China’s best-known test-prep school hopes to find new life in live-streaming e-commerce after crackdown on tutoring sector
- Hong Kong-listed Koolearn Technology, the online training arm of New Oriental Education Technology Group, plans to rename itself East Buy
- New Oriental shifted its focus to selling merchandise through live streams after China abruptly banned for-profit tutoring of school subjects in 2021
China’s top private tutoring firm, which has helped millions of Chinese students pass English language proficiency tests, such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), has decided that its future lies in live-streaming e-commerce.
Hong Kong-listed Koolearn Technology, the online training arm of New York-listed and Beijing-based New Oriental Education Technology Group, said on Thursday it would rename itself as East Buy to better reflect its current business direction.
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Former private tutors become top-selling live-streamers in China
One of them was Dong Yuhui, a former English teacher at New Oriental, who became an internet star overnight in June 2022 for one of his live-streaming sessions on Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok, in which he used English phrases and quotes from poems to promote various merchandise and share his world views.
After that live stream went viral, Koolearn’s share price gained 600 per cent within a few trading days. The stock climbed more than 6 per cent to close at HK$54.25 on Friday, compared with about HK$4 in early June and topping pre-crackdown levels.