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Text | Internet Review

Yu Minhong never expected that his biggest inner demon came from a group of people who were also English teachers.

The Demonic Past

The good news is that he resolved this inner demon last weekend. On the evening of July 25, Dongfang Zhenxuan announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that Dong Yuhui had resigned from Dongfang Zhenxuan and acquired Huitongxing in full. So far, Huitongxing, which was established more than 7 months ago, will also become independent and completely draw a line with Dongfang Zhenxuan.

After the announcement, New Oriental founder and Oriental Selection CEO Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui issued open letters respectively, in which both parties expressed mutual recognition and gratitude. At the same time, the letter also revealed that Dong Yuhui received a breakup fee of 358 million yuan, a mature team and "a system based on pallet and supply chain management". Later, an insider revealed that Oriental Selection also exempted Dong Yuhui from liquidated damages and non-compete agreements.

So far, the story seems to have come to a respectable end. Since the end of December last year, the aftermath of the "Little Composition" incident has continued. Whenever Yu Minhong shows up, all kinds of doubts and ridicules will come pouring in. The reputation accumulated over the past few decades was destroyed, replaced by the title of "Iron Teacher".

Surprisingly, the sky-high breakup fee did not put an end to the inner demons. Doubts are still heard, especially from Luo Yonghao, who is also in the live streaming sales track. It is pointed out that the essence of this ending is that Dong Yuhui bought his own company with the money he earned, not that Yu Minhong was generous. At the same time, the past of Yu Minhong in his early years, when he smiled and toasted while pinching him purple, was brought up to prove Yu Minhong's hypocrisy.

Of course, this is just Luo Yonghao's one-sided statement, and there is no way to verify it, but from many past events, it can be seen that Yu Minhong's grip strength is indeed amazing. Zhou Hongyi once invited Yu Minhong to rock climb, and he almost reached the top on his first attempt. There is reason to believe that he has the ability to pinch a 200-pound strong man purple.

Apart from these gossips, Yu Minhong has spent the past 20 years getting rid of the shadow of his English teacher. From the internal fighting with Xu Xiaoping and Wang Qiang, to being impressed by Jack Ma's Internet empire in the Chinese Entrepreneurs Club, to the endless feud with Luo Yonghao, to being defeated by Dong Yuhui's fans, the protagonists of these events have one thing in common, that is, they are all English teachers. One has to sigh that the only one who can defeat an English teacher is an English teacher.

China's Internet world is unique. It is actually a group of English teachers who have the biggest voice and the right to speak. With the advantage of language, it is more convenient to obtain external information. Jack Ma opened the era of English teachers on the Internet. On the other hand, the insights and petty-bourgeois sentiment brought by English culture have become a weapon to easily capture the mass users. The rise of New Oriental is based on the English dream. And Dong Yuhui got the baton in the era of short video live broadcast. No matter how reluctant Yu Minhong and Xiao Sun are to hand over the baton, the baton has chosen its owner.

Having fought with Xu Xiaoping and Wang Qiang for many years, Yu Minhong was quite confident in his management methods. However, the management methods of the previous era were no longer effective. Facing the aggressive fans, even the most experienced ones seemed powerless.

Unspeakable secret

All signs indicate that this breakup of the century may not be as harmonious as it appears.

On the one hand, Yu Minhong's open letter clearly mentioned the breakup amount of Dong Yuhui, which exposed Dong Yuhui, who always wanted to hide his wealth, to the public, and his image as a rural boy collapsed. This may be a necessary means to prove his innocence, regain the public's love, and refute the "iron teacher". But it is also possible that it was intentional, just like Sun Dongxu's previous disclosure of Dong Yuhui's income.

At the same time, the open letter used the wording of giving the company to Dong Yuhui, which was really hasty for a public company listed in Hong Kong. In addition, Sun Dongxu's previous high-level cashing out caused many small and medium shareholders to complain. Giving away the company's core assets and providing software support to potential competitors may make sense in terms of emotions and the underworld, but in the business world, this is an act that violates basic ethics.

The business world is not about treating people to a meal, but about life-and-death competition. Even Ren Zhengfei, the highly respected head of Huawei, uses drastic measures against former employees who start their own businesses and compete with the company. Li Yinan, who is regarded as the "crown prince" of Huawei, is the best example. This kind of gift, which may be legal but unethical, could ruin Dong Yuhui's perfect image if he accepts it.

On the other hand, Dong Yuhui's open letter was written in a rather formulaic way, a classic resignation document with little genuine emotion. He also did not elaborate on the reason for the breakup, and it was a formality.

In fact, it is easy to understand the contradiction behind it with a little analysis. When the same company does the same business, there must be competition for resources and friction between personnel. Someone previously broke the news that due to the problem of live broadcast venue, members of the two teams complained. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg of friction. When it comes to the competition for local government resources, the competition is even more fierce.

