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Once again, facing the spotlight of public opinion, Yu Minhong responded to all doubts.

On July 26, at a shareholder conference call of Oriental Selection Holdings Co., Ltd. (Oriental Selection, 01797.HK), New Oriental founder and Oriental Selection CEO Yu Minhong spent more than an hour responding to several major issues of concern to the outside world.

Previously, the news of Dong Yuhui's resignation quickly swept the entire Internet: On July 25, Oriental Selection issued an announcement stating that Dong Yuhui has decided to no longer serve as an employee of the company and a senior management of a merged affiliated entity of the company. The resignation was due to Dong Yuhui's career ambitions, his commitment to his other careers and personal time arrangements, and took effect on the same day.

On January 9, 2024, Dong Yuhui's new account "Walking with Hui" was launched on time. Visual China data map

At this point, "Yihui Xingxing", which was established only half a year, and Dong Yuhui officially bid farewell to Oriental Selection. It has only been 7 months since the "Little Composition" incident at the end of last year.

Why did Dong Yuhui leave? Are star employees treated unfairly in the workplace? Are Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui at odds? Where will Oriental Selection go in the future? Yu Minhong explained the above questions one by one.

It is worth noting that according to an analysis by an insider to the reporter of The Paper, based on Yu Minhong’s statement in the conference call, after the breakup, Dong Yuhui will be able to obtain at least 358 million yuan worth of profits.

During the conference call, Yu Minhong also specifically expressed his gratitude to all the shareholders who have stayed with Oriental Selection Company."I know that many of our shareholders have suffered a lot of losses during this period. I hope everyone can trust us again. I believe that in time, we will be able to run the company better."

On the same day, Dong Yuhui also released an internal letter in Youhuixingxing in response to the breakup: "May we be as faithful as the wind, and grow with the sun. Thanks again to Mr. Yu, and hope that everything goes well for him. Let's cheer ourselves up and hope that everything goes well for us."

As of the close of July 26, Oriental Selection’s share price plunged, closing at HK$9.5, down 23.39%.

Yu Minhong Visual China data map

Why divest "Traveling with Youhui": It is unavoidable

Yu Minhong said that after last year's "Little Composition" incident, as the chairman of the company, he knew that Dong Yuhui's value was very important. He tried his best to secure a relatively generous guaranteed income for him and also retained Dong Yuhui's trust in him.

When establishing Yuhuitongxing, in order to ensure that Dong Yuhui could obtain the shares of the listed company Dongfangzhenxuan, I did not add Dong Yuhui's share to Yuhuitongxing's shares, because once he obtained the shares of Yuhuitongxing, he would not be able to obtain the shares of Dongfangzhenxuan. In my prediction, if Yuhuitongxing and Dongfangzhenxuan work together in the future, both GMV (total transaction volume) and profits will increase, which also means that the overall share value of the company will increase.

Under this premise, Dong Yuhui's shares in Oriental Selection are undoubtedly more valuable than just the shares in Yuhui Tongxing.

"My naive idea at the time was that the two platforms would not interfere with each other and support each other, which was a good model, and everyone would get the treatment and income they were satisfied with." Yu Minhong admitted, but this matter was seriously interfered with by the external environment. Since the establishment of Dongfang Zhenxuan, it has been coerced by the power of online public opinion and has no peace. There are also various interest forces fanning the flames, such as competitors, capital manipulation, etc. "These are all my guesses, without any specific basis, but the fans of the two platforms have also formed an irreconcilable situation."

Yu Minhong said that he "tried desperately to please fans on both sides, but he didn't expect that not only was the bowl of water not balanced, but the fire burned his head instead." There were constant rumors online that he was a "conspiracy," "stingy," and "abuse of employees."

"I don't care about outside comments, but it has indeed had a significant impact on the company's business development, the mentality of the anchors of Oriental Selection, the mentality of the managers, and my mentality have been greatly affected and hurt, and the company's state is unstable", so that "the company and my actions are in a dilemma, and my own strategic layout cannot be implemented." Yu Minhong said that once he appeared in front of the camera, there would be groups of onlookers coming to curse him. On the surface, the revenue of Oriental Selection was increasing, but the company's stock price was becoming more and more unstable.

