来源：锌财经 作者：陈妍
做付费会员制，在中国已经不是新鲜事了。
早在1996年，山姆会员店就在深圳开了中国第一家付费的会员制商超。经过这二十多年的发展，不仅山姆会员店迅速扩张，发展强势，像$好市多(COST.US)$、盒马鲜生、麦德龙等仓储会员店也纷纷冒头，整条赛道都变得火热起来。
前段时间，付费会员制赛道里跑进来一位跨界选手，做直播带货的$东方甄选(01797.HK)$高调推出App付费会员业务，价格为每年199元。
东方甄选能做付费会员，倒也不奇怪。其前身$新东方(EDU.US)$包括老板俞敏洪就已经积累大量的基础流量，再加上“读书人”的标签，也给后新东方时期的东方甄选提供了不同于其它MCN的品牌溢价。
业内也有不少声音说东方甄选想做“线上的山姆会员”，但在只差了60块的年费来看，东方甄选整体的供应链强度和SKU和山姆会员仍然差距不小。据了解，目前东方甄选自营产品SKU只有不到山姆超市的5%。
但从东方甄选特有的MCN调性来看，做付费会员也并不算太突兀。
一、一门流量对口的生意
想要做付费会员制，首先最重要的是要有足够大的用户基础盘，粉丝数量达到一定量级，在这件事上，东方甄选可谓是专业对口。
回过头来看东方甄选的发家史，它的前身是新东方，背后站着的老板又是俞敏洪，都是东方甄选发家的基础流量盘子。
从1995年开始，新东方进入快速发展期，每年招生人数递增100%，在不到十年的时间里，新东方学生人数从1994年的3500人，上涨到2004年的75万人，增加了2000多倍。到了2000年，新东方营收突破亿元。
2006年，新东方在纽交所敲钟上市，它也是中国第一家在纽交所上市的教育机构，这波上市催生了近10名身价过亿的教师，俞敏洪本人的身价更是高达18亿元，之后不到一年的时间，又上涨到55亿元。
新东方在教培行业一时找不到对手。俞敏洪估算过，在海外的中国留学生中，有70%都是新东方的学生。
早年积累下来的家底，也成为了东方甄选发家的筹码。也是同一拨人做成不同事情的关键。
过去的成功经历帮助新东方和俞敏洪积攒了大量的流量，以及忠诚的粉丝受众，所以俞敏洪也敢背水一战，带着原新东方团队打造“东方甄选”品牌，闯入直播带货赛道。
也正因如此，从直播带货的第一天起就备受外界关注。
同为难兄难弟的罗永浩也有类似的情况。2012年的时候，罗永浩宣布进入手机制造行业，打造了锤子手机，结果折腾了6年还是创业失败，背上了6亿元的巨债。为了还债，罗永浩也走上了直播带货的道路。
比起俞敏洪，罗永浩的性格更加张扬，容易引起争议，是一个浓墨重彩的大IP，这也把交个朋友直播间更快推上了抖音带货C位。但同为创业受阻、自带流量的背景下开启了直播带货生涯，罗永浩的交个朋友和俞敏洪的东方甄选两家MCN有着本质的不同。
在去“创始人化”后，交个朋友依然选择的是和品牌方合作的模式进行带货，但东方甄选则是开播不久后就选择了自建品牌和供应链，并且培养出了董宇辉这个“读书人主播”的IP。
二、用199元“洗出”铁粉
有了这么一大盘松散的流量，东方甄选下一步要做的事，自然是筛选出最忠诚的核心用户，将这些散落在各个平台的粉丝真正沉淀为自有App的品牌资产。
这199元的付费会员，就是筛子。
但到目前为止，东方甄选是全网第一家也是唯一一家实行付费会员制度的带货机构。李佳琦、交个朋友、辛巴这些更早入局的前辈都不敢做的事情，东方甄选又哪来的勇气？
俞敏洪本来就是文化人出生，过去又从事教育行业，因此东方甄选的直播间主打一个另辟蹊径，用清新的诗句、沉淀的知识在各种叫卖式的直播间里杀出一条血路，快速爆火。