The bigger problem is that Oriental Selection cannot emulate Tencent's horse racing mechanism. First, the traffic strength of the two parties is too obvious. Second, the popularity of Huixingxing is unlikely to bring real benefits to the group, and will squeeze resources.

From Dong Yuhui's perspective, through semi-independence, he has realized the size of his influence. His demand for the right to speak is even more obvious, but it is clear that he cannot be satisfied under the Oriental Selection System. Yu Minhong's idea is to get rid of the big anchor and strengthen the goods to create an online Sam's Club.

The current business model of Yuhui Xingxing is more like a media business model of mainstream media + character interview talk show + Yu Dan version of Lecture Room + live streaming + self-media. And it is more focused on media attributes, which is perfectly in line with Dong Yuhui's natural attribute of being a "media person", but incompatible with Yu Minhong's thinking. If the two are to be promoted, they must be separated.

At the same time, as long as he is a senior executive of a listed company, Dong Yuhui's income will be exposed to the public. It is foreseeable that the gradually expanding income will easily become a target of attack, which is also one of Dong Yuhui's most feared weaknesses. After becoming a personal company, the income issue has become a mystery. His most important buff has been preserved.

However, things are not that simple. After the breakup, Yu Minhong not only chose to make Dong's income public, but also put an invisible shackle on Dong Yuhui and removed many of Dong Yuhui's buffs.

In the Internet world, Dong Yuhui may be the anchor with the most "buffs", which even makes Li Xiaolai sigh that I respect his luck. In the midst of the ups and downs, Dong Yuhui accidentally covered almost all the hot topics with labels on him, such as "rural guy", "short, ugly and poor", "double reduction and unemployment", "teacher", "English", "cultured person", "host", "anchor", "worker", "workplace bullying PUA", "son-in-law", etc. "Buffs" are equal to top traffic, which is indeed the case in reality.

Dong Yuhui's "Shackles"

Looking back at this most respectable "conspiracy", there are many aspects worth pondering. The first is the change in Dong Yuhui's identity, from a rural worker to a boss, from being managed to a manager. The empathy of the workers may disappear. The second is the change in Dong Yuhui's wealth and status, from living in a rented house to being a guest of a billionaire, the lack of empathy has disappeared.

The third is whether Dong Yuhui can be consistent in his words and deeds. When the public knows Dong Yuhui's current ability, how to deal with his huge wealth is a problem. As we all know, Yu Minhong has made a lot of efforts in charity. It is also a test whether Dong Yuhui, who was full of emotions before, can devote himself to charity.

The fourth is the change of Dong Yuhui's partners. After becoming independent, Dong Yuhui faces a big talent gap. He may not have enough experience in management by himself, so he needs to find a new partner. This person needs to help him deal with public relations, law, and all aspects of business to cope with the challenge of changing public attitudes towards counterfeit quality issues. This person is bound to share the money, how much to share, how to share, and whether this person can withstand the test of willfulness are all questions. If you don't choose well, you may be worse than Yu Minhong. Regarding this issue, Luo Yonghao recommended signing a contract with Li Jiaqi's boss, which is definitely a bad idea. Li Jiaqi himself is the leader of consumerism. Once Dong Yuhui is involved, it is equivalent to destroying the Great Wall. The most reliable suggestion is to pay Feng Tang to help him come up with ideas and dig up people, which is more reliable than Luo Yonghao.

Fourth, Dong Yuhui has new changes in the assessment and training of team members. After becoming independent, how to establish a reward and punishment system for anchors and teams, whether the team serves itself or trains multiple anchors, this is a century-old problem. If he is like his favorite Jay Chou, and only serves himself, then he will be attacked by public opinion for being selfish and not training rising stars. If he trains newcomers, how will he handle this relationship if another big anchor of the same level appears. Will he be called the second generation of "Iron Teacher" if he doesn't handle it well? In addition, once you become a boss, you have to balance the sense of value of each member of the team. Even the editor who writes the manuscript behind the scenes must make them think that their work is valuable. You can't be as willful as when you were an anchor, otherwise the team will be uneasy.

Fifth, Dong Yuhui is about to fall from his ideal to reality. He had repeatedly emphasized his identity as a scholar and a cultured person before, but now he has to support dozens or even hundreds of employees as soon as he opens his eyes, and there may be more in the future. He must first become a profitable businessman, which is further and further away from the cultural person he claims to be. This is almost a fate that he cannot escape, and at the same time, his label as a cultured person may fade a lot. At present, the frequency of high-profit cosmetics in the live broadcast room with Hui Xingxing has increased, which conflicts with his previous anti-consumerism remarks. Dong Yuhui's future is full of possibilities, but the only possibility is that he will not become a pure cultural person.

