Top livestreamer “Crazy” Little Brother Yang has taken aim at Dong Yuhui in travel livestreams, who has been focusing on the sector since launching his own channel Walking with Hui. The travel sector has been rapidly, albeit erratically, recovering since last year. During the most recent Dragon Boat Festival between 8-10 June, over 600 million trips were made around the country, increasing 9.4% compared to the same period in 2023.
Yang has picked up on the trend and has been trying to leverage the growing market. In May, Yang was invited by state-owned China Central Television (CCTV) to stream with host Nigermaidi Zechman about travel in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. With over 30 million views, the livestream also reached the top of the sales ranking that day. Recently, “Crazy” Yang and his own team traveled to Anqing, Anhui for a similar livestream and launched its own travel account.
Travel livestreams were pioneered by Oriental Selection’s main channel when Dong was still part of it. The travel focus now has shifted to Dong’s Walking with Hui channel. The Oriental Selection channel, meanwhile, struggles to find its own brand identity post-Dong. Interestingly, Yu Minhong, acting CEO of Oriental Selection and CEO of parent group New Oriental, appeared on Dong’s channel on 13 June, for a Shanxi travel stream. The viewer number shot to over 100,000 and Walking with Hui became number 3 on Douyin’s (Chinese version of TikTok) sales ranking. The GMV of the livestream was between 10 million RMB and 25 million RMB with 10.81 million total views.
Yang has been expanding his empire into various fields, from microdrama to music festivals, from TikTok overseas and now travel livestreams. Although it seems top livestreamers are making a comeback since the quiet Double 11 last year, many are still diversifying. After being criticised by state media last year for being vulgar, Yang pre-emptively diversified his business beyond livestreaming. Although appearing on CCTV’s livestream channel can be seen as a reconciliation with state media; it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
