Will Dong Yuhui leave Dongfang Selection?

Visual China.

Written by Growth Works, written by Lian He, edited by Xiaopeng.

Due to the "small composition" incident, Yu Minhong and Sun Dongxu, CEO of Dongfang Selection, came out one after another to apologize to Dong Yuhui and netizens. However, the turmoil is far from stopping, and the capital market has also shown concern about Dongfang's selection of this company. On December 15, the stock price of Dongfang Selection was still in the **.

There are even ** reports that Yu Minhong was caught in a two-choice turmoil between CEO and Dong Yuhui. Although the parties denied it, the discussion about whether Dong Yuhui would leave became more and more intense.

It is easy to share hardships and hardships, and it is difficult to share wealth and wealth. In the development process of Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui from being ignored to becoming super IPs, the contradictions continue to escalate, and the debate about who has achieved whom has never stopped.

This article attempts to clarify three issues:

The first is what the small composition means to Dongfang Selection, why should you grab the "small composition" work, after all, no behind-the-scenes personnel in other live broadcast rooms have ever jumped out and said, "This is the live broadcast content I planned";The second is whether Dong Yuhui will leave, and what are his possible development paths;The third is whether Dongfang Selection can leave the "super head anchor" and move towards the product development route.

In the fermentation process of the "small composition" incident, Dongfang Selection's sales, fans, and stock price all declined. According to statistics, Dongfang Selection lost nearly 700,000 fans in 6 days, on the contrary, Dong Yuhui gained more than 100,000 fans a day, and currently has 14.39 million fans, which has exceeded the number of Yu Minhong's Douyin fans and is half of Dongfang Selection. From the 9th to the 13th, the market value of Oriental Selection evaporated by 6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The small essay "Who wrote it and why did it cause such a big storm?".Putting aside the factional struggles within the company and the relationship between the anchor and the platform for the time being, let's talk about why "small compositions" are so important.

For Oriental Selection,"Small composition" is one of the core driving forces of live streaming, and it is also the core that distinguishes it from other MCN institutions for live streaming.

Dongfang Selection initially became popular precisely because of the "small composition" style live broadcast with goods.

In June last year, Dong Yuhui came out of the circle with one "small composition" after another. For example, when selling books, he said: "The really valuable education is not to give him an expensive school district house, not to drive a luxury car to pick him up, but to cultivate children's curiosity, desire for knowledge and imagination." ”

When selling rice, he said: "I have not taken you to see the snow of Changbai Mountain, I have not taken you to feel the breeze blowing through me in the fields in October, and I have not taken you to see the ears of grain that bend down like a wise man." I haven't taken you to witness all this, but my dear, I want you to taste such rice. ”

These small compositions later became Dong Yuhui's signature "discourse".

In the past two years, the competition of live broadcast e-commerce has evolved from commodity competition to content competition. People in the live broadcast industry once analyzed Growth Works, saying that the current live broadcast industry is seriously homogeneous, and there is no significant difference in the products and ** of each live broadcast room. If you don't differentiate yourself in content, it's hard to stand out. It is precisely because these content-based live broadcast rooms can provide emotional value to users that users are willing to pay.

However, how to convert emotional value into sales requires in-depth research and design in the early stage. Dongfang Selection has also experienced a long period of silence, and it was Dong Yuhui's small composition on June 9 last year that went out of the circle overnight, which really made Dongfang Selection run through this path of bringing goods and became a "clear stream" in the live broadcast industry.

In June last year, Dongfang Selection increased its fans by nearly 20 million, and its sales were as high as 68.1 billion yuan, becoming Douyin's "first brother with goods". Along with the share price of New Oriental, the price of 4 from June 8HK$37 rose as high as 3315 Hong Kong dollars, up nearly 7 times.

This year, Oriental Selection has entered the cultural tourism products, and is also promoting local cultural tourism through "small compositions". Fans of Oriental Selection have become Xi to this type of content marketing and are willing to pay for it.

The result is,Dongfang Selection relies on "small composition" content to leverage traffic at a relatively low cost, which also drives the increase in profit margin to a certain extent.

There are two types of traffic** for live streaming, organic traffic and paid traffic. Relying on the personal charm of the anchor and the "small composition" style content marketing, Dongfang Selection is much lower than other live broadcast rooms in terms of streaming costs.

Cicada mother data shows that the paid traffic in the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room only accounts for 213%, which is lower than the level of goods with the same amount of 273%, the head live broadcast anchor @Mr. Dong, paid traffic accounts for 356%。

The more stark contrast lies in the traffic structure of Dongfang Selection and other brands. The reason for comparing Dongfang Selection with the brand side is that Dongfang Selection has a large number of self-operated products, for example, in fiscal year 2023, Dongfang Selection's self-operated product revenue accounts for more than 6% of the total revenue.

