Behind Yu Minhong's "tears and slashing horses".

Original Liu Xiaobo

In recent days, Dongfang's selection of Dong Yuhui's "small composition" incident has been heating up and has become the king of topics in a row.

I didn't care about this topic in the first place, but I couldn't escape because people kept talking to me about it. In the circle of friends and various groups, they are also swiping the screen.

I just checked it, and among the top 6 topics on today's hot search list on a major platform, this matter actually accounted for 3.

Obviously, the popularity of this matter is already comparable to Daolang's Rakshasa Sea City, and it is destined to become one of the topics and phenomena of the year in 2023.

Today's tweet talks about this, after all, it is closely related to finance and investment.

In the eyes of financial people, this is a problem of the relationship between celebrity hosts and capital with strong IP and strong fan effect. Capital either doesn't play, or if you want to play, you have to learn to bow your head.

In the subconscious of ordinary people, especially Dong Yuhui's fans, this is the problem of "low-level youth in the counterattack" being troubled and suppressed by "industry bosses" and "authorities", as well as resisting and winning.

Therefore, the unexpected popularity of Dong Yuhui and Dongfang's selection of "small compositions" incident is the same underlying logic as the popularity of Daolang Rakshasa Haishi.

Dong Yuhui and Daolang are both talented young people from the grassroots, but on their way to rise, they have been suppressed by authority. Fans saw their own shadows in Dong Yuhui and Daolang. Therefore, to support Dong Yuhui and Daolang is to support yourself. I may not be able to win in the real world, but Dong Yuhui and Daolang can, so we must support it! The final victory of Dong Yuhui and Daolang is the victory of the fans.

Dong Yuhui is a post-90s generation. According to public information, he was born in Tongguan County, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province in 1993 and graduated from Xi'an University of Foreign Chinese in 2015. He joined Xi'an New Oriental in 2016.

Before the decline and transformation of the education and training industry, he was only a relatively successful English teacher, mainly teaching senior high school students.

The education and training industry declined, New Oriental's stock price fell from about 40 yuan to around 3 yuan, and Dong Yuhui was in danger of losing his job. At this time, Yu Minhong led the transformation of New Oriental and started live broadcasting, and Dong Yuhui transformed into an anchor with goods.

When bringing the goods, Dong Yuhui appeared as a "former English teacher", which itself attracted more attention. And he adopted a bilingual live broadcast, taught everyone to speak English in the live broadcast, and mixed various poems and chicken soup jokes, which conquered many people at once, and became popular as the head live broadcast star, driving the soaring stock price of New Oriental. Later, New Oriental changed its name to Oriental Selection, and its stock price rose from less than 3 yuan to a maximum of 75 yuan.

It can be said that without the transformation of New Oriental led by Yu Minhong and the use of Dong Yuhui, Dong may not be able to find his best home field in his life.

In turn, New Oriental has successfully transformed, and Dong Yuhui has made great contributions, which is a killer weapon to attract popularity and accumulate fans.

The live streaming industry is very special, if you cultivate 10,000 anchors, none of them will be able to achieve positive results and reach Dong Yuhui's attention.

And a successful head anchor is enough to support more than 80% of the value of listed companies.

Judging from the historical information unearthed by netizens in recent days, although Dong Yuhui has received a high salary, honor and attention from New Oriental, he has also been subject to some constraints, and some netizens even think that "Dong Yuhui has been deliberately made difficult by some people" and encountered "unspoken rules in the workplace".

The relationship between Dong and CEO Sun Dongxu has attracted the most attention from fans.

When Sun Dongxu, CEO of Dongfang Selection, was revealed to have an annual salary of 18 million and cashed out more than 200 million Hong Kong dollars through the stock market in the past 1 year, more Dong Yuhui fans turned to Dongfang Selection, turned to pay attention to Dong Yuhui's personal account and poured into the live broadcast room of competitors. Dong Yuhui's personal Douyin account has skyrocketed from 13 million fans to 18 million fans in just two days. Dongfang Selection's fans have dropped more than 2 million!