Yu Minhong said that he had been discussing the issue of independence with Dong Yuhui since February this year. To resist foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the internal situation. When irreconcilable contradictions already exist internally and external forces are suppressing internal forces, if they do not separate, they may strangle each other in the future.

"Since Yuhui also has this idea and hopes to have a bigger platform, I think it is indeed worth considering, although I also think this is a pity, because Dong Yuhui is in a sense the company's core asset and a rare and outstanding person. But facing the current situation, I think it is not possible not to consider independence."

Yu Minhong said that the outside world's concerns about New Oriental's participation in Yuhui Tongxing will never happen in the future. For Yuhui Tongxing, the future situation will become more peaceful and complex problems will be solved at one time. As for Dongfang Selection, it can carry out layout and reform in a big way without worrying about the huge pressure and pain brought by external public opinion.

"Just like a country can only talk about development after it has peace, although we have indeed paid a lot, we have finally ushered in a clearer and more peaceful environment," Yu Minhong said frankly.

On March 22, 2024, Dong Yuhui's first outdoor live broadcast was also the first stop of "Walk with Hui into Hubei" in Wuhan. In the afternoon of the same day, Dong Yuhui visited the East Lake Cherry Blossom Garden accompanied by Dai Jianye, a professor at the School of Literature of Central China Normal University. Visual China Data Map

Talking about Dong Yuhui's income: He asked to give him the remaining 140 million yuan as a reward

Regarding Dong Yuhui's income, Yu Minhong admitted that the specific data cannot be disclosed, but he believes that the current treatment of Dong Yuhui is reasonable, even generous.

"The data we have published shows that there is still 140 million yuan of net profit in the account of Yuhui Tongxing. This 140 million yuan is actually the profit that should have belonged to Dongfang Zhenxuan after Yuhui's income was distributed.According to the previous agreement, this means that after Yuhui distributes 50% of the net profit, there will be 140 million yuan of net profit left."Yu Minhong said that in addition to this, Dong Yuhui also has a relatively good monthly salary and equity granted by the company, so he believes that Dong Yuhui has always been very grateful because this is already a very good treatment for him.

Why was the 140 million yuan reward that belonged to Oriental Selection given to Dong Yuhui? Yu Minhong said that this was decided after his proposal and discussion by the board of directors, mainly based on two reasons. The first was that Dong Yuhui had made great contributions to the development of Oriental Selection, so after he became completely independent, giving him a reward expressed the company's goodwill and hoped to pass on this goodwill to the society.

In addition, the management of Oriental Selection is no longer an internal issue, but a transparent social phenomenon. Therefore, when a star employee who has made great contributions is about to leave, it is also a common practice for many companies to give him sufficient rewards. In addition, in the first half of this year, due to the independent plan, Dong Yuhui did not get equity, but he still contributed to Oriental Selection, so it is reasonable to give him some cash subsidies.

"If both parties break up amicably and at the same time win a better social reputation, there will be potential for cooperation and continued development in the future, which will be the greatest protection for the company's interests," Yu Minhong said frankly.

"Everyone knows that I have been doing business for more than 30 years. New Oriental has encountered many difficulties and challenges, including more severe challenges than this time. However, I have led New Oriental to overcome difficulties again and again," said Yu Minhong. "All shareholders who have followed us for a long time will eventually receive good returns."

Responding to doubts about investment: We will never participate in Huitongxing Capital Operation

According to the announcement of Dongfang Zhenxuan, Dong Yuhui (buyer), Beijing New Oriental Xuncheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. (seller) and Yuhui Tongxing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (target company) entered into a sales agreement. According to which, the seller agreed to sell and the buyer agreed to acquire 100% equity of the target company for RMB 76.5855 million.

