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The news of Dong Yuhui's resignation from his former employer "Eastern Selection" topped the trending search lists of major media outlets, sparking discussions on how the live broadcast industry can solve the problem of "big anchors".

On the evening of the 25th, "Oriental Selection" issued an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange stating that Dong Yuhui decided to resign immediately due to his career ambitions, investment in other careers, and personal time arrangements. In addition to paying Dong Yuhui all the benefits and compensation promised by the company, Yu Minhong, chairman of the board of directors, has sought approval from the board of directors and the board's remuneration committee to distribute all remaining undistributed profits of "Walking with Hui" to Dong Yuhui. In addition, in accordance with the listing rules and the company's organizational articles of association, Yu Minhong has made arrangements for the settlement price of Dong Yuhui's acquisition of "Walking with Hui". In order to maintain the normal operation of "Walking with Hui", the company will provide it with a free information system funded for research and development.

Soon after, "Dongfang Zhenxuan" announced in another announcement that the two parties had signed a sales agreement, and Dong Yuhui would acquire 100% of the equity of "Yihui Xingtong" for RMB 76.58 million. The announcement showed that "Yihui Xingtong" had a net profit of RMB 140 million in the six months since its establishment at the end of last year.

A single stone stirs up a thousand waves. After the announcement was issued, netizens were in an uproar. Some congratulated, some worried, and some were curious about how much the two companies, "Dongfang Zhenxuan" and "Walking with Hui" were worth? Judging from the live broadcast that night, the number of fans of the two companies fell and rose respectively. Obviously, Dong Yuhui's solo flight is a major benefit to "Walking with Hui". In the morning of the 26th, Hong Kong stock investors also generally showed "lack of confidence" in the subsequent operation of "Dongfang Zhenxuan". Its stock price once fell by more than 25%, and the rebound was weak.

As if they wanted to make this "breakup" appear more "warm and decent", shortly after the announcement was made, "Eastern Selection" Chairman Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui both made "supplementary explanations" through social media.

Yu Minhong said in an open letter: The "small composition incident" that suddenly broke out at the end of last year put him and Dong Yuhui in an awkward situation. In order to balance the interests of both parties, the "Traveling with Hui" company was established, with Dong Yuhui in full control of its business decisions. Since then, the two sides have been discussing development plans and feel that the complex external and internal environment they are facing will not only put the company's operations in trouble, but also harm the long-term development of individuals and the company. In order to avoid more business conflicts and public opinion disputes, the two sides made the decision to let "Traveling with Hui" be independent after repeated consultations, and requested the board of directors to agree to transfer 100% of the shares of "Traveling with Hui" to Yuhui himself.

Almost at the same time, Dong Yuhui also responded with a long article on his personal social account. In the article, he said, "If my relatives and friends in Luoyang ask me, I will tell you that I have a pure heart in a jade pot." After the establishment of "Walking with Hui", he and the entire team were treated very well, and Mr. Yu also issued a bonus that exceeded expectations. Dong Yuhui also explained that the equity purchase money required to acquire "Walking with Hui" was arranged and settled by Yu Minhong in accordance with the rules of listed companies and the provisions of the articles of association.

In the past two years, the story between Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong has become a hot topic among the public. If Yu Minhong has received more skeptical eyes, then Dong Yuhui's rapid transformation from an "ordinary teacher" to a top anchor with a very positive image fully demonstrates the preference of fans.

In June 2022, Dong Yuhui entered the public eye with his outstanding expressive ability. The unique model of selling goods while teaching English made him quickly become a popular "big anchor". A large number of loyal fans flocked to the live broadcast room, using real money to make Yu Minhong's Oriental Selection stock price soar, realizing the successful transformation from an educational institution to live broadcasting.

In December 2023, the company's rapid development came to a halt due to the sudden "small essay" incident. A message claiming that "the promotional copywriting of Oriental Selection was mostly created by the copywriting team, not all by Dong Yuhui" made the company's internal conflicts public. For a while, Dong Yuhui's stay or departure caused a lot of speculation, and Yu Minhong was also caught in a fierce whirlpool of public opinion.

In order to avoid causing more damage to the company's operations, the matter came to a temporary end one day later with Yu Minhong apologizing and Dong Yuhui being promoted. A month later, "Walking with Hui" was launched, quickly taking away a large piece of the pie that originally belonged to "Eastern Selection", and its sales gradually surpassed that of "Eastern Selection". This made it impossible for the two sides to hide their conflicts any longer, and now they have finally reached the stage of "breaking up".

Looking back on this process, it is not difficult to find that the separation and reunion of the two parties has always been under the high attention of public opinion, and the fermentation of public opinion has also greatly affected the fate of the parties involved. How do you view this phenomenon?

Zhang Zhian, a professor at the School of Journalism at Fudan University, believes that this is not just a problem faced by "Dongfang Zhenxuan". Compared with traditional industries, the entire live streaming industry faces greater "public opinion risks". The business model of live streaming determines that related companies must constantly connect with users and constantly use such a traffic economy to convert and realize. Therefore, a verbal broadcast, a mistake, or who is in the live broadcast room or who is not, or whether Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui are in the same frame in a live broadcast project, will trigger various speculations. Therefore, the anchor team must have a very strong sense of emergency management, and the support team behind it must have a very strong ability to deal with and respond to public opinion. How to use data technology to analyze after discovering public opinion, which public opinions are true and which are fabricated? Which are malicious attacks from black public relations or competitors? After the public opinion risk occurs, what kind of method is used to quickly deal with it? These issues have put forward higher requirements for live streaming companies. From this perspective, Dong Yuhui's "going solo" incident can be said to have provided the industry with an opportunity to observe and study the response plans under complex public opinion.

Data shows that in recent years, live streaming has rapidly developed into an important way of e-commerce sales, with a market size of up to 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023, an annual growth rate of up to 35.2%. Behind the impressive results, "big anchors" such as Dong Yuhui, Li Jiaqi, and Simba 818 have made great contributions. Some of them even support half of the live broadcast room and create live broadcast sales performance of hundreds of millions.

However, as the "big anchors" have more and more say in the company's business decisions, the issue of "de-heading" has gradually been put on the agenda by many companies. How to prevent the interests of shareholders from being hijacked by the "big anchors", how to balance the interests of both parties and take a "win-win" path, has troubled many companies, and has also made some "big anchors" gradually think about "leaving".

Regarding this phenomenon, Zhang Zhian believes that in the live broadcast industry, super anchors often have super star value, and their contribution to the sales and profits of the entire live broadcast enterprise is often huge. However, many managers of traditional enterprises are not yet prepared to deal with it, and traditional performance incentive methods cannot reasonably reflect the contributions of super employees. Therefore, in a sense, in order to resolve this contradiction and unify the interests of both parties, it is necessary to carry out institutional innovation in the internal management of the enterprise. Still taking Dongfang Selection as an example, this company is not just a live broadcast delivery company. Its business scope also includes product selection supply chain management, upstream and downstream extension of cultural and tourism industries, etc. The essence of this attempt is to strive to expand the revenue channels of live broadcast companies, which can not only bring development opportunities to the company itself, but also enable the live broadcast industry to do more empowerment for cultural tourism and education research. It is also hoped that this change in operation will bring better prospects for both companies, peers, and consumers at the same time.

Kankan News Reporter: Jinmei, Ruanli, Youwei

Editor: Ruan Liyouwei

Editor: Jin Mei