuan was "destroying the bridge after crossing the river" and wanted to "de-Dong Yuhui".

Such speculation may not be completely groundless. Over the past year, @东方甄選 has made many moves that appear to be "untying" from Dong Yuhui.

First of all, less than half a year after the account became popular, some people discovered that @东方选之的书, which once focused on personal IP, had removed the title "Yuhui's Strong Recommendation"; the packaging box of Oriental Selected's self-made steak no longer used the Q version image of Dong Yuhui.

In February of this year, rumors that "Dong Yuhui was going to resign due to salary issues" were rife. For this reason, Dong Yuhui had to go live to support the company and revealed his salary and shareholding situation to reassure his fans.

In September, there was another "live streaming slicing incident" that seemed to indicate a conflict between Dong Yuhui and Dongfang Zhenxuan. At that time, more than 2,000 accounts with Dong Yuhui as their avatar and name suddenly appeared on Douyin, using live streaming slicing to sell goods on the shared cart.

In response, Dong Yuhui replied in a live broadcast that he was unaware and reminded everyone not to be fooled, but the account that brought the goods said that it had obtained official authorization from Oriental Selection. Later, Yu Minhong apologized and said that "serious problems" had occurred in the process of promoting the "slice authorization" project of Oriental Selection, and he had made serious criticisms of the management.

In fact, in all the previous controversies, Dong Yuhui has always stood firmly on the side of the "Dong Family". He once said during a live broadcast: "You just care about me too much, so you are always afraid that they will bully me. First, they won't; second, with your firm love, they dare not."

@Zonglan News-Ji Kandian Douyin video screenshot

In comparison, Dong Yuhui's attitude in this incident has already made people see the delicate relationship between him and his "boss".

3. Can the cracks be repaired?

The short composition incident is just one of the outbreak points. In essence, the "contradiction" between Oriental Selection and Dong Yuhui is still the old game between the platform and the super individual.

In the view of Li Hao, the founder of Kas Academy, the business model of Dongfang Zhenxuan is actually not safe, because it is essentially an MCN company . Although MCN is the most profitable type of company in the live e-commerce track, the business model is very challenging to human nature. If a super IP with too high an impact on performance and too high a share is cultivated, the boss may not be able to sleep well; and for the IP itself, as its influence continues to grow, the demand for benefits will also increase invisibly. It is not easy for the two to reach a consensus on the "degree" of this, and long-term game seems inevitable. To go further, a more stable and reasonable cooperation model must be established.

Dongfang Zhenxuan, which has transformed from the education and training industry to live streaming e-commerce, has obviously not yet found a suitable cooperation model.

Both of them have transformed into live streaming to sell goods. If Gree’s organizational model is still in the 1.0 era, then Oriental Selection has actually entered the 2.0 era long ago and will provide equity incentives to outstanding individuals.

But even so, some deep-rooted things from within the organization may not have changed fundamentally.

For example, the management thinking of core managers is still stuck in the 1.0 era, and they are still afraid that super individuals will shake their authority or the stability of business entities; for another example, the organizational model has been changed, but the corresponding distribution mechanism and management model have not been optimized and updated in real time as the super individual effect is amplified, which leads to the emergence of hidden rifts between super individuals and organizations.

As Yin Chen, the founder of Yin Chen Club, mentioned, whether an outstanding talent will work for you and how long he will work for you is a question of character, but whether he will leave for reasons of profit is a question of human nature. Character is cultivated at the back end, but human nature is innate, and character can never defeat human nature.

But the rift already exists, would separation be the best outcome?

Judging from past cases, this is obviously not the case. The direction of the dispute between Li Ziqi and Wei Nian is the best proof.

Oriental Selection is no longer New Oriental Online, and its senior management should not forget why New Oriental Online was able to successfully transform. They must also deeply realize that IP value is the scarcest asset in this era, which can be encountered but not sought after. Once lost, it will be a huge blow to the platform.

As for Dong Yuhui, a super individual, his personal ability and personal charm are obvious to all, but the empowerment and blessing of the platform and team cannot be ignored. Even with an extremely strong fan base and public opinion advantage, it may not be possible to reproduce the current glory after losing the empowerment of the super platform. After all, Li Ziqi, as the top of the top, has been in a silent state since she broke with Wei Nian. If you want to choose a new platform, in addition to going through a long running-in period, it is not ruled out that you will face the same dilemma later.

No matter from which angle you look at it, if Dongfangzhenxuan and Dong Yuhui eventually break up, they will most likely face a lose-lose situation. Today, Dong Yuhui is still off the air, and Dongfangzhenxuan's repeated responses have not solved the fundamental problem. Whether the two can usher in a real turnaround remains to be seen.

But one thing is certain: corporate governance in the era of super individuals has become a new challenge that companies must overcome.

Author: Kasi Data, WeChat public account: Kasi Data