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On the morning of August 2, a newly launched Douyin account, without any paid promotions, quickly claimed the top spot on Douyin's live-streaming sales chart. The broadcast featured Sun Dongxu, the former CEO of East Buy who resigned amid the 'Essay Controversy,' reuniting with former East Buy anchors Mingming and Tianquan to recreate the familiar live-streaming sales atmosphere.

The live-streaming room, named 'Beautiful Tomorrow,' attracted over 100,000 concurrent viewers within just eight minutes of going live and reached the pinnacle of Douyin's overall sales chart in half an hour, even surpassing simultaneous broadcasts by 'Yu Hui Tongxing' and 'East Buy'.

▲ Note: Image sourced from the 'Beautiful Tomorrow' live-streaming room.

Currently, Dong Yuhui, who left New Oriental two years ago, is under public scrutiny amidst controversy, while 'East Buy' seems to have found a new growth path following the departure of its core anchors.

As the live-streaming e-commerce sector experiences a slowdown in overall growth and rising traffic acquisition costs, the 'New Oriental family'—once trendsetters—now stands at a crossroads. Their internal turmoil and transformations reflect the broader challenges faced by the industry.

| The 'New Oriental Cohort' Descends into Disarray |

The rise of 'Beautiful Tomorrow' has split the former East Buy executive and anchor teams into a 'three-way standoff.' Sun Dongxu, Dong Yuhui, and Yu Minhong—three forces emerging from the same ecosystem—are evolving into distinct commercial models for survival.

During 'Beautiful Tomorrow's' 10-hour debut broadcast, the three core figures displayed clear roles and seamless teamwork.

Sun Dongxu, seated at the center, controlled the overall sales rhythm, explained key product specifications, and even poured half a bottle of mineral water over his head to demonstrate a hairdryer's wind speed. Mingming, opening with the song Nostalgia, acted as a 'consumer advocate,' probing product details through questions. Tianquan handled banter, pacing, and humor to energize the live-streaming room.

In terms of product selection and pricing strategy, 'Beautiful Tomorrow' adopted a 'volume in the morning, profit in the evening' approach.

The morning session focused on essential goods priced between 20–30 RMB, including Qingfeng tissue rolls, Beibei pumpkins, thick-cut toast, and yellow glutinous corn, driving rapid repurchases and baseline revenue through low barriers to entry. The evening session shifted to high-ticket, high-margin categories, such as over 8,500 units of Laifen hairdryers, office chairs, and digital gadgets.

The debut broadcast amassed 14.549 million cumulative views. Leveraging the old team's nostalgia, tacit understanding, and high-frequency essentials, 'Beautiful Tomorrow' successfully revitalized accumulated fan trust.

Dong Yuhui, who branched out earlier, demonstrated remarkable commercial acumen. Third-party data shows that in 2025, 'Yu Hui Tongxing' surpassed 38 million followers, with GMV exceeding 20 billion RMB—doubling from 2024.

His model combines 'cultural celebrity interviews + book and cultural tourism + high-ticket custom products.' From dialogues with top writers like Yu Hua and Mo Yan to expanding into cultural tourism with a travel agency license, Dong transformed his live-streaming room into a 'cultural salon' for high-net-worth audiences.

His fans pay for his intellectual capital and 'cultural premium,' enabling 'Yu Hui Tongxing' to effortlessly command high-ticket cultural tourism routes, custom books, and premium agricultural products. While others compete on price, 'Yu Hui Tongxing' leverages its super-IP moat to monetize high-margin offerings.

▲ Note: Image sourced from the 'Yu Hui Tongxing' account.

After Dong Yuhui's departure, the exits of core anchors like Mingming and Tianquan, and the full resignation of the original 'F4' team, 'East Buy' began reducing its reliance on top IPs, embracing standardization and supply chain integration.

In its current live-streams, anchors are no longer irreplaceable influencers but trained 'senior product explainers' with standardized delivery. The company redirects massive traffic costs and resources to backend supply chain and private-label development.

Earnings forecasts indicate revenue of 5.6–5.8 billion RMB and net profit of 520–550 million RMB for FY2026, up nearly 90-fold from the previous fiscal year's ~6 million RMB profit. Private-label SKUs approached 1,000, accounting for 52.8% of total GMV.

Health and wellness products drove growth, with private-label probiotics exceeding 100 million RMB in cumulative GMV and protein powder selling 100,000 units within days of launch. 'East Buy' also expanded into private-label cosmetics, household goods, and paper products, launching a standalone app and offline experience stores to emulate China's 'online Sam's Club.'

The 'disarray' within the New Oriental family may appear as internal competition in a saturated market, but it reflects a broader stress test for live-streaming e-commerce during economic downturns.

| When Top Anchors Lose Their Edge, How Much Opportunity Remains? |

The divergent paths of the 'New Oriental family' mirror seismic shifts in China's live-streaming e-commerce sector.

