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S: Hello, welcome to CBN Friday Special. I’m Stephanie LI.

T: Hi, I’m Themis.

S: Hey, Themis, have you imagined learning English while shopping online?

T: Oh, you must be talking about the now phenomenal live-stream by New Oriental Education & Technology Group called “Dongfang Zhenxuan”, or Oriental Select, which has been on the headline and our social media for the past week.

S: Yes. New Oriental has found a new way to boost sales for its live-streaming business by bringing English tutoring back. The former Chinese after-class tutoring giant drew attention in June, after finding its way of teaching English when selling products. The new mix has sent the company's account to the top of live-streaming e-commerce sellers in Douyin, China's Tiktok under the same parent ByteDance. On Monday, Oriental Select once topped the real-time live-streaming list, with sales of more than 7.4 million yuan that day.

According to China's broker GF Securities, the sales room Oriental Select recorded a total of 16.72 million viewers and a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of more than 22.98 million yuan with 372,000 pieces of products sold on June 13. As of June 13, the private tutoring company has accumulated GMV of 108 million.

T: In terms of popularity, New Oriental’s live-stream recorded 6.98 million followers on June 15, surging seven-fold from 1 million this June. Followers of the studio reached 10 million for the first time on Thursday.

S: That's a huge success for a tutoring company. I have watched one of the live sales. The former English teachers impressed me, as they described various foods in English including steak, shrimps and peaches when selling agricultural products. With each one, the host wrote down related English phrases on a small whiteboard. 

For example, one of the most popular hosts, Dong Yuhui, teaching more than 500,000 students in New Oriental for 8 years, used literature phrases when selling rice from Changbai Mountain in north-eastern China. He said: "I haven't shown you the snow on Changbai Mountain; I haven't shown you the ears of grain bending down like a wise man, but I can share you such rice." Dong's quotes soon went viral across Chinese social platforms.

T: The popularity of streams featuring English speakers could give the education group a boost after Chinese authorities banned all out-of-school extra classes in July last year, in an attempt to ease pressure on children and parents, but it also led to a wave of school closures and layoffs across the private education sector.

And the sweeping new rules barred tutoring for profit, as the education for students from kindergarten to high school was the core business of tutoring companies like New Oriental. The shutdown of K-12 tutoring sent the revenue of the company slump 48.4 percent year-on-year to $614 million in the quarter ended March. In 2021, the New York-listed New Oriental saw its share price plunge 88 percent and lost some $28 billion in market value.

The number of schools and teaching centres it operated was down by half in the same period. To cut expenses, the top private educator has reportedly laid off 60,000 employees last year. For the whole industry worth of $120 billion, the Ministry of Education announced that authorities had shut down 84 percent of the country's online and offline after-school tutoring institutions last December.

S: So New Oriental was forced to make changes by shifting to sectors unaffected by the regulations, including cram classes for adults and training for students set to study abroad. 

But the biggest twist came last December, when its founder Yu Minhong started selling agricultural products online via live-streaming. Yu Minhong, well-known in China for his entrepreneurial undertakings, occasionally host the sessions.

However, it didn't work at the beginning. Debuting at the end of last December, the total sales volume of accounts "Yu Minhong" and the Oriental Select on Douyin sold over 5-million-yuan worth of goods. After trying for half a year, the daily average GMV of New Oriental slowly climbed to 880,000 yuan on June 5.

But it suddenly went from regular live-streaming to a phenomenon when the video clip of Dong teaching English swept Chinese social media platforms last week. From June 9-11, the GMV of New Oriental surged about 5-times to 20 million yuan from 3.51 million yuan.

T: The market is excited about the new bilingual  as well. Shares in Koolearn Technology, which operates New Oriental's live-stream e-commerce business through Oriental Select, have surged 300 percent this week, and skyrocketed nearly 7 times since the beginning of June. 