Regarding the acquisition amount of more than 70 million yuan, Yu Minhong explained that it did not occupy Dong Yuhui's 140 million yuan in profits. The more than 70 million yuan had nothing to do with the 140 million yuan in profits that Dong Yuhui owned. It was just an assessed company valuation.

"Since we have broken up, as an older brother, I am also giving Dong Yuhui a further token of goodwill. We have decided to pay the 70 million yuan fee through a certain cooperative relationship between New Oriental and Dong Yuhui. I will not explain the details, but it complies with all the rules for New Oriental's listing on the US stock market and does not infringe on any personal interests of Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui."

In response to outside doubts about his investment in Yuhui, Yu Minhong said that he and Dong Yuhui did not have any barriers. Although the two sides had different views on the business, he felt that he and Dong Yuhui were close friends regardless of age, "even though I am one year older than Yuhui's father."

"Yuhui highly recognizes my opinions and suggestions on business and layout, but it is true that there is no other way to break up this time, because this world is not the world of the two of us." Yu Minhong said that as the CEO of Oriental Selection, he promised that he would not participate in any capital operation and development of Yuhui at any time in the future, and he must go all out to protect the interests of shareholders and employees of Oriental Selection and New Oriental, "but my personal friendship with Dong Yuhui is another matter."

“I personally think that this split will be of great benefit to the future development of Oriental Selection.Although it took some effort, peace was finally achieved.. "Yu Minhong said.

On training anchors: anchors will no longer set up their own platforms

Regarding Oriental Selection which has lost Dong Yuhui, Yu Minhong believes that the company's current status is like the process of New Oriental's gradual transformation from a model led by famous teachers to a normalized business model, and it needs to rely on more outstanding anchors for development.

"After this round of fluctuations, the 30-odd anchors on the Oriental Selection platform are becoming more and more mature." Yu Minhong said that in the future, Oriental Selection will further urge the company to discover more outstanding anchors, and give them good treatment and incentives, as well as a good enough platform for development. However, "it is impossible for an anchor to set up an independent platform in Oriental Selection, or to adopt an operating model like Yuhui Xingxing, because this will lead to some kind of self-interest and some unpredictable results."

"We hope to build the anchors into an excellent team that is united, works together, and hits the target wherever they are directed," "The development direction of the anchors will be the direction of common development, sharing difficulties, happiness, common development, and common prosperity." Yu Minhong said.

Talking about future development: We will establish a membership store system based on New Oriental stores

Talking about the overall development strategy, he said that Oriental Selection will "take both internal and external factors into consideration" and develop both self-operated products and external high-quality products. In addition, Oriental Selection also has the ambition to sell products offline. Yu Minhong said that he hopes to rely on New Oriental's approximately 800 ground teaching points to try out an online and offline integration model, and hopes that every city will have an Oriental Selection member store, so as to increase the brand exposure of Oriental Selection and consumer loyalty.

In terms of acquiring traffic, Yu Minhong said that he has actively participated in the cooperation and negotiations with Douyin, and has repeatedly expressed to Douyin’s senior management that Oriental Selection is willing to continue to develop on Douyin. "In the foreseeable future, Oriental Selection will cooperate more closely with Douyin in various activities, and will receive better support from Douyin."

At the same time, Oriental Selection also plans to promote matrix-featured accounts. Yu Minhong said that on each independent platform, in addition to the Oriental Selection account, various relatively vertical accounts will be established while ensuring human resources to increase the appeal to special groups and allow the traffic of each matrix account platform to continue to increase.

In addition, regarding the closure of the Douyin comment section, Yu Minhong said, "I can accept rational and reasonable criticism, or even accusations against me," but there are too many unreasonable words and abusive attacks, and he expressed the hope to reopen the comment section "when everything returns to normal."

At the end of the call, Yu Minhong expressed his best wishes to Dong Yuhui: "When you need my help, I will do my best to help you as long as it is within a reasonable range." He also thanked the Dongfang Selection team: "The grievances will definitely make them more mature, stronger, and more confident and believe in the future. I hope I can still lead them through wind and rain and rush to the stars and the sea."