East Buy's CEO picked a fight with its own star streamer — the fans made the board choose

East Buy was New Oriental's improbable second act: the education company, gutted by China's tutoring crackdown, had rebuilt itself as a live-streaming e-commerce business on the back of one employee — Dong Yuhui, a former English teacher whose literary, bilingual sales style made him China's most distinctive streamer. By late 2023 the company's fortunes were visibly his.

In December 2023, chief executive Sun Dongxu appeared to endorse a social media post arguing that Dong was taking too much credit — his scripts, the post said, came from a team of writers. Dong's fans treated it as an attack on their favorite by his own company, and revolted: unfollow campaigns, boycott calls, a run on the stock. On 16 December 2023, East Buy fired Sun, saying his mishandling of the incident had hurt the company's brand and reputation. New Oriental's chairman Michael Yu took over as CEO; Dong returned as a partner and Yu's assistant.

The board had answered the question the fans asked — who runs this company, the CEO or the streamer? — and chosen the streamer. The answer did not hold: in July 2024, Dong left East Buy entirely, taking 100% of his spin-off channel 'Walking with Hui' for 76.6 million yuan — a price Yu later called effectively a gift. East Buy had discovered the trap of influencer-dependent commerce: the asset walks out the door with the influencer, and the only leverage left is the severance.

The board fired the CEO to appease fans, but the star later left with his channel for 76.6 million yuan, proving the asset walks out with the influencer.

A business built on one personality rents its revenue — the fans belong to the person, not the company, and a CEO who challenges the star challenges the revenue.

Firing the CEO to appease the fans made the company's governance a function of fan sentiment — the board traded its authority for a news cycle.

The 2024 split confirmed what December 2023 implied: when the influencer is the business, the eventual separation is priced at whatever keeps them cooperative until it happens.

If one person carries the revenue, the org chart is a fiction — either build the business so it does not depend on them, or accept that every decision is theirs, because the audience will enforce it.