[The Epoch Times, June 24, 2022](Reported by The Epoch Times reporters Fang Xiao and Yi Ru) After New Oriental encountered a cold winter in the industry, it switched to live broadcast of agricultural products at the end of last year. Among them, the English “bilingual live broadcast” marketing products have recently become popular, making the Dongfang Zhenxuan live broadcast room under New Oriental become the top stream of live broadcast delivery, the video has rushed to the Internet, and the sales volume of the live broadcast room and the company’s stock price have soared in a short period of time. At the same time, New Oriental’s Hong Kong shares were “cleared” by major shareholders such as Tencent. Analysts believe that under the CCP system, it is difficult for private enterprises to stand out.
Oriental selection bilingual live broadcast with goods exploded in popularity, CCP official media issued a document questioning
Last year, the CCP’s “double reduction” policy impacted education and training institutions. New Oriental suffered heavy losses under this policy, and finally had to close its English teaching business and transition to live streaming. On December 28, 2021, New Oriental released its live broadcast delivery platform Oriental Selection, and the company’s founder Yu Minhong conducted the first live broadcast delivery of agricultural products.
In the first half of this year, the results of Dongfang’s selection of live broadcast and delivery of goods have been tepid. Recently, after the mainland’s top live broadcast hosts such as Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi “disappeared” in the live broadcast room, the bilingual delivery mode of New Oriental’s Oriental Selection has become popular. On June 9, Dong Yuhui, the former English teacher of New Oriental, brought goods in the Oriental Selection Live Room, and reached the No. 1 spot on Douyin’s hot search in the bilingual live broadcast mode, achieving a “return against the wind”.
After the new Oriental live broadcast became popular, the official media immediately made a sound.
“Farmer’s Daily” reported on June 20 that some netizens questioned that the “6 yuan for a corn” in the live broadcast room was too expensive, and the prices of agricultural products were generally high. To this, Dong Yuhui responded that “low grains hurt farmers”. If something is completely unprofitable, there will be fewer and fewer people farming in rural areas, so the price cannot be too low.
Data shows that on June 15, the highest number of simultaneous online users in the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room exceeded 610,000; on the afternoon of June 16, the number of fans in the live broadcast room exceeded the 10 million mark; since June, the total sales volume of the live broadcast room has exceeded 200 million, and daily Sales went from 750,000 to 62.57 million in less than 10 days.
In the capital market, the stock price of New Oriental Online has risen from HK$3.7/share at the opening on June 1 to HK$25/share at the closing time on June 17, a cumulative increase of 576% in 12 trading days. As of 18:00 on June 19, the number of Douyin fans selected by Dongfang has exceeded 16.19 million.
Why does New Oriental adopt bilingual sales? Li Hengqing, an economist living in the United States, told The Epoch Times on June 22 that this is the advantage of New Oriental (it was originally taught online by New Oriental), and it can also be called educating and selling goods. It should be aimed at selling goods. , sells corn, sells peaches, and is still selling other products. It wants to build a brand, that is, Oriental Screening, and bring high-quality products to consumers. Because many commodities in China, especially small commodities, are sold through online anchors.
Li Hengqing pointed out that the CCP is constantly weakening English. Many local primary schools refuse to set up English classes, and many places are calling for the college entrance examination should not be tested in English in the future. Also, the English test for CET-4 and CET-6 will also be cancelled. And whether New Oriental’s bilingual live broadcast of goods will violate the CCP’s taboo, maybe, maybe, who knows which leader will stab it again when it is happy.
He said that Yu Minhong is a teacher of the English Department of Peking University, and his New Oriental has been very successful and has brought a lot of industries. He has also made such a big industry. At the same time, it enables many Chinese students to improve their English level, giving them the opportunity to go out and understand the world. Therefore, it should be said that it has played a very important role or contribution to China’s development.
