By Staff Reporters
DONG Yuhui’s star has never burned brighter. New Oriental’s live-streaming ace, Dong is now a senior partner at East Buy, the e-commerce firm that has benefited so much from his erudition and gift of the gab. Dong was also made the VP of New Oriental’s travel business, and his personal live-streaming channel will be launched in the new year.
All these positions fell into Dong’s lap on Saturday when his erstwhile boss and former East Buy CEO SUN Dongxu was canned for telling the public how much the popular salesman was paid.
Putting the life in live streaming
Boardroom clashes at internet startups are not uncommon, but the players are rarely so flamboyant, nor productive of tasty sound bites. The fire fight in East Buy’s c-suite has sent flames spreading across a digital landscape that is now ablaze with unexpected opportunities. Captivated audiences await the next thrilling installments and an entire industry is perched on the edge of its seat.
It all started on December 6, when the official Douyin account of East Buy made the innocuous revelation that some of Dong’s live-streaming content was written by Dong’s live-streaming content-writing team.
Raging Dong fans everywhere jabbed furiously at their screens. It was unimaginable, false and perhaps even blasphemous. Every word that flowed, said the fans, from Dong’s lips, was his own personal inspiration. Dong speaks only the word of Dong. Fans stormed the comments section.
The editor tried to explain. Dong is very busy and sometimes writing the script for the products in the show is done by one or more of Dong’s trusted team of highly-qualified and experienced associates, his writing team. They wrote only what Dong willed.
Sun (for it was none other than the CEO at the time who had to come to Dong’s defense) then went on to say that no one, certainly not Dong himself, had ever suggested that this was a one-man show. Where on earth did you get that idea? He asked the fans to “go easy” on Dong and his team.
Dong started out as a teacher for New Oriental and was catapulted into live streaming by the need for both Dong himself and New Oriental to find a new source of income after the tutoring clampdown. Dong’s style is best described as erudite, eloquent and sophisticated. The followers are used to Dong Yuhui holding forth on the minutiae of his products, powered only by his own wit.
Try to get some rest
Dong himself, didn’t feel the need to clarify a situation which was already very clear. It’s the internet. It’s social media. The next trivial event will be along tomorrow and the comment addicts will chase a new butterfly across a new meadow. It would go away, things always did. But things didn’t go away. Things went out of control.
“Some so-called fans are simply trolling us,” East Buy’s Douyin editor wrote in the comment section. Dong, replied to the comment at the time with the slightly cryptic: “Dear editor, go have some rest.”
Fuming Dong fans called for a boycott of East Buy - a pretty standard expression of online rage. The company “did not respect Dong’s hard work,” they said. They rushed to live-streaming sessions of East Buy’s rivals, placed orders, and boasted about it on East Bay threads. Unobserved revenge is no revenge at all.
Affected by the online fuss, Dong skipped a live-streaming session on December 10. Then, on December 13, Dong reappeared defending East Buy and calling on fans to get a grip on reality. He was by no means a “victim” of any kind of bullying.
East Buy lost more than 80,000 followers on Douyin. Its stock price plummeted more than 7 percent and HK$2.4 billion ( 2 billion yuan, US$300 million) evaporated almost overnight.
‘But Yuhui on the other hand…’
A stern-faced Sun hosted his own live-streaming session and tried to explain how Dong and other streamers prepared for a broadcast. But to Dong’s fans, it was an insult and an outrage, more like a dressing down than a vindication of their fantasies.
“We had some meetings, me and Yuhui,” Sun said in front of the camera, putting his phone on the table as he sat down. “Our Douyin editor was wrong to take things personally,” he said.
The now-former helmsman of the company looked out from his stormy wheelhouse, saw wild waves crashing on jagged rocks, and steered straight for them: “But Yuhui on the other hand… could have handled this better, he had no right to skip off from his job that day.”
Dong, the headmasterly boss continued, was paid more than 10 million yuan a year to sell bits and bobs for East Buy. And there are plenty of employees enjoying much smaller salaries. And they have to turn up for work every day.
The fans go wild
And exactly why had Sun put his cell phone on the table like that? The devotees cried. It must mean something. Old live-streaming sessions were dug up and given an airing. Sun’s true character must be exposed.
