New Oriental Online Introduces Independent APP: Will it Succeed?

The news of the launch of the independent APP of Oriental Selection (Chinese: 东方甄选) has once again made it the focus of attention, according to third-party data, about 200,000 users have downloaded the APP download so far.

It is worth mentioning that there is no live function in the APP, which makes it different from Douyin.

The CFO of New Oriental Online (Chinese: 新东方在线) said that the GMV of Oriental Selection in the last three months should be around CNY 2 billion, which cannot be separated from Douyin livestreaming platform.

But the point that cannot be ignored is that Douyin has been occupying the initiative of the platform, and there are too many uncertainties for Oriental Selection to keep the current record.

In fact, before the launch of the independent APP, Oriental Selection had been laid out in several channels, such as the opening of two WeChat video channels and flagship stores in Tmall and JD.

The independent APP has a different meaning for Oriental Selection, as video channels, WeChat mini-programs and the e-commerce platform flagship store all belong to the third party; only the in-house APP serves as its own basis. This can get rid of the rules of the platform to a large extent, leaving the maximum profit to themselves.

From the current performance of Oriental Selection on other platforms, the acquisition of customers is the primary problem. Besides, the operation of the independent e-commerce APP is not an easy task. There are also great differences between the operation mode of e-commerce APP and livestreaming. The core competitiveness of Oriental Selection in Douyin is the knowledge content, more precisely, the output of the content from those knowledgeable live streamers. However, its independent APP has no livestreaming function at all. From this point of view, the Oriental Selection has lost its competitive advantage.

In other words, the possibility of success of its independent APP is not yet known.