From this point of view, compared with other Douyin head brands, Dongfang Selection has a lower cost of investment as a brand. For example, Gao Fan and Han Shu account for a high proportion of paid traffic. 5%。

Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why "" wanted to backstab Dong Yuhui with who wrote the small composition, and caused such a storm. To a large extent, it is the small composition that makes Dong Yuhui a "cultural" symbol, so it has become popular on the Internet, and it has also achieved the unique live broadcast mode of Dongfang Selection.

For Dong Yuhui, Yu Minhong and Dongfang must be grateful at the beginning of the selection.

Yu Minhong himself has publicly stated many times: It was because of Dong Yuhui's talent that detonated the Oriental Selection"God helped, I sent a Dong Yuhui, if it wasn't for Dong Yuhui's detonation, we might still be doing the oriental selection more hard. ”

However, dependence on a single person is a double-edged sword, and the opposite is the vulnerability of the enterprise.

Judging from various news, Dongfang Selection is "de-Dong Yuhui" after gaining a firm position as the head anchor.

Since November last year, Dong Yuhui's live broadcast time has become less and less, and he has withdrawn from the ** time of 7 o'clock to 10 o'clock in the live broadcast room.

Within New Oriental, Dong Yuhui's status is not as sought after by the outside world. Previously, at the 30th anniversary celebration of New Oriental, Dong Yuhui was revealed that he couldn't get in without a ticket, and it was Yu Minhong who coordinated to get in.

This is completely different from other live broadcast MCN agencies, Li Jiaqi, Xiao Yangge, and the MCN behind Simba are all around the anchor IP to amplify the network effect, and these super-head anchors also have far greater power to speak than Dong Yuhui.

So far, although Yu Minhong and Sun Dongxu have apologized to Dong Yuhui, Dong Yuhui's situation is still a little embarrassing, and the relationship with Dongfang Selection is more delicate.

Therefore, whether Dong Yuhui will leave Dongfang Selection has become a hot topic. Perhaps we can get a glimpse of the probability of him leaving Dongfang Selection from the route that Dong Yuhui may take.

The first way is to go to other MCN agencies.

In this ** turmoil, many netizens called on Dongfang to select the old rival Gaotu Jiapin to poach Dong Yuhui. Like Oriental Selection, Gaotu is also transforming from education to live broadcasting, with fans rising by 280,000 and the stock price rising by more than 70%, which is the biggest beneficiary of this **turmoil, many netizens claim that "there is only one Dong Yuhui between Gaotu Jiapin and Oriental Selection." ”

Although Brother Xiao Yang and Gaotu CEO Chen Xiangdong are praising Dong Yuhui, they also know that digging Dong Yuhui is not a problem to spend money, the problem is how to integrate and how to give full play to Dong Yuhui's greatest value.

For example, how to configure a team for Dong Yuhui that conforms to his character characteristics and cultural heritage?Dong Yuhui was once warned in the live broadcast room because he didn't want to sell goods. How much freedom can the new owner give Dong Yuhui?When Dong Yuhui sells products that are not selected by Dongfang, will the energy be discounted?How to balance the old and new forces?

Catching Dong Yuhui, the benefits are great, but the risks are also great. The effect of different frequency live broadcast styles is not necessarily complementary, but may also be 1+1<2. Small institutions will definitely not be able to catch it. The more head the institution, the less dare to take big risks.

The second is to set up a company independently.

At present, Dong Yuhui has nearly 15 million fans, and it is easy to set up a team with personal appeal, whether it is advertising, bringing goods, or doing reading clubs as the main business, he will live well.

Indeed, as questioned by the public, Dong Yuhui lacks management ability, but in this era when supply is greater than demand, high-quality supply capacity and the ability to undertake the delivery to the demand side are the core advantages. The back-end chain capability is a high-quality resource, but not a scarce resource.

There is a high probability that this road can be passed, as for whether it will be taken, the key is what Dong Yuhui's ambition is.

The third is to become a variety show.

If you have watched a lot of Dong Yuhui's live broadcasts, you will know that his expression ability, deduction ability, on-site response ability and emotional intelligence are very suitable for taking the variety show route. In fact, at the beginning of Dong's popularity, it was revealed that there were many variety shows contacting him. In March this year, Dong Yuhui also recorded the popular variety show "Let's Talk" with Sa Beining.

Of course, in the suggestions of netizens, the best way is to set up a separate companyis controlled by Dong Yuhui and jointly held by Yu Minhong, which is the most decent breakup.

