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The 200 meters in Zhongguancun connects two companies that have just experienced a major "breakup" - Oriental Selection and "With Hui Xingxing".

The overwhelming heat of the public opinion field has not spread to this offline place. In the Internet Financial Center, one of the landmarks of Danling Street, the third floor where "Traveling with Hui" is located is quiet and low-key, with only the entrances with security guards on both sides exposed. The company's security guard told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that fans occasionally come to send flowers recently.

"Walking with Hui" after moving to a new home. Photo credit: Photo by Yang Xinyi, a reporter from China Business Network

Regarding this still mysterious company inside Mennei, Fang Lin (pseudonym), a person close to "Walking with Yuhui", revealed to the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that the company ("Walking with Yuhui") currently has about 200 employees, all of whom were previously selected employees of Dongfang, "the company should not have a management team yet", "(at the beginning of its establishment, 'Walking with Yuhui') the anchors, operation team, etc. were all selected by Dong Yuhui himself, and you can let whoever you want go."

Fang Lin said that "Walking with Hui" is basically a 1:1 replica of Oriental Selection, but the tone of the two is different. For example, "Walking with Hui" has never sold Oriental Selection's self-operated products. After the two "broke up", the "de-Dong Yuhui" Oriental Selection focused on matrix and self-operated products, while "Walking with Hui" is more oriented towards cultural and tourism products, more like an MCN organization with a super IP.

Regarding the future of these two companies, which are of the same origin, at the shareholders' exchange meeting on July 26, Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental and chairman of Oriental Selection, said that the "breakup" would have "huge benefits" for the development of both parties; but in the view of Luo Yonghao, the "ace anchor" of Make Friends, "this is a complete farce, and the result of this farce seems to be an obvious lose-lose situation."

Will this "breakup" result in a "win-win" or "lose-lose" situation?

A real look at the new location of "Traveling with Hui": Strict security Insider: Previously, the "mother-in-law" would block Yuhui

"'Breaking up' is an act that we have no choice but to do, because this world is not a world for the two of us." Talking about the "breakup" that shocked the outside world, Yu Minhong said at a shareholders' exchange meeting that the idea of ​​establishing "Walking with Hui" to quell the "Little Composition" storm was "rather naive", so even if he and Dong Yuhui had "no barriers" between each other, "breaking up" was inevitable.

"Teacher Yu founded this company ('Traveling with Hui') to give it to him," Fang Lin told the reporter of Daily Economic News. "Traveling with Hui" currently has about 200 employees, all of whom are former employees of Dongfang Selection, and Dongfang Selection gave Dong Yuhui a lot of freedom to form a new team. "You can let anyone you want go."

In the first live broadcast of "Walking with Hui" on January 9 this year, Dong Yuhui also revealed that the current team has a total of 71 people, who were selected from various departments of Oriental Selection. "Some anchors like to explore and volunteered to join; after Oriental Selection sorted out the team, it was found that some young anchors were very talented and were assigned to this live broadcast room."

On July 29, a reporter from the Daily Economic News visited the company at the center of public opinion. The company had just moved into its new office in July, and the information about "Traveling with Hui" had not yet been synchronized to the signboard on the first floor of the Internet Finance Center.

The information of "Traveling with Hui" has not yet been synchronized to the guide board on the first floor of the Internet Financial Center. Image source: Photo by Yang Xinyi, a reporter from China Business Network

The company on the 3rd floor has strict security, just like the security settings on every floor of Oriental Selection. Through the glass door, you can see that decorations celebrating the move are hung at the company's front desk.

Fang Lin told the Daily Economic News reporter that Dongfang Selection strengthened security precisely because there were too many "mothers-in-law" coming to the company, "some even squatted to block Yuhui." For a long time afterwards, Dongfang Selection and Dong Yuhui himself probably realized more deeply that becoming famous overnight is a double-edged sword.

"In the past six months until now, (Dongfang Zhenxuan) has encountered a strong storm of network power." At the shareholder communication meeting, Yu Minhong said that public opinion often "makes us restless" and "has indeed had a significant impact on the company's business development." Therefore, Yu Minhong believes that the independence of "Traveling with Hui" will have "huge benefits" for the long-term development of Dongfang Zhenxuan.

Fang Lin revealed to the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that at present, there is not too much anxiety within Oriental Selection about Dong Yuhui's departure, and the focus is placed on the matrix development of multiple platforms and the research and development of self-operated products. "We hope that the number of self-operated products will reach internal goals by the end of the year. We haven't figured out what to do (next step) yet, because both the product supply chain and after-sales service need time to be polished."

At the shareholder exchange meeting, Yu Minhong also proposed that Dongfang Zhenxuan would develop more categories of self-operated products. In June this year, a reporter from the Daily Economic News learned from Dongfang Zhenxuan that the total number of self-operated products of Dongfang Zhenxuan exceeded 400, of which 80% were agricultural products, and 260 were on sale during the same period; the total number of users of the company's self-operated products exceeded 25 million, and the product repurchase rate reached 59%.

