Dong Yuhui's solo journey is not easy

Authors: Liu Baodan, Zhou Zhiyu

Editor: Zhang Xiaoling

After entanglement with EAST BUY and Yu Minhong for half a year, Dong Yuhui still chose to go solo completely.

On the evening of July 25th, EAST BUY announced that Dong Yuhui had decided to no longer serve as an employee of the company and a senior management of an affiliated entity of the company, effective on the same day.

Before the market opened that day, EAST BUY's parent company New Oriental Group plummeted by 9%, and dropped over 4% after the opening.

This was a dignified parting ways. Yu Minhong showed his sincerity by directly giving Dong Yuhui the wholly-owned subsidiary of EAST BUY; while EAST BUY, after cutting ties with Dong Yuhui, will continue to focus on its own business model.

According to the announcement, Yu Minhong sold 100% equity of the company with Dong Yuhui to Dong Yuhui for a price of 76.59 million yuan, which is the unaudited net asset value of the company with Dong Yuhui as of June 30, 2024.

Yu Minhong appeared very generous in this transaction.

Shortly after the announcement, Yu Minhong posted on his personal social account stating that Yuhui had the necessary funds to purchase the equity of the company with Yuhui, and he arranged the payment in accordance with the rules of the listed company and the company's articles of association. "This means, I arranged the money for Yuhui to buy the company, and the company is given to Yuhui."

According to EAST BUY's announcement, from December 22, 2023 to June 30, 2024, the company with Yuhui achieved a net profit of 140 million yuan.

Yu Minhong rewarded all the net profits of the company with Yuhui to Yuhui. In other words, Dong Yuhui took away 140 million net profit, and used 76.5855 million yuan to pay EAST BUY for the equity of the company with Yuhui, leaving 70 million.

In addition to funds and business, Yu Minhong even helped Dong Yuhui find a new office space. Four days ago, Dong Yuhui moved out of the New Oriental building with the company with Yuhui, and moved into the Internet Finance Center, a space found and renovated by the New Oriental asset team.

As for the reason for Dong Yuhui's departure, Yu Minhong attributed it to public opinion creating a rift between EAST BUY, the company with Yuhui.

In his view, there was significant uncertainty in the development of both companies, EAST BUY's stock price fluctuated dramatically due to external influences, and the company's credibility and reputation plummeted.

In fact, looking back at the initial incident, the breakup between Dong Yuhui and EAST BUY seemed inevitable: Dong Yuhui became a super popular internet celebrity, while EAST BUY did not want to be an MCN, only managing him alone.

With Dong Yuhui completely leaving EAST BUY, the rare dispute between the company and the super anchor in the live broadcasting industry comes to an end. Both sides will usher in new stages of development in the future.

For EAST BUY, losing the most influential IP will have to be validated over time.

The capital market reacted strongly, with EAST BUY's US stocks plummeting before the market opened. Because for the current EAST BUY, parting ways with Dong Yuhui is definitely a loss However, as early as the "small essay incident", EAST BUY had already begun to distance itself from Dong Yuhui, making full preparations for this.

EAST BUY has always aimed to be an e-commerce platform, a product and technology company, as well as a cultural communication company. This is much more valuable than just being an MCN.

Furthermore, in the future, EAST BUY will have more collaboration with New Oriental.

In the past year, New Oriental has returned to growth. As a leader in the education and training industry in China, New Oriental has benefited from the recovery of traditional business demands such as adult education and university exam preparation, and has been profitable for six consecutive quarters, giving EAST BUY a lot of confidence.

However, after losing Dong Yuhui, EAST BUY needs time to return to a market value of over 20 billion and shake off the influence of Dong Yuhui.

Dong Yuhui's path to going solo is not easy. He is likely to fall into the same predicament as Li Jiaqi, Viya, and Luo Yonghao.

Shen Meng, a director at Xiangsong Capital, believes that in the current context of declining live e-commerce, the focus on EAST BUY has diminished. How to maintain stable business growth in the face of declining consumption and intensified competition is an unavoidable issue for Dong Yuhui.

Zhuang Shuai, a retail e-commerce industry expert and founder of Bailian Consulting, believes that live e-commerce consists of anchors + supply chains. In the first four months, the sales in Dong Yuhui's live broadcast rooms were 932 million yuan, 411 million yuan, 620 million yuan, and 538 million yuan respectively. Such high sales are closely related to the supply chain support provided by EAST BUY.

At the beginning of the year's shareholders' meeting, the management of EAST BUY once stated that the supply chain with Dong Yuhui is under the control of EAST BUY. In Zhuang Shuai's view, it is still unknown whether Dong Yuhui will need to rebuild a new supply chain system in the future.

For Dong Yuhui, the most important thing at the moment is to ensure that after going solo, the product selection ability and supply chain system with Dong Yuhui remain stable. Currently, it is still difficult for the supply chain system with Dong Yuhui to completely separate from EAST BUY.

A senior MCN industry insider told Wall Street News that for anchors, the biggest challenge in selling products is product selection. Dong Yuhui can cooperate with major brands first to ensure safety and reputation, and then expand to new brands to pursue profits. "Dong Yuhui has traffic, so he doesn't have to worry about product prices."

In the live e-commerce industry, super anchors are basically tied to MCN companies, whether it's Li Jiaqi or Crazy Little Yang Brother; even Luo Yonghao, who claims to have faded out of the live broadcast room, is deeply tied to the company he is in.

As the era of live e-commerce is fading, they are gradually fading out of the scene, either becoming outdated or transitioning to behind-the-scenes roles.

For example, after disappearing from the live broadcast room, Viya turned to the current popular short drama business with her partner Qian Xun, embarking on the "live broadcast + short drama" dual track. This is also a new attempt by the super anchor and the company behind them after fading out.

In two years, from an ordinary English teacher to a super IP with over 20 million fans, "Dong Yuhui" has created a miracle. This miracle can be said to have been jointly created by Dong personally, EAST BUY, and New Oriental. Now, they have to move towards separation Dong Yuhui also has a sense of crisis. He said, "Without the shelter of the harbor, starting today, we will sail alone into the vast sea. The future is unpredictable, only by giving it our all."

Transitioning from an idealist who talks about the stars and the sea to a successful entrepreneur and businessman, Dong Yuhui's journey is still a long one