In this way, for Dongfang to select the CEO, the management problem will be reduced;For Dong Yuhui, the team around him may be able to burst out with greater energy;For Yu Minhong, the better Dong Yuhui's development, the more he can maximize his interests as a shareholder.

It may seem like a crap, but it's not.

Here, Dong Yuhui generally refers to the super head anchor, not necessarily Dong Yuhui.

Assuming that Dongfang Selection loses Dong Yuhui, there are probably two directions that Dongfang Selection will take in the future. First, then hold a Dong Yuhui, and second, like Wei Ya after the live broadcast is no longer Qianxun, like "going to Luo Yonghao" to make a friend.

On the second road, there can still be head anchors, middle-waist anchors and small anchors, and the echelon is clear, but the importance of "head" should be controlled at such a levelThat is, after losing him, it will not hurt the muscles and bones, it can only be regarded as a skin injury that heals quickly, and the new anchor can quickly come up.

This is certainly a more desirable path.

Dongfang Selection understands better than anyone that eggs cannot be put in the same basket, and understands the importance of risk diversification better than anyone else.

First, Yu Minhong realized it early on"The lively business model established based on external platforms is very fragile", so as early as when the suspicion with Douyin was not put on the table, it launched its own APP.

Second, Dongfang Selection has always been a multi-channel layout, with a layout in the first and the first.

Third, we are not willing to only do traffic business, but also rely on traffic to go upstream, such as agricultural products, such as not only selling tourism products in the business concept of cultural tourism, but also including the business of some offline travel agencies.

Of course, diversifying risk also includes cultivating more streamers.

However, why does Dongfang Selection still hope to have a super-head anchor?

In addition to the factor of traffic, it is also because Dongfang selection is different from making friends, humble searching, and looking at the network from afar.

Dongfang Selection is not only a sales channel, it is also a brand.

The proportion of self-operated products in Dongfang's selection of GMV has increased from 20% to about 30% (2022.)12—2023.5), in the same period, self-operated products accounted for a higher proportion of Dongfang selection income, more than 7 percent.

Sun Dongxu also mentioned that the future plan of self-operated products is to account for no more than half of GMV, and there is still some room for improvement.

Doing a brand to earn a brand premium, which is different from selling third-party products to earn commissions, earning commissions can be achieved by talking about low prices, and it is a secondary consideration to hurt the interests of the upstream of the chain.

Being a brand is a long-term thingWhether it can be done well or not, there are several key elements: the product has a sense of differentiation and story. Under the concept of cost-effective consumption, there is also a way to add that similar goods have the best advantages, but this is not the way for Oriental Selection to choose.

The explosive products selected by Dongfang are generally more common categories, such as grilled sausages, and the difference lies in the simple ingredients and solid ingredients. However, more self-operated categories are not like self-built sausage factories, but rely on OEM.

On the one hand, common categories produced in the form of OEM are easier to be imitated, and the sales of self-operated products need the blessing of "brand power". On the other hand, even if the product itself is superior to the same kind, an anchor like "Dong Yuhui" with strong plastic product ability is needed to publicize the differences.

The sense of story and feelings have become the label of Oriental selection.

In other words,In addition to selling goods, the anchors selected by Dongfang also undertake the work of brand building.

Brand building, the negative example, is Li Jiaqi's rhetoric when telling the rationality of Huaxizi eyebrow pencil selling 79 yuan, the positive example, is Li Jiaqi's early delivery of lipsticks of different colors to show different beauty, and it is also Dong Yuhui when he was questioned whether the corn sold for 6 yuan ** is high, he can use "grain cheap hurt farmers" and "time when he was a child" to give corn extra value.

Some people will say that the other anchors selected by Dongfang are not bookish?Can't you make it a chapter?Can't they take on the responsibility of brand building?

No. Now, users make consumption decisions not only by the publicity and planting of brands and talents, but also by the experiential sharing and communication between people. Loyal fans of anchors have increasingly become an important part of brand voice communication.

The construction of Dongfang's selection brand power depends on a product that satisfies consumers, and it also depends on these fans to speed up brand building. At least for now, Dongfang Selection does not dare to bet on just one side.

Therefore, even if Dong Yuhui leaves, Dongfang Selection will win a Dong Yuhui, but the training difficulty of knowledge-based anchors is much higher than that of ordinary anchors, and some people in the live broadcast e-commerce industry previously revealed to us that in 2019, in a head MCN institution, only one of the 500 anchors may be able to be trained to become excellent content-based anchors.

Even if it can be cultivated, "red or not" is also a metaphysics. Why didn't Wei Nian copy a Li Ziqi out, and why didn't Qianxun make a Wei Ya again, did they not want to?