However, having lost its "golden signboard", Oriental Selection is bound to suffer a lot of traffic losses in a short period of time.

According to FeiGua data, in the first quarter of this year when "Walking with Glory" was launched, the average sales of Oriental Selection was 100,000 to 250,000 yuan per show, while in the first quarter of last year when the number of live broadcasts was almost the same, the average sales reached 250,000 to 500,000 yuan per show.

On the day of its premiere on January 9, "Walking with Glory" had 54.314 million viewers, sales exceeded 1 million pieces, and GMV exceeded 100 million yuan. It also topped the Douyin sales charts, popularity charts, hourly charts, fan growth charts, and likes charts.

However, the two companies may not have such a tit-for-tat relationship in the future. Fang Lin told the reporter of the "Daily Economic News" that although the two companies have "broken up", they will cooperate in product selection systems and supply chain construction. "At present, the two parties still share a set of product selection and operation systems, and it is possible that "Traveling with Hui" will launch its own self-operated products in the future." On July 25, the day when the official resignation was announced, Dong Yuhui also publicly stated on social media: "Mr. Yu also supported our operation system for free."

"There is no internal management team yet"? How did Dong Yuhui become Boss Dong to achieve a "win-win" situation?

What Yu Minhong saw as a "win-win" situation became a "lose-lose" situation in Luo Yonghao's eyes.

"By destroying the Great Wall himself, (Yu Minhong) turned a company with a market value of more than 70 billion Hong Kong dollars into more than 9 billion Hong Kong dollars." Luo Yonghao commented on the independent operation of "Walking with Hui" in a live broadcast on the evening of July 26: "As a Xiao Dong who once 'disliked becoming an Internet celebrity', 'rejected selling things' and 'only liked teaching', he had to bite the bullet and step out, forced to become a bigger Internet celebrity and the boss of a professional selling organization."

Is this a win-win situation or a lose-lose situation?

Dong Yuhui becomes "Boss Dong"

Pan Helin, a well-known economist and member of the Information and Communication Economics Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that the independence of "Walking with Hui" resulted in a "lose-lose situation" and "any 'breakup' is because the couple can't live together and there is no positive meaning."

"Yu Minhong's choice of 'breaking up' is the most commercial choice, which made Dong Yuhui go from 'separation but not divorce' to 'divorce but not leaving home'; as for Luo Yonghao's words, it is actually the feeling of 'once you have seen the sea, you will never be impressed by the puddles again'. Yu Minhong just suffered a little loss in the short term, but in the long run it is indeed harmless and beneficial." Internet analyst Zhang Shule told the reporter of "Daily Economic News".

It will take some time to determine whether he wins or loses, but for Dong Yuhui, who has truly "started his own business" this time, the transformation from anchor to boss is a major challenge that cannot be avoided.

Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting, told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that Dong Yuhui and "Traveling with Hui" are facing many difficulties in future profit models, corporate strategy formulation, partner recruitment, supply chain construction, crisis public relations response, etc. "This is not a new company doing this, but a company that already has tens of millions of fans and has earned more than 200 million yuan in half a year. It's a bit like a person who looks like an adult but is actually a child. There are many things he doesn't understand and has not experienced."

Fang Lin told the reporter of the Daily Economic News that according to his understanding, the company "Traveling with Yuhui" has not yet set up a management team. "I personally think that Yuhui will probably reduce his broadcasting time in the future and focus more on managing the company and producing cultural content. Now that he is the boss, why not do something he likes?"

"'Walking with Hui' is a 1:1 replica of Oriental Selection, but the two have different tones. For example, 'Walking with Hui' has never sold Oriental Selection's own products." Fang Lin explained, "(The decision not to sell Oriental Selection's own products) is related to Yuhui's personal character. He actually doesn't like live streaming and has a literary temperament. Mr. Yu doesn't have a KPI (for selling products) for him."

In his opinion, after becoming independent, "Yuhui Xingxing" will be more like an MCN agency with Dong Yuhui as its top IP, and will be more inclined towards culture and tourism in terms of content and products; while Oriental Selection will be more like a product company with matrix development.

In this regard, Zhuang Shuai believes that "the current situation is indeed like this", because Dongfang Zhenxuan has its own brand, while "Yuhui Xingxing" only has anchors who sell goods through live broadcasts.

Zhang Shule said that Oriental Selection is still an MCN organization with an industrial chain, while "Walking with Yuhui" is just a live broadcast room. "Oriental Selection can provide business to "Walking with Yuhui", but "Walking with Yuhui" only has one head IP, and the overall underlying architecture is not perfect, so there may be traffic but no supply. The process of completing this adjustment will take at least quarters, and to truly become a modern enterprise, it will take at least years."

However, Pan Helin also suggested that "Traveling with Hui" might also "develop business around one IP" like Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room. The road ahead is long, and it depends on how Boss Dong takes the first step after independence.