Only Long-Term Strategies Can Help You Ride Out Fluctuations in Traffic

Each brand values research institute

The K-line chart of Oriental Selection, which was founded by Yu Minhong and his "Yu You Shang" team, has been rising steadily, and the company's value has exceeded HK$300 billion. If we calculate its growth rate based on the lowest price in the year (HK$10.12), it has increased by 191.9%.

Looking back at July 2024, Oriental Selection officially parted ways with Dong Yuwei, and the news was announced when the company's value had plummeted to HK$30 billion. At that time, the market generally predicted that the live streaming platform would decline without a super anchor.

However, reality has "refuted" this prediction. It is worth exploring what Oriental Selection did right and how it was able to ride out fluctuations in traffic.

Firstly, it was the company's steadfast strategic choice to maintain its independence. The decision to part ways with Dong Yuwei can be described as one of the most difficult yet crucial decisions made by Oriental Selection. On the surface, it was due to complex public opinion and disagreements that left Yu Minhong feeling miserable and unable to bear it; in reality, it was his farewell to the "anchor-driven" traffic model.

Yu Minhong paid a hefty "separation fee" of tens of billions of yuan for his decision, which even sparked questions and anger from Oriental Selection's investors. This bold move can be seen as Yu Minhong's response to the public's accusations of being an "iron-clad hen" and "unfair to Dong Yuwei," but it was not an impulsive decision driven by emotions or external pressures; rather, it demonstrated the company's strategic thinking and decisiveness.

As a result of this crisis, Oriental Selection proved that a critical recognition is that the high point in live streaming is fleeting, while the solid foundation of supply chain is what truly matters. The company did not rush to find its next "Dong Yuwei" but instead shifted its strategic focus to supply chain and self-owned products, thereby completing its evolution from an "anchor-driven" to a "product-driven" model.

Three key data points can illustrate this: the GMV (transaction value) of self-owned products has increased to 39%, with over 600 product varieties and a cold chain coverage rate of 92%. This deep integration of supply chains is what lies behind these figures.

A classic example is Oriental Selection's "transparency in the supply chain" strategy, which allowed it to launch its sanitary products and sell out immediately. By using live streaming to showcase the cotton production process and quality certifications, the company built a trust chain and achieved single-month sales of over 1.5 million units, allowing consumers to shift from buying for traffic to paying for quality.

Secondly, in an era where products are king, supply chain depth is what determines the width of the moat. The value of the supply chain lies in converting uncertainty into certainty. The old logic of the traffic era has been overthrown, and more and more consumers are placing orders based on trust in the brand rather than individual anchors.

This "product-as-brand" logic is one of the core passwords for Oriental Selection's success in riding out fluctuations in traffic. Another core password is to build a membership system based on supply chain foundations.

The concept of member economy is essentially the monetization of trust assets, converting one-time transactions into long-term value. This transformation is from a "sales mindset" to "user operations," from "traffic harvesting" to "mind control," and ultimately turns users from consumers to brand co-builders.

Oriental Selection has set a threshold of HK$199 for membership fees, filtering high-net-worth individuals; designed exclusive benefits, including priority access to new products and member discounts, to strengthen identity recognition; and through community operations and content interaction, converted public traffic into private assets, achieving private traffic sedimentation. Currently, Oriental Selection's paid membership has exceeded 250,000 users, with a retention rate of 2.7 times that of ordinary users.

It is clear that Oriental Selection's goal is to build an "online Sam." Of course, compared to the operating model of Sam members' stores, which has contributed 70% of revenue from its 9 million members, there is still a significant gap.

Through in-depth cultivation of supply chains and construction of membership systems, Oriental Selection has reconstructed its commercial logic. Its self-owned product gross margin rate has increased from 10% in the second half of 2024 to 21% in the first half of 2025, while its operating profit rate has risen from 3% to 7%, achieving a doubling growth.

In this process, Oriental Selection's brand positioning has become increasingly clear: it is a platform that selects good products for customers; a core product company centered on self-owned agricultural products; and a technology company that promotes cultural transmission. The three-party synergy forms the "content-product-brand" commercial loop.

Ultimately, a brand is a long-term endeavor, not a fleeting success or failure. It requires time to give answers. Parting ways with top anchors is painful, but eliminating uncertainty is what truly embodies long-term thinking. The value of long-term thinking lies in converting short-term pain into long-term advantages.

Therefore, people see that the head anchor who was once considered the "next Dong Yuwei" announced his departure from Oriental Selection in June 2025, and the market is no longer stirred.

The ultimate competition in live e-commerce is not just about traffic disputes but also about supply chain efficiency and user mindsets. There is no eternal wind direction, but there are eternal supply chains; there is no eternal traffic, but there are eternal user trust. Only by anchoring long-term thinking can a brand deeply plant its value in supply chain and user trust, thereby riding out fluctuations in traffic.