The sixth is Dong Yuhui's supply chain problem. If he continues to use the supply chain system of Dongfang Zhenxuan, he will definitely lag behind Dongfang Zhenxuan in the competition of the same category. I am afraid that Dong Yuhui will have to spend a lot of money on the supply chain in the future.

Despite the difficulties, Dong Yuhui's chips for breaking through are still solid. An investor friend of the author envied that Dong Yuhui's fan base is too perfect for the consumer track. These women born in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1985s have caught up with the economic dividends of the times, have strong consumption power, but generally have limited education (mostly technical secondary schools and colleges), and generally have children. They are very obsessed with the expression of middle school essays. Because their children go to school and work in other places, this group of people feels more lonely, has a heavy need for companionship, and prefers irrational consumption decisions. At a more macro level, this group covers two population booms, with a huge base. After the decline of paper media, the medium-sized cultural market, which once had the largest circulation, such as "Reader" and "Yilin", needs someone to fill it, and Dong Yuhui is the chosen one.

This is indeed the case. After the separation, the number of fans of Yuhuixingxing has exceeded 22 million. There is a bigger force behind Dong Yuhui, that is the Douyin platform. Compared with Yu Minhong's theory of mutual achievement and multi-platform layout, Dong Yuhui's attitude towards Douyin is still quite dedicated. Douyin is also happy to see the split and decentralization of large institutions. At present, Douyin has formed a multi-strong pattern of making friends, Xiao Yangge, Dongfangzhenxuan, and Yuhuixingxing. This is another kind of "de-Hui", but it is not so blunt.

The honeymoon period between Douyin and Yuhuixing has already begun. At the time of the breakup, during the intense competition of the French Olympics, Dong Yuhui had already recorded a program in France in cooperation with Douyin, and the number of views is still amazing. I just don’t know how long this honeymoon period will last. How many Internet celebrities who were very close to the platform in the past few years are still there?

After the breakup, the number of posts questioning Dong Yuhui gradually increased. Many netizens accused Dong Yuhui of being ungrateful and mocked him for being ungrateful. Some even quoted an ancient poem to interrogate Dong Yuhui, "Many loyal people are butchers, while most unfaithful people are scholars," and believed that he was indeed a scholar.

Some of these negative comments may be groundless, while others may be true. After all, human nature is complex and no one is perfect, including Dong Yuhui. Today, the biggest burden Dong Yuhui carries is probably the perfect persona that is being pushed higher and higher by fans and the media.

The Chosen One

In a blink of an eye, the country has banned talent shows for many years. But in the commercial world of the Internet, talent shows are happening all the time, and Dong Yuhui is undoubtedly one of the lucky ones.

20 years ago, "Super Girl" was born, igniting the domestic entertainment media for more than ten years. After the TV era, the former super idols and super hosts are fading from the public's view. A former well-known producer of CCTV commented on the Internet that, to some extent, Dong Yuhui made up for the public's hunger for media stars in the Internet era. He is equivalent to a super media individual who is a combination of Lu Yu + Dou Wentao + Li Yong + Yu Dan + Li Yuchun. Media ability is his nuclear weapon, not the selling ability that the public pays attention to. Luo Yonghao's success also follows the same logic.

It is too early to predict Mr. Yu’s success or failure, but what is certain is that neither of them will be happy.

The confrontation and victory of the new and old English teachers reminds me of this scene. In the popular American TV series "A Song of Ice and Fire" in recent years, there is such a plot. Harrenhal is the largest and most solid city defense in the Seven Kingdoms. All Harrens think it is impossible to break through, which is indeed true according to common sense. But he did not take into account Aegon the Conqueror and his dragon. Dragons will not be stopped by high walls and towers. Dragon fire is unreasonable. In the end, Harren was burned to death by dragon fire in the highest tower.

The changes in the business and Internet world are so cruel and unpredictable. Even business veterans may be defeated by the "dragon fire" of new fans. In the Internet world, different fan groups are like wild dragons that have not been tamed. Whether it is by chance or talent, there are no fixed rules to follow. Some ordinary people become dragon riders overnight. Previously, the company system and huge team established by enterprises, like castles and iron armies, were destroyed by dragon fire.

The dragon that Dong Yuhui tamed is the one with the most fighting power. Of course, Luo Yonghao also has one. But these "dragon riders" need to understand that the fan base has its own thoughts like dragons, and it cannot be completely controlled. Once it loses control, it may backfire. Dong Yuhui has not made any big mistakes so far. What he needs to be wary of is that fate forces him some bad luck, just like it gave him good luck in the beginning.

It is easy to build a kingdom, but it is difficult to keep it. On this issue, English teachers may reach a rare consensus. After all, who has not experienced the days when inner demons are rolling and it is difficult to fall asleep?