Alibaba scores a win with Taobao debut of China's 'most famous teacher' as live-streaming e-commerce race heats up
China's most famous teacher-turned live streamer has set up shop on Alibaba Group Holding's Taobao e-commerce platform, as internet giants in the country jostle to attract customers in a saturated market by bringing in popular influencers.
Dongfangzhenxuan, the live-streaming brand of New Oriental Education & Technology Group led by former teacher Yu Minhong, made its debut on Taobao Live on Tuesday and sold more than 100 million yuan (US$13 million) worth of goods in the first 12 hours, according to a post on the brand's Weibo account.
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New Oriental had been a cram school giant in China until mid-2021, when Beijing's sudden crackdown against private tutoring for schoolchildren forced the firm to switch its business focus.
Dong Yuhui, who had been one of New Oriental's English-language tutors, joined the company's newly formed e-commerce live-streaming team and started pitching a range of goods on TikTok's Chinese sibling Douyin.
Viewers soon became drawn to Dong's unique pitching style, which involves reciting poems, English phrases and musical accompaniment while attempting to sell books, cooking pans, steaks, shrimp and more.
During their debut live stream on Taobao, Dong, Yu and others pitched a variety of products including smartphones, skincare, make-up, shoes and home decorations. Their live-streaming channel, which began operations at 8am on Tuesday, accumulated a million followers by 5pm, Dongfangzhenxuan said.
Dongfangzhenxuan's launch on Taobao marks one of its most important steps to diversify its reach. Earlier this month, the brand conducted its first live-streaming session on Tencent Holdings' WeChat.
That came after Douyin blocked Dongfangzhenxuan from streaming on the app for three days in July, citing violations of platform rules. The brand's Douyin traffic had been on the decline even before that incident, with viewership falling 30 per cent in May from the previous month, according to data provided by research firm Baiguan.
Dongfangzhenxuan ended up conducting a sales event on its own app during that month.
Yu Minhong (left) and Dong Yuhui (right) live stream on ByteDance's Douyin, TikTok's Chinese sibling app. Photo: Handout alt=Yu Minhong (left) and Dong Yuhui (right) live stream on ByteDance's Douyin, TikTok's Chinese sibling app. Photo: Handout>
While Douyin remains Dongfangzhenxuan's biggest source of traffic and a popular sales channel for fresh groceries, snacks and local specialities, "the success of [the brand's] stand-alone app and its [debut on] Taobao Live underscore its diminishing reliance on Douyin", said a research report by Huafu Securities on Tuesday.
Taobao Live and Douyin compete against Kuaishou Technology, another major player in China's live-streaming e-commerce market. Taobao Live, which lost two of its top live-streaming influencers - Viya and Zhu Chenhui - during a tax crackdown by the government, is grooming rising stars in a bid to diversify its traffic pool.
However, Dongfangzhenxuan's Taobao debut came with a hiccup: a computer bug resulted in customers getting a 25 yuan rebate for a 23 yuan product, prompting thousands of users to put in an order. That product was delisted as soon as the company discovered the loophole, several local media outlets reported.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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