On the evening of August 22, East Buy released its fiscal 2025 annual report (June 2024 - May 2025), marking the first annual report since Dong Yuhui's departure. Performance data reveals that Dong Yuhui's exit continues to impact East Buy significantly.

For fiscal 2025, East Buy's continuing operations revenue reached 4.4 billion yuan with GMV of 8.7 billion yuan, representing year-over-year declines of 32.7% and 39% respectively, with both metrics showing expanded declines compared to the interim period of fiscal 2025. Net profit from continuing operations was 6.2 million yuan, plummeting 97.5% year-over-year. Notably, East Buy's workforce decreased by one-quarter compared to the previous year during fiscal 2025.

Statistical analysis shows that from August last year to July this year, East Buy's main account frequently dropped out of the top ten monthly live-streaming sales rankings, with its lowest ranking being 22nd place in October last year. In contrast, Dong Yuhui's new venture "Traveling with Hui" has consistently maintained a top-three position and has held the number one spot continuously since November last year.

Meanwhile, East Buy's transformation toward becoming an "online Sam's Club" continues to face multiple challenges including supply chain management, channel dependence, and slowing membership growth. Financial data shows that East Buy's proprietary app contributed 15.7% of total GMV in fiscal 2025. Additionally, the company's annual 199-yuan paid membership only increased by 65,700 members throughout the year, compared to 74,800 new members added in just the second half of fiscal 2024.

**Declining Performance and Workforce Reduction of Nearly 500 Employees**

In December 2023, a controversy over authorship of promotional content led to a public relations storm, prompting Yu Minhong to acknowledge "management gaps within the company" for the first time. In January 2024, Dong Yuhui launched his independent account "Traveling with Hui," and officially parted ways with East Buy after resigning in July 2024.

Following Dong Yuhui's departure, East Buy experienced significant performance declines. According to fiscal 2025 interim results, revenue from continuing operations (proprietary products and live-streaming e-commerce) fell 9.3% year-over-year to 2.187 billion yuan, with net profit turning from profit to loss, dropping from 160 million yuan in the same period last year to a net loss of 96.5 million yuan. Even excluding the financial impact of divesting "Traveling with Hui," net profit was only 32.7 million yuan.

At the first earnings conference following the separation from "Traveling with Hui," Yu Minhong candidly admitted, "After experiencing tremendous uncertainty, East Buy needs a recovery period. Over the past six months, I have personally invested significant energy and time to reposition and drive East Buy's steady development."

From revenue and GMV perspectives, East Buy has not fully emerged from the shadow of Dong Yuhui's departure. For fiscal 2025, continuing operations revenue of 4.4 billion yuan declined 32.7% year-over-year, while GMV of 8.7 billion yuan fell 39% year-over-year, with both metrics showing further expanded declines compared to the interim period.

Regarding profitability, East Buy's continuing operations net profit was 6.2 million yuan in fiscal 2025, plummeting 97.5% year-over-year, though showing improvement from interim losses to profitability. Excluding the financial impact of divesting "Traveling with Hui," fiscal 2025 continuing operations net profit was 135 million yuan, up 30% year-over-year.

East Buy's profit recovery was primarily driven by proprietary products and cost-reduction efficiency measures. Financial data shows that proprietary products' share of total GMV increased from 40% in fiscal 2024 to 43.8% in fiscal 2025, with proprietary product revenue reaching 3.5 billion yuan and continuing operations gross margin improving from 25.9% to 32%.

Notably, East Buy's workforce decreased by 482 employees in fiscal 2025, representing approximately 25% reduction from 1,883 employees in the previous year. Full-time staff decreased by 248 and part-time staff by 234, reducing total compensation expenses to 1.2 billion yuan, down 17.6% year-over-year. As of May this year, East Buy employed 1,070 full-time and 331 part-time staff, compared to 1,318 full-time and 565 part-time employees in the same period last year.

Regarding layoffs, Yu Minhong stated in January that personnel streamlining began two months prior, and despite business volume not significantly decreasing and some workloads even increasing, layoffs were still implemented to effectively control human resource costs.

**Dissolution of the "Golden Generation" of Streamers**

The impact of Dong Yuhui's departure extends far beyond financial figures. A series of "butterfly effects" have continuously impacted East Buy's foundation over the past year.

The most direct impact is declining user metrics. Third-party platform data shows that as of August 22, "Traveling with Hui" had approximately 30.89 million followers while East Buy's main account had about 28.184 million followers. Since July 2024, "Traveling with Hui" gained approximately 10.533 million followers while East Buy's main account lost about 1.862 million followers.