Li Hengqing said, however, why did it end up suffering a tragic fate? It is precisely because it was favored by the top leaders of the Communist Party of China that they proposed to “double reduction” – to reduce the burden on students and reduce the pressure of students after class. Has it actually been relieved? Everyone can see now that as long as exam-oriented education does not Relief, by eliminating all these extracurricular tutoring industries, it is fundamentally impossible to reduce the pressure on students. Therefore, New Oriental is the common destiny faced by Chinese private enterprises. Under the CCP system, everyone cannot escape the same fate as New Oriental. This is very distressing.
New Oriental stock soars, Morgan, Tencent “clearance-style reduction”
After the recent popularity of New Oriental’s live broadcast, it has been continuously sought after by funds, and its stock price has soared, but its second largest shareholder, Tencent, has taken advantage of the rebound to liquidate a large number of stocks in its hands. According to the equity disclosure of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Tencent sold shares of New Oriental Online in a row on June 15 and June 16, reducing its holdings by a total of 74.6 million shares and cashing out about 719 million Hong Kong dollars. After the reduction, the shareholding ratio increased from 9.04%. plummeted to 1.58%.
According to Choice statistics, from June 9th to June 17th, Morgan Stanley and other foreign investors also concentrated on reducing their holdings in New Oriental Online. On June 15 and 16, Morgan Stanley reduced its holdings by 35.3145 million shares and 36.6989 million shares respectively, leaving only 531,500 shares, a reduction of 99%, which is almost a “clearance reduction”.
New Oriental fell more than 32% on June 20 (Monday).
When New Oriental’s stock rose, why was the “clearance-style reduction?” What impact did it have on New Oriental?
Li Hengqing believes that this has a great impact on New Oriental. Under the suppression of the CCP, the stock price of New Oriental fell by more than 70% overnight, and fell by 99% a few days later. It is listed on Wall Street, so it is impossible to operate at all (more than 30 cents in US dollars, and it may face delisting at any time if it is less than one dollar). In such a situation, all investors lose money.
He said that in the past, its second largest shareholder Tencent, as well as Morgan Stanley and other companies were optimistic about New Oriental and Yu Minhong, so they kept holding positions. As a result, New Oriental was suppressed, not only making the entire education industry more than 200,000 yuan Unemployment of workers has also caused it to suffer huge losses in terms of economy and investment. This time, New Oriental used the “Oriental Screening” online live broadcast of goods to become popular again, and it pulled up the stock price. In fact, it was a solution for these investors, so they seized this opportunity and quickly sold.
Li Hengqing said that Tencent cashed out more than 700 million yuan at a time, which must have a great impact on the preservation of New Oriental’s stock, because major investors and institutional investors are selling, and the stock price will definitely be affected. On the other hand, it also has an impact on the operation of New Oriental, and it should have a great impact on Yu Minhong himself, because he is the largest shareholder; it also has a great impact on the shareholders of New Oriental, because the stock price will still have a great impact. fluctuation.
“Because the advantage of New Oriental is to do education and training, how long can it last for only relying on live broadcast to bring goods? However, it has little impact on the operation of New Oriental itself. In principle, New Oriental provides education and training, especially bilingual education and training in English. This part is almost stagnant now, and he is now turning to parent training or training parents. Therefore, the impact on New Oriental itself should not be that big.”
New Oriental products are exposed to mold and other problems, a long way to go
The popularity of “Oriental Selection” has soared due to the fact that the anchors are bilingual, but some Lu media have also exposed that they have been complained that the peaches are moldy and hairy.
Xiao Liu (pseudonym), a Beijing resident, said that on June 9, he placed an order for Shaanxi peaches of 4.5 to 5 pounds. After signing for the express delivery, he found that about a quarter of the peaches were moldy and hairy.
After reporting to the customer service, the merchant quickly refunded Xiao Liu in full, but Xiao Liu still had doubts: How did the peach “select” because the damage was so serious?
The screenshot shows that from the time of receipt to the full refund, after Xiao Liu initiated a return appeal, the processing process in the “Oriental Selection” live broadcast room took about half an hour. The Red Star News reporter contacted the customer service staff of the “Oriental Selection” live broadcast room. The other party said that their policy is to “receive feedback and deal with merchants as soon as they have time.”