The Hong Kong-listed New Oriental, which holds 55.7 percent of Koolearn, jumped over 80 percent in the past two weeks, though they are still only worth about a third of their value before the new rules came in last year.

Citi analysts have a "buy" rating on New Oriental. They called Koolearn's online live broadcasting a bright spot and estimated it could achieve more than 7 billion yuan in annual gross merchandise value if it maintained the current run rate.

S: Now the live streaming sales of New Oriental is labelled as "bilingual" and "informative", which helps the former education giant stand out from other hosts.The former teachers have acquired loads of knowledge in various subjects and are experienced in communicating with the audience as they give lessons to students. This feature is so unique that it might be hard to be copied by other hosts in the short-term.

Many viewers are impressed by this new style. Some commented "I came here mainly for having an English lesson rather than making an order," and "I've learned so much and that deserves an order." And some customers who bought products from Oriental Select said they were touched by the company's never-say-die attitude.

T: However, New Oriental is still up and coming in the live-streaming e-commerce sector which worth of over 20 billion in 2021. If the company targets at supporting its operation mainly by selling products via live-streaming, it needs a sales volume of at least 30 million yuan each day, while the current daily GMV of Oriental Select only ranges from 10 to 20 million, far away from the goal.

The live-streaming e-commerce sector in China is highly competitive and nearly mature, as the top sellers dominate the market. According to Guoji's data, the top 30 hosts of Taobao sold 117.46-billion-yuan worth of products in 2020, taking up nearly 30 percent of the total annual GMV. 

S: Well, it might be early to say New Oriental has found a new life by transforming into a live-streaming seller. But as the star teacher/host Dong Yuhui once said with tears that he really missed all his old colleagues and wished to bring them back when the situation in New Oriental turns better, I do hope it will soon find its own way out of the gloomy industry, and its current success might just give a hint to other struggling private tutors. And that’s all for today. See you next week.

你想过边看直播购物边学英语吗？这在新东方在抖音的直播间“东方甄选”实现了。

日前，一位新东方的老师在旗下的抖音直播间带货时，结合所卖的产品，在直播间“上起了英语课”。这一新颖的带货方式迅速“刷屏“各大社交平台，曾经陪伴众多学生走过求学生涯的中国教培行业巨头，以双语直播带货的方式重回大众视野。

根据广发证券的数据，截止到6月13日，新东方旗下的抖音直播间“东方甄选”已经卖出了超过1.08亿元的商品。在6月13日，该直播间共有1,672万观众，卖出了37万件商品，商品交易总额（GMV）超过2,298万。

东方甄选抖音号现已跻身抖音直播带货的顶流。其粉丝数在6月15日逼近700万，在6月份暴增约6倍；在6月6日-12日这一周，这个前教培巨头的直播间登上了抖音带货主播周榜的TOP10，而在6月13日的实时直播榜中，东方甄选一度登顶第一，当日销售额超740万元。周四，东方甄选直播间粉丝数量以突破千万大关。

而这一切，要从火出圈的双语直播带货说起。曾经的新东方英语老师们，在介绍牛排、虾和淘等产品时，会拉过手边的小白板，在上面写上这些物品的英文单词，给消费者们上起了“英文课”。

不仅如此，新东方老师们在卖农产品时还用上文学修辞。董宇辉，在新东方教龄超过8年，据说教过的学生超过50万，在卖长白山大米时会说：“我没有带你看过长白山皑皑的白雪；我没有带你见证过像智者一样弯下腰沉甸甸的谷穗；但是我可以让你品尝到这样的大米。” 董老师的一些语录也被剪成短视频在社交平台上“刷屏”。

这种别开生面的带货方式让观众们带来了新鲜感，也让新东方看到了转型的曙光。去年七月，“双减政策”出台，要求各大机构停止学科类校外培训，为中小学生和家长减轻负担。

但新东方等以K12课外辅导为主的培训机构深受影响。在“双减”之前，K12的课外辅导是新东方的核心业务，贡献了55%的收入。如今K12教育业务被剥离，大半收入没有了，新东方在2022年第一季度录得营业收入6.14亿美元，同比下跌48.4%。学校和教育中心的数量也同期减半，裁员60,000名。