East Buy's main account ranking on live-streaming sales monthly charts has fallen from its previously stable top-three position. Analysis shows that from August last year to July this year, East Buy's main account only entered the top ten monthly sales rankings four times, with highest rankings of 7th place in January and July this year, and lowest ranking of 22nd place in October last year. In contrast, "Traveling with Hui" performed more prominently, never dropping below third place and maintaining the top position continuously since November last year.

More concerningly, following Dong Yuhui's departure, East Buy's streamers Jingwen and Dundun also left within a year. Particularly, Dundun's departure marked the complete dissolution of East Buy's "golden generation" of knowledge-based streamers.

Industry analyst Jiang Ruihan noted that Dong Yuhui's transformation model of "personal IP-fan accumulation-independent entrepreneurship" demonstrated that knowledge-based streamers retain strong commercial monetization capabilities after leaving East Buy, undoubtedly increasing other major streamers' desire for independent development. When streamers' personal influence far exceeds corporate brand recognition, management conflicts regarding compensation incentives, decision-making authority, and content control require further resolution.

In June 2024, Dundun publicly criticized East Buy's management issues during a livestream, including not informing streamers about new account launches and slow public relations response during controversies. In February 2025, Dundun revealed in a livestream that he received variety show invitations but "the company won't allow it, and I really want to go."

Regarding major streamer departures, Yu Minhong responded that "there won't be another streamer establishing an independent platform," indicating East Buy won't cultivate another "Dong Yuhui." Actually, even before Dong Yuhui's departure, East Buy had implemented streamer rotation and vertical specialized account strategies, establishing specialized livestream channels for fresh produce, apparel, and cosmetics, with increased operational focus following Dong Yuhui's departure.

**Challenges in Paid Membership Growth**

To reduce dependence on individual streamers, Yu Minhong outlined a relatively clear transformation path for East Buy—creating an "online Sam's Club." He has articulated this concept across multiple platforms: through carefully selected high-quality proprietary products and building a strong membership system, ultimately having consumers pay for the "East Buy" brand and quality rather than individual streamers.

However, East Buy faces numerous obstacles in achieving this goal.

First is supply chain management challenges. Currently, various agencies including Meiwrist and Three Sheep are expanding into proprietary businesses, but quality control issues remain a persistent concern for these organizations.

For example, early this year, East Buy's proprietary Wuchang rice and Ecuadorian South American white shrimp were challenged by well-known anti-counterfeiting activist Wang Hai. Although East Buy subsequently provided testing reports to prove compliance and emphasized strict quality inspection processes, taking strong legal action against questioning voices, it inevitably raised concerns among some users and impacted East Buy's brand image.

East Buy's supply chain management is primarily handled by former CEO Sun Dongxu. An East Buy insider noted, "Little Sun (Sun Dongxu) has a straightforward personality, so he easily misspeak during livestreams, but his work capabilities are recognized internally." Previously, due to the "promotional content" controversy, Sun Dongxu was removed from executive director and CEO positions in December 2023, though he returned to East Buy's livestream as a part-time streamer in November last year.

Additionally, East Buy's dependence on the Douyin platform remains unresolved. While East Buy is actively expanding to other channels like Taobao and Xiaohongshu, Douyin channel GMV still accounts for the majority. Yu Minhong previously stated, "If a company has 70% of its GMV dependent on the Douyin platform, this is not a normal business model for an independent listed company."

To reduce channel dependence risks, East Buy is increasing investment in its proprietary app. Financial reports show that East Buy's proprietary app contributed 15.7% of total GMV in fiscal 2025, up from 8.4% in the previous year; proprietary app revenue increased from 900 million yuan in fiscal 2024 to 1.1 billion yuan, with revenue share rising from 13.8% to 25%.

More notably, the core of the Sam's model—membership system—is progressing slowly at East Buy. As early as October 2023, East Buy officially launched its paid membership system, becoming the first live-streaming e-commerce agency to implement paid membership at 199 yuan annually.

Research shows that East Buy first disclosed proprietary app paid membership subscription numbers in its fiscal 2025 interim report in January this year. According to financial data, this figure was 123,800 in fiscal 2024 interim, 198,600 in fiscal 2024, 228,300 in fiscal 2025 interim, and 264,300 in fiscal 2025. This indicates East Buy's membership growth has slowed, with only 65,700 new members added throughout fiscal 2025, compared to 74,800 added in the second half of fiscal 2024 alone.

Overall, in the year since Dong Yuhui's departure, East Buy has experienced numerous challenges and crises, with stock prices experiencing a "roller coaster" performance. While the company has made progress in proprietary products and membership business, achieving the goal of becoming an "online Sam's Club" requires greater efforts in supply chain management, channel expansion, and brand building.