The "essay controversy" of Dongfang Zhenxuan continues to ferment, and the unexpected "leak detection" of Gaotu, which has also shifted from the education and training industry to live streaming sales, has become popular.
On the evening of December 14, @ Chen Xiangdong, who was certified as the founder, chairman and CEO of Gaotu, posted a microblog saying, "100000+are online at the same time, miracles, belong to Gaotu products, belong to Gaotu, belong to you, belong to us, dear friends." As of 9:00 on December 15, the number of fans of Gaotu products on Tiktok platform has risen to 1.15 million.
In terms of the secondary market, as of the close on December 14th, Gaotu US stocks rose 29% to $4.76 per share, with a market value of $1.24 billion, up more than 5% after hours. From December 11th to 14th, the stock price of Gaotu has accumulated an increase of over 72%.
Recently, due to the controversy surrounding Dong Yuhui, the core anchor of Dongfang Zhenxuan, and his dissatisfaction with the content of Dongfang Zhenxuan's response, a large number of Dong Yuhui's fans have flooded into the Gaotu Jiapin live broadcast room, which is also a transformation of education and training. Netizens have described it as "the sky shattering wealth and prestige", and it is now Gaotu's turn.
According to the Securities Times, on the evening of December 11th, the Gaotu Jiapin live broadcast room was flooded by fans of Dong Yuhui, selected by Dongfang Zhenxuan. On that day, there were over 10000 people online simultaneously in the live broadcast room. On the 12th and 13th, as the "essay writing" controversy further escalated, the popularity of the Gaotu Jiapin live broadcast room continued to soar. On the evening of December 13th, the highest number of simultaneous online users in the Gaotu Jiapin live broadcast room exceeded 30000. "We have been live streaming every day for the past 8 months, seeking attention every day, and have gained a total of two to three thousand followers. But so far today, we have gained 60000 followers."
According to Grey Porpoise data, the sales revenue of Gaotu Jiapin's live broadcast room in the past 7 days has been between 7.5 million yuan and 10 million yuan, with a cumulative increase of 353000 new fans. Especially in the past two days, the number of fans in the live broadcast room has increased by over 280000.
On the morning of December 14th, Chen Xiangdong mentioned in a Weibo post that since December 11th, a large number of fans have flocked to the Gaotu Jiapin live broadcast room, and his personal account "Gaotu Chen Xiangdong" has also received a large number of fans to comment. Out of the most basic respect for those who follow Gaotu, Gaotu Jiapin, and my friends, he made his debut in the Gaotu Jiapin live broadcast room on the evening of December 12th.
During the live broadcast, a netizen asked, will Gaotu poach Dong Yuhui? Chen Xiangdong responded by saying, "Dong Yuhui is not for digging, but for love." In the aforementioned Weibo post, Chen Xiangdong once again mentioned Dong Yuhui, stating that a sentence he blurted out was indeed his own state of mind. It's really, really not easy for a hero who has been recognized by so many fans to come out, even though he comes from a teacher's background, in this era.
According to Gaotu's official WeChat official account, its predecessor was "Learn from Who". In June 2014, it was founded under the leadership of Chen Xiangdong. The team members are mainly composed of core technical backbones from famous education and training institutions such as New Oriental and Internet companies such as Baidu and Ali. On June 6, 2019, the company successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange (stock code: GSX) under its brand name "Learn from Who", becoming the first K12 online education company in China to be listed in the United States. In 2021, the company unified its brand name as "Gaotu", which includes product brands such as Gaotu Classroom and Gaotu Academy.
Gaotu Jiapin is an e-commerce live streaming room under its umbrella. As of 9:00 am on December 15th, it has released 929 videos. Looking at these videos, you can see that they will be updated starting from the end of December 2022. In June 2022, the live broadcast room of "Oriental Selection" under New Oriental Online went viral, with fans rising from one million to ten million in just one week. The top anchor to make a name for himself was Dong Yuhui.
Affected by the "essay writing" controversy, Dongfang Zhenxuan continues to lose fans. According to a previous report by Pengpai News, it lost 400000 fans in five days. On December 14th, Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental, and Sun Dongxu, the CEO of Oriental Selection (01797. HK), apologized one after another. Yu Minhong claimed that the official editor's approach lacked professional spirit and there were significant loopholes in the company's management. He apologized to Dong Yuhui. Sun Dongxu also apologized to netizens and Dong Yuhui himself for his aggressive demeanor and mention of Dong Yuhui's salary during his recent live broadcast. "Rejecting fan culture does not mean that the fans selected by Dongfang Zhen are fans of the fan circle." Sun Dongxu said that netizens' fans are the parents of the company's food and clothing, and they will enhance their image and mindset, becoming a more competent manager.