As a result, speculation about Dong Yuhui's possible departure from Dongfang Selection was thrown on the table. Luo Yonghao, who worked in New Oriental and later started his own business, directly shouted to Dong Yuhui: Don't work, start a business!

In recent days, the share price of Oriental Selection has also plummeted, with a real loss of more than HK$7 billion.

All kinds of signs show that if Yu Minhong cannot handle the Dong Yuhui incident well, the development of Dongfang Selection may encounter a major setback. Some people even predicted that Yu Minhong would not be able to start a business for the third time.

This morning, Dongfang Selection issued a notice of appointment and dismissal through its official video account, announcing the removal of CEO Sun Dongxu as executive director and CEO.

It can be said that Yu Minhong made a major concession to retain Dong Yuhui: first apologized, then announced that he would stop broadcasting "thinking about it behind closed doors", and then remove the CEO.

Sun Dongxu is a post-80s generation, joined New Oriental in 2007 after graduating from university, first as a teacher, and then as a manager, all the way to the triumphant song, and in August 2019, he was promoted to the executive director and CEO of New Oriental Online, becoming the company's second person. Presumably he has excellent management, but his relationship with Dong Yuhui has not been handled well.

Now Yu Minhong slashed Ma Jian with tears and chose the former between Dong Yuhui and him.

The reason is extremely simple: in the New Oriental era, the company did not have "irreplaceable celebrities" except for Yu Minhong, and at that time, New Oriental was a bit like a hot pot restaurant, with no chefs and no chefs;

It is still unknown whether Yu Minhong will be able to keep Dong Yuhui in the end. I believe that Yu Minhong in addition to "cutting horses", he also has big moves, such as giving Dong Yuhui a higher position in the company structure, giving more equity and options, and equipping a team that can better serve him instead of scaring him.

But to be honest, from the perspective of investors, business models that rely heavily on "core figures" such as live streaming are extremely risky and difficult to invest in.

For example, Guo Degang's Deyun Club was once rumored to be listed. Later, Guo Degang made it clear that he would not consider going public because he had no financing needs and did not want to make a lot of money.

The model of Deyun Club is very similar to live broadcasting, and it is also supported by one or two, two or three core figures. And whether an actor can be popular and when he will be popular is unpredictable. It is too risky to tie the commercial value to one or two people, and if he has any accidents or is in a bad mood, the stock price will fluctuate violently, and external investors will lose their money if they don't get it right.

A company with long-term value must rely on a group of people and systems, rather than a high degree of binding to one or two people.

But there are always some industries that must be bound to one or two people. Literature, film and television, entertainment, and live streaming are generally the same.

To sum up:

Yu Minhong slashed Ma Jian with tears and dismissed the CEO who had discovered, cultivated, and used him for 4 years, with the goal of retaining Dong Yuhui and avoiding the Dongfang Selection Earthquake. The logic is: the live broadcast industry is highly dependent on top stars, Dong Yuhui is gone, and the company's sky will fall. I believe that Yu Minhong also has a "treatment package" designed for Dong Yuhui.

The reason why this matter is so popular is a logic related to the popularity of "Rakshasa Haishi": in the populist era, fans are naturally interested in topics such as "counterattacking and backgroundless youth" being suppressed by "authority", and use their own attention and messages to support the "weak" and "counterattackers". Dong Yuhui is Daolang, and Daolang is Dong Yuhui, that is, the projection and sustenance of the fans themselves.

From an investment point of view, it is easy not to invest in a company whose value is tied to one person, because the risks are huge. In recent years, this kind of new format has often appeared in the tuyere, in addition to live broadcasting, there are also short dramas, self-media, etc. This kind of business is more suitable for celebrity entrepreneurship, I myself am both a star and an absolute controlling boss, and external investment is in a secondary position.