Official data shows that live-streaming e-commerce retail sales surpassed 1 trillion RMB in H1 2026, but year-on-year growth plummeted to 6.5%, signaling a shift to inventory competition for existing users.

First, algorithm-driven impulse buying has driven staggering return rates. Data from 36Kr Research (2024) shows live-streaming return rates far exceed traditional e-commerce, with women's apparel averaging over 50%. By 2026, this figure climbed to 70–80%.

After a 100-RMB order, merchants retain less than 30% of revenue after refunds, reverse logistics, quality inspections, and hefty traffic and commission fees. Under GMV-driven metrics, 'scaling up but losing profits' became an industry pain point, bankrupting even million-follower stores.

Second, traffic dividends for top influencers are shrinking.

During 2026's 618 promotion, Li Jiaqi streamed for 14 consecutive days, distributing 300 million RMB in cash red packets and 200 million RMB in discounts (total subsidies >500 million RMB). To break through beauty and skincare growth bottlenecks, he even added Mercedes-Benz cars to his cart. Though 40 cars sold out instantly, the pivot revealed top anchors' growth anxieties.

Amid industry headwinds, East Buy's counter-cyclical profitability proved that superstar anchors can take fans and attention but not the accumulated supply chain, warehousing, and product matrices. By cutting top anchors' high commissions and pivoting to private-label goods, East Buy reduced overall GMV traffic but squeezed profits through high-margin, self-controlled inventory.

Slowing growth doesn't signal opportunity extinction but a shift from traffic dividends to structural efficiencies.

'Supply chain players' thrive by prioritizing 'products finding consumers' over 'impulse buys.' By mastering core production costs, they eliminate layered channel and traffic markups.

Another example is JD.com's procurement live-streaming room. Its anchors, professional buyers stationed in warehouses and factories, win through transparent sourcing and direct-from-source pricing. Merchants report significantly lower return rates after joining, while 'East Buy' secures pricing power and margins through self-developed formulas and direct factory partnerships.

▲ Note: Image sourced from JD.com.

When markets cool and traffic costs rise, supply chain players controlling commodity costs may endure longest.

Meanwhile, 'vertically restructured teams' that aggregate niche trust can also carve niches in saturated markets.

'Beautiful Tomorrow's' 15+ million RMB debut sales proved the possibility of reconstructing 'fan trust assets.' Future traffic may favor small teams with deep trust in specific segments over broad-reach anchors.

By precisely targeting cost-conscious or emotionally aligned groups and fostering high-loyalty repurchases, such teams can gain footholds in new market dynamics.

| Where Will Live-Streaming E-Commerce Head in Downturns? |

As traffic dividends fade, regulatory crackdowns and consumer rationality converge, forcing industry rule resets.

On August 3, the Supreme People's Court upheld a 2024 ruling in 'Jiang Xiaobai vs. East Buy for commercial defamation.' During a 2024 Hi-Eat Festival stream, Tianquan, a Level 3 wine taster, claimed, 'Under new national standards, products with added food alcohol can't be called baijiu,' and alleged, 'Jiang Xiaobai's packaging lacks the word 'baijiu' due to regulatory non-compliance.' Jiang Xiaobai sued for reputational damage, and the court ruled East Buy guilty of commercial defamation, ordering 300,000 RMB in damages and legal fees.

Since live-streaming sales are commercial acts, anchors cannot compromise factual accuracy for 'fast-paced streaming' or ad-libbing. Baseless competitor attacks or fragmented 'education' carry legal risks. Even truthful claims become defamation if intentionally misleading.

Binding a company's fate to a superstar anchor's ethics and emotions is a gamble. Even paragons like Dong Yuhui, post-independence from East Buy's supply chain, faced controversies over faking an Australian brand ('You Siyi'), phosphate-laced shrimp, and chicken farming cycles, damaging 'Yu Hui Tongxing.'

▲ Note: Image sourced from the 'Lan Zhi Chunxu' live-streaming room.

To survive and profit, live-streaming e-commerce must restructure operations, establish rigorous compliance reviews, redirect traffic budgets to sourcing and R&D, and build traceable quality control systems. Using return reasons to invert feedback and pressure factories improves product reliability, reducing return rates.

Simultaneously, the industry must abandon over-reliance on superstar anchors and expand brand self-streaming, which cuts intermediary markups and deepens consumer feedback loops, countering rising public domain acquisition costs with private domain repurchases.

The era of overnight riches through charisma and generic products is over. Live-streaming e-commerce sheds its frenzied halo, reverting to retail's fundamentals. In the next phase, only those with superior products, efficient supply chains, and sincere, compliant service will prevail.

Image sourced online. Rights reserved for original creators.