Some netizens also reported on social platforms that they bought large peaches in the “Oriental Selection” live broadcast room, but received small ones, and they were already soft and not sweet, and an unknown yellow liquid was sprinkled on the inside of the Snickers. .
Some media pointed out that for the “Oriental Selection”, there are still many risks in the agricultural product track. Whether it is the supply chain or low profit margins, it is a test for the “Oriental Selection”.
Huang Bin, director and vice president of Yiliu Technology and executive dean of the Institute of Logistics Transparent Management, said that the current mode adopted by New Oriental is for the brand side to deliver goods, which means that the anchor is the “non-staff part-time salesperson” of the brand side in the form of commissions. The live broadcast platform participates in product selection and negotiating discounts with brands, but does not participate in the manufacturing process, procurement, after-sales and other work.
He predicts that New Oriental may not be satisfied with only doing extra sales channels, and may develop a new form of e-commerce sales model in the future.
Analysis: The possibility of New Oriental suffering a second blow from the CCP
After the explosion of “Oriental Selection”, on June 19, FT Chinese website columnist Zheng Zhigang wrote that unless a certain degree of administrative monopoly is formed, the transformation of a private enterprise that is forced to transform is always on the way.
The article said that although New Oriental is on the road of successful transformation, it still faces many challenges in the future. One is the risk of the government regulating the live broadcast industry. In the eyes of many people, the bilingual delivery of goods and knowledge delivery model pioneered by Dongfang Selection does not look like a class or sales. Some people may criticize, so are they teaching classes or selling goods? In the highly market-oriented live broadcast industry, New Oriental’s maverick will inevitably attract the envy, jealousy and hatred of other practitioners with serious introversion. The tax problems exposed by the live broadcast industry and the dissemination of vulgar content may become the pretext for relevant government departments to regulate the live broadcast industry at any time. Therefore, New Oriental, which is currently engaged in the live broadcast industry, cannot rule out the possibility of suffering a second blow in the name of regulating the development of the industry in the future.
Regarding whether New Oriental has successfully transformed itself, whether there is a possibility of a second blow, and what are the hidden worries behind it, Li Hengqing said: “Now that New Oriental has transformed into an online delivery service, there may be some economic successes and some economic problems will be solved. However, has Dongfang Screening successfully transformed itself? I have a big question mark.”
He believes that it is almost impossible for China’s private enterprises and private entrepreneurs to truly complete a gorgeous turn. Why? Because of the CCP’s politics, China is a society that lacks the foundation of the rule of law. It is impossible to give real protection to these private enterprises, nor to give real protection to private assets. This is the core of the problem. “I don’t know when a top leader just said a word, and an industry was destroyed. A regime governed by people, even a good emperor, is a short-term thing.”
Li Hengqing said that there is no possibility of the successful transformation of New Oriental, and it cannot be said that there is no possibility. However, as a listed company, New Oriental successfully transformed into an online delivery company, which is absolutely impossible. This will not be a path that a listed company may take, and it will not be able to go through it. Even if the transformation of New Oriental is successful, it is a very painful process. “It’s a tragedy that these educators and trainers represented by Yu Minhong are struggling in this kind of hardship and struggling for survival. I think Yu Minhong should be called a hero in the tragedy. It is true that he has been beaten one by one until now, and he has not been beaten. Death. I really have the strength to beat Xiaoqiang who can’t be killed.”
Talking about the possibility of New Oriental being hit a second time, Li Hengqing said that anything can happen in China. Because the CCP does not have the rule of law, it only has the rule of man. One day, when the top leader’s brain became hot, he slapped it to death again.
Li Hengqing believes that the hidden worries of New Oriental come from the government’s supervision, and the government’s supervision is too arbitrary, and there is no basis for constitutionalism and the rule of law. The subjective will of the leaders of the Communist Party of China can arbitrarily issue a policy to wipe out all these industries. At that point, no matter whether there are several repetitions in the middle process, the fate of death cannot be escaped in the end.
Responsible editor: Lin Rui#