Ever since China abruptly cut off the bulk of income for most private education companies last summer, the businesses have had to make some difficult decisions. For New Oriental, once the leader of the sector, it meant letting go of most of its tutors for the K-9 grades and setting up a new livestreaming e-commerce unit to make up for some of the lost income.
Until this month, New Oriental’s new live e-commerce initiative had been lackluster at best. Daily sales hovered around less than RMB 1 million in the past six months, according to data from livestreaming tracking platform Huitun. But suddenly, New Oriental’s fortunes are looking up. It all changed after the firm’s hosts, all former tutors, started to teach English while selling goods over their livestreams.
On June 10, during a session selling bags of rice, the host pulled out a small whiteboard and asked the audience whether they thought the price of RMB 80 was fair. She then wrote three English phrases — “bargain,” “cost-effective,” and “unforgettable” — on the whiteboard and began teaching an unexpected course on how to use these phrases in real life. This unique style of selling has quickly made New Oriental’s livestreaming sessions a sensation on the Chinese internet.
Oriental Select’s account on Douyin, the platform where the brand livestreams, has gained more than 1.6 million followers in three days since June 10. An 18-hour-long livestream held on June 11 recorded RMB 19.9 million in sales, a jump from the RMB 4.5 million New Oriental’s founder Yu Minhong achieved on his December debut.
