East Buy lost its star streamer — GMV dropped 39%, revenue down 32%

East Buy was born from crisis. When China banned for-profit tutoring in 2021, New Oriental, the country's largest education company, pivoted to livestream ecommerce. In June 2022, former teacher Dong Yuhui went viral on Douyin with his poetic, philosophical style of selling products — reciting poetry while selling rice, teaching English while explaining steak cuts. East Buy's market cap peaked at over HK$75 billion, making it one of the most dramatic corporate turnarounds in Chinese business history.

But the business was built on one person. East Buy's entire traffic came from Dong Yuhui's live streams, and management had no plan for what happened when he left. In December 2023, the 'Xiaozuowen' incident broke: East Buy's social media editor publicly claimed that the script Dong Yuhui was reading had been written by the team, not by him. The dispute escalated into a full public crisis, with fans taking Dong Yuhui's side. He was briefly suspended, and East Buy's stock lost HK$4 billion in a single day.

Dong Yuhui returned, but the relationship was broken. In 2024, East Buy sold his independent account '与辉同行' (Yuhui Together) to him. His departure was the beginning of the collapse. In FY2025 (ending May 2025), East Buy's total GMV fell from ¥14.3 billion to ¥8.7 billion, a 39% decline. Revenue dropped 32.7% from ¥6.5 billion to ¥4.4 billion. Net profit, including one-time items from the separation, crashed 98% to only ¥6.2 million.

The core business was still profitable — excluding the Yuhui impact, continuing operations net profit rose 30% to ¥135 million. But the trajectory was clear: East Buy went from a market phenomenon to a niche player in one year. The company that was once valued at over HK$75 billion was now worth a fraction of that.