At first look, when Dong and Sun showed up together in old sessions, there was little to see but two professionals tried to shift some shredded squids or books. But look more closely - arrogant Sun (they said) wastes no opportunity to verbally bully and demean Dong.
This vile man (Sun) could not, they (the fans) said, possibly lead the company forward. And not only that - disgruntled former New Oriental employees and micro-celebrities, now chimed in - we don’t like the look of that YU Minhong (founder and president of New Oriental and East Buy) either. He’s stingy.
Short-video wars
Yu had previously tried to play down the fuss, but suddenly dragged to the center of a crisis that had no rational cause, he posted his own video.
The editor who had objected to being trolled was, in Yu’s opinion, unprofessional. He or she could have come to the boss - like Sun and Dong did - to pour out the bitterness, instead, they chose to start a fight against the fans, using the company's social media account.
It was inappropriate for Sun to have revealed Dong’s salary. Yu humbly apologized to Dong in the video.
Sun quickly released his own video, hastily groveling before Dong after his leader’s example. But it was too late. Sun was hustled below deck and Yun took the helm. Dong rose like the sun in the East Buy sky. And that was that.
Mentor like no other
At the beginning of February this year, Sun sold almost 4 million shares in New Oriental, reducing his ownership from 1.6 percent to 1.2 percent and pocketing a sweet HK$217 million.
Sun’s salary at the time was 16.4 million yuan, accounting for more than half of New Oriental’s top executives’ salary bill. Yu himself makes less than 10 million yuan.
Born in 1985, Sun joined New Oriental 16 years ago as a teacher. It was the prime time of the off-campus institution. New Oriental went public in the US a year ago. As headmaster of New Oriental’s Xi’an campus, he met Dong, who at the time taught English.
Sun made Dong a team leader and offered him a chance to study abroad. That was in 2016. By the time Sun went to headquarters in Beijing to prepare New Oriental’s e-commerce business, Xi’an had become the company’s third-largest campus.
Since Dong became famous, he has never hesitated to credit Sun as his mentor, saying he would never have reached where he is now without him. The same line repeated when Sun, at the time 34, was appointed CEO of New Oriental Online (now East Buy) in 2019.
At that time, the online education industry was flourishing. New Oriental Online adopted a relatively conservative approach, primarily as a sales channel for courses. In July 2021, the "double reduction" arrived, plunging the off-campus education industry entered a harsh winter. New Oriental's revenue decreased by 80 percent, and 80,000 desks and chairs were given away, accompanied by mass layoffs. Dong contemplated resigning.
‘...nothing to do with Yuhui’
After sacking all his colleagues, Dong submitted his one resignation but Sun persuaded him to stay, and they started live-streaming together without much success.
Sun would drive his colleagues home one by one after they wrapped up live-streaming sessions viewed by only a handful of people who could not sleep after midnight.
Then, Dong suddenly found himself trending on every single Chinese social media platform for his unique way of selling.
When Jiemian News interviewed Sun a year ago, he described it as a “lucky incident”. The incident drove East Buy’s stock price up by 900 percent.
On Saturday night, Dong and Yu appeared together in a live-streaming session. Yu said Sun made mistakes and paid the price.
“Dongxu’s removal as CEO has nothing to do with Yuhui,” said Yu.
“They are both like little brothers to me,” he continued.
Happy ever after
On Monday night, the pair were streaming together again. Yu explained that Dong would have his own personal channel in parallel to East Buy within a month, but his revenue would still belong to East Buy.
Yu and Dong spent more than an hour chatting with the audience who were still huffing and puffing, when Yu defended himself against historical accusations of parsimony. “I don’t think Yuhui here shares that thought,” the boss beamed.
With Yu’s personal financial aid, Dong has just bought a new home in Beijing, good news for a staggering property market.
His thanks and praise for his boss, surely not the work of any writing team - is almost identical to his previous gratitude to his previous boss. Only the name has been changed.
“I will forever remember what teacher Yu has done for me in my time of need, he said. “And I shall stand up for him when he needs me to.”
