Former tutoring giant Oriental Selection (New Oriental) saw its highest-ever single-day sales during its inaugural livestream on the e-commerce site Taobao.
Sales from the event amounted to a total of 175 million RMB (24 million USD). The channel typically generates an average of 10 million to 25 million RMB (1.37 to 3.43 million USD) per day, according to data gathered over the past 30 days from a third-party industry data provider Chan Mama.
Oriental Selection began selling agricultural products on the short video platform Douyin but is now championing a multi-platform strategy in a bid to shore up its income streams. In July, the company hosted its first livestream from its newly created independent app and is reportedly eyeing a membership scheme that would see it launch discount supermarkets akin to Costco or Sam’s Club.
The marathon livestream ran from 8am on August 29 to 1am the following morning and saw a roster of hosts entertain viewers, including the company’s founder Yu Minhong as well as newer stars of the channel like YOYO and Dundun. The inaugural Taobao stream also saw Oriental Selection diversify its product selection with beauty products, home appliances, and electronics up for grabs alongside the channel’s go-to agricultural products.
As of 8pm on August 29, the cumulative number of viewers of the stream room was about 10 million and by 9.30pm the channel’s Taobao subscribers passed 1.5 million – a huge jump from 500,800 before the broadcast.
A clip from the stream shows founder Yu Minhong and CEO Sun Dongxu dressed in full chef attire celebrating as sales pass the 100 million RMB mark. Sun expressed his emotion at the company’s huge growth since it began streaming on Douyin in 2022. “We made another debut a little over a year ago, but we didn’t have such a big presence then. It’s been a really tough year to start a business.”
According to the company’s latest financial report, Oriental Selection achieved record results in the fiscal year 2023, with net revenue jumping 651% to 4.5 billion USD. Net profit climbed to 971 million USD – an extraordinary shift from 2022’s net loss of 534 million USD.