2021年，新东方在纽约证券交易所的股价全年暴跌88%，市值蒸发约280亿美元。这个曾经美股投资者的心头好，已被资本认定濒临破产。

而整个曾价值1200亿美元的行业在2021年更是如此。去年12月，教育部宣布全国已关停84%的课外辅导机构。

紧要关头，新东方不得不转型，开始主推不受监管的科目的培训，例如舞蹈课和绘画课。在去年12月，新东方还建了一个新号“东方甄选”，在抖音开始了直播带货，创始人俞敏洪也时不时来直播间“上班”。

但是第二种尝试出师不利。在2021年12月28日的首播中，抖音“俞敏洪”和“东方甄选”两个直播间的销售总额合计500万元，而东方甄选仅有47万元。经过了半年的努力，东方甄选在6月5日的GMV才达到88万元。

而局面在上周开始转变。这一天，新东方老师双语带货的片段火“出圈”了。6月9日-11日，东方甄选的日均GMV从351万涨到了2000多万。

市场对新东方的突然爆红也很激动。作为运作东方甄选抖音号的公司，新东方在线在港股的股价本周一路狂奔连翻三倍。而新东方在线的母公司，新东方，其股价在同一天也涨了22.5%，自上周五开盘以来上涨了54%。不过，这两公司的股价还是只有“双减”政策实施之前的三分之一。

尽管如此，花旗银行的分析师给出了买入新东方股票的建议。他们称新东方的直播带货是一个亮点，并估计如果保持目前的运行速度，其年商品总值可以达到70亿元以上。

如今新东方的直播带货已经被贴上了“双语带货”“可以学知识顺带购物的直播间”等标签，不仅使得新东方的风格独树一帜，还成为东方甄选的一大优势。经过多年积累，新东方的老师们学科知识丰富，还具有深厚的教学经验，能在镜头前引经据典、诗词歌赋信手拈来，这是其他带货主播一时间难以模仿并超越的。

这种“知识的力量”令观众们赞叹不已。有留言称：“我来这主要上英语课的，而不是购物的”，以及“我学到了很多，下个单以示支持。”还有观众说被新东方永不言弃的精神感动到了。

然而，新东方在直播带货这个行业是否能站稳脚跟，仍言之尚早。2021年，中国直播电商行业市场规模已突破2万亿元，而新东方如今的日均GMV在1000-2000万元之间，所占份额并不大。而据业内人士的计算，如果新东方想要通过直播带货来支撑整个企业的运转，则日均GMV至少需要达到3000万元，目前的销量还远远不够。

17日，有媒体报道，东方甄选正在尝试自建供应链，未来将大力发展“东方甄选”自营产品。目标是把东方甄选打造成一个品牌。目前“东方甄选”尚未有自身的供应链，主要负责引流，发货和售后大部分由品牌方负责。值得注意的是，近日已有消费者反馈在直播间购买到质量不佳的产品。

更何况直播电商发展至今，竞争激烈，且流量集中在头部主播，新东方在这条路上突破重围的难度不小。据果集数据，2020年淘宝全年TOP30主播GMV产出为1174.57亿元，贡献了整个平台的30%。

不过，新东方通过双语直播带货火出圈之后，至少也为正在苦苦寻求转型的教培行业，带来了一些希望和启发。

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI, Themis QI

Sound Editor: XIE Kaishan

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News 

Presented by SFC

编委:  于晓娜

策划、编辑：李艳霞 

播音：李莹亮

撰稿：李莹亮、戚婉莹

音频制作：谢凯珊

设计：郑文静、廖苑妮

21世纪经济报道海外部 制作

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