The darkest hour may be ushered in.
@新熵 Original
Author丨Sakuragi Editor丨Ippah
No one could have imagined that Dongfang Selection would detonate social media again in such a way.
In the Douyin live broadcast debut of Zhang Wenzhong, the founder of Wumart Group, on May 31, Yu Minhong, as a guest, said that Dongfang Selection is now a mess, and he does not have any ability to make suggestions to Zhang Wenzhong, so that Dongfang Zhen, who has been calm for a long time, is on the hot search again.
On the afternoon of June 3, the widely disseminated live broadcast slice made the share price of Oriental Selection Holdings Co., Ltd. fall by nearly 10%, and then there was news that the style of the Oriental Selection live broadcast room was out of shape, not only missing the bilingual live broadcast, knowledge explanation, and "321 on the link" was popular, at the same time, the GMV of many live broadcasts was less than 10 million, and the decline was serious.
Then, on June 7, Yu Minhong issued an open letter apologizing to Dongfang Selection's clients, shareholders and investors, saying that the language was inappropriate and trying to calm public opinion in this way.
A turmoil seems to be over, but the changes in Dongfang Selection are worth pondering.
As the live broadcast room with the highest possible public opinion discussion on the whole network, after the consumption trend is moving towards cost-effectiveness, Dongfang Selection has been enjoying the brand premium with its unique delivery model and strong IP potential energy. Few investments, no pit fees, and emphasis on self-operation are all unique business models of Dongfang Selection.
But since Dong Yuhui's "separation", changes in Dongfang selection are also happening. The first thing that the departure of the super IP is the traffic, and the sales of the Hui peer have been stable, and the number of fans has been rising, and the corresponding positioning is similar to that of Dongfang Selection, which does not have too many differentiations, is struggling. In the traffic world, winner-takes-all is the norm, and there is a big difference between whether there is a super IP in the live broadcast room.
The chain reaction also happened to the newcomer anchor, in addition to leaving the influence of Dong Yuhui, is falling into mediocrity, an insider from Oriental Selection told the Economic Observer that the selling style is not the norm, but the mechanism of individual brand cooperation during the big promotion period exploded, and some sessions will change in the way of bringing goods and the overall form. Regarding the controversy caused by the "howling" live broadcast format, Dongfang Selection has held an urgent discussion on this matter and will rectify it according to the suggestions of consumers.
But it is an undeniable fact that with the blessing of Dong Yuhui's influence before, the anchors can be "light and light", more focused on knowledge sharing, bilingual art content, and several leading anchors will even have a situation of "time to broadcast, but the product is not finished". But after losing traffic, it seems difficult to sustain such a situation. The most intuitive data lies in the number of fans and the number of people online, according to reports, the Dongfang Selection Douyin account has lost more than 1.1 million followers. Although the number of fans is as high as 30.344 million, the number of online users in many live broadcasts is only 10,000. From incremental development to stock competition, it is difficult for anchors to face the audience with the same attitude as in the past, and more and more "quick success" live broadcasts, which in turn are also affecting the brand image, and at the same time, it also means that it is almost difficult to cultivate the next Dong Yuhui, and a downward flywheel effect is happening in the selection of the East. What accelerates this effect even more is the rise of Dong Yuhui in walking with Hui. Since January 9, it has been broadcast with Hui and has accumulated 19.26 million fans so far, and the growth momentum has not decreased.
In terms of business model, Dongfang Selection's self-operated line, which has always been proud, is also entering a period of exhaustion, and the early hits such as toast, black pork sausage, etc., have become popular on the whole network from now on, whether it is Nicholas Tse's Fengwei or Brother Yang's Xiao Yang Zhenxuan, the competitiveness of such products is very strong. Among the new products, the difference between explosive models has always been a problem.
The larger background of the times may lie in the fact that Douyin e-commerce has also entered a cycle of slowing growth from a period of rapid development. According to a late report, Douyin e-commerce's sales in the first quarter of 2024 exceeded 700 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 50%. Among them, the cumulative year-on-year growth rate in January and February exceeded 60% (considering the Spring Festival holiday, general combined statistics), but the year-on-year growth rate in March fell to below 40%. Continuing into April, the year-on-year growth rate is not much different from March. In contrast, in 2023, the monthly sales growth rate of Douyin e-commerce will basically remain between 50% and 70%. The first slowdown in sales growth seems to indicate that Douyin e-commerce is hitting its own ceiling.
Returning to Oriental Selection, in the context of the slowdown of the overall Douyin e-commerce market, it also encountered bottlenecks in internal strategy, content, and direction. More of the tradition of oriental selection in Dong Yuhui's era is disintegrating little by little. As the founder, Yu Minhong seems to have lost the entrepreneurial spirit of the past, and this exposed speech sounded the alarm for Dongfang Selection, how to change next, need stronger innovation and greater courage.