High-profile Chinese influencer Dong Yuhui has left East Buy, the e-commerce unit of private tutoring giant New Oriental, due to his “career aspirations, commitment to his other endeavors and personal arrangements,” according to a filing by the Hong Kong-listed company on Thursday. The move highlights the complexity that livestreaming companies face when dealing with their top influencers. The filing said East Buy agreed to sell Dong’s venture “Time with Yuhui” to the livestreamer for RMB 76.58 million ($10.56 million). “Time with Yuhui” was founded last December following the company’s firing of CEO Sun Dongxu, which came after Dong’s fans expressed their dissatisfaction with Sun’s management of the star. Michael Yu, the current CEO of East Buy, noted later in a public letter he would pay for the deal for Dong and that, “the company was given to Yuhui [for free].” [Jiemian, in Chinese]
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