当别的主播都在讲“不要39块9，不要29块9，现在限时只要9块9上车”的时候，东方甄选的主播董宇辉也不着急卖货，反而讲起了“当你背单词的时候，阿拉斯加的鳕鱼，正跃出水面；当你算数学的时候，南太平洋的海鸥，正跃过海岸；当你晚自习的时候，地球的极圈，正五彩斑斓。但少年，梦要你亲自去实现，世界你要亲自去看，值得你为未来付出努力。”
董宇辉
对比来看，东方甄选直播间内容质量足够高，也足够差异化，再联系到新东方此前敢于跟命运抗争，即便大厦一夜倾塌也绝不放弃的故事，一顿操作下来直接把有操守，高素质的知识分子人设拉满。
这种时候，消费者愿意下单，看中的不止产品本身，更多是出于对主播的喜欢认可，对东方甄选IP的信任。
根据广发证券发展研究中心的数据，从粉丝构成来看，23.11%为精致妈妈，20.17%为资深中产，18.07%为新锐白领。吸引更多的是一二线城市、25-40岁女性。客单价50元以上占比达到72%，客单价100元以上占比44%。
这种“另类”的直播间也的确收获了不少人的芳心，愿意掏出这199的会费，并且长期购买的粉丝也的确能够得到优惠，把这199元的会费给赚回来。
东方甄选身上自带一层吸引高净值用户的滤镜，这也是交个朋友等其他直播间做不到的地方。
三、更想成为一家自营品牌公司
然而，东方甄选想做成山姆，至少从目前看，差距还是存在的。
山姆会员店能够持续实行付费机制，真正能支撑它的还是背后庞大的供应链。
目前东方甄选App的自营产品不过200多个，而截至2023年6月，山姆会员店的SKU高达4500款。最近俞敏洪在直播中也提出“2024年底，要求自营品种类达到400-500种”的目标，即便达成目标，与山姆会员店尚有巨大差距。
在财报电话会上，东方甄选CEO孙东旭表示，东方甄选的自营品没有走入线下渠道的考虑，那就少了线下的流量来源，也缺少线下仓储物流优势。比如山姆就在全国各地布局了前置仓，提供送货上门的“极速达”服务。
另一方面，东方甄选打造品牌的思路，跟山姆会员店也有很大不同。
山姆会员店是典型的仓储式超市，面向人口多的家庭，主要销售大宗量的商品，数量大、体积大，但单价较低，一次购物可以满足一个家庭一周甚至更久的需求。主打一个量多且相对实惠。
而东方甄选一直以来走的都是高品质路线，不太讲究性价比，当初就因为6元一根的玉米跟辛巴展开直播间论战，还被顶到舆论的风口浪尖。
锌财经计算发现，山姆会员店里的泰国进口生冷冻大虾，每908克售价104.5元，平均下来57元一斤，东方甄选的国产冷冻青虾仁每750克售价103元，平均下来69元一斤；山姆会员店的台式香肠每1000克64.9元，平均下来32.5元一斤，东方甄选的爆汁烤肉肠4盒113元，平均下来35.3元一斤。
左：山姆会员店小程序/右：东方甄选App
不难发现，看似山姆会员店的产品价格要比东方甄选高，但考虑到克数问题的话，山姆会员店比东方甄选还能再优惠不少。
总体来说，东方甄选能做付费会员这事儿并不见怪。除了有早年积累下来的流量优势以外，更重要的是，能够在以后的运营当中，通过付费会员的形式，把用户的消费习惯牢牢地留在东方甄选。
编辑/lambor
Source: Zinc Finance Author: Chen Yan
A paid membership system is nothing new in China.
As early as 1996, Sam's Club opened the first paid membership supermarket in China in Shenzhen. After more than 20 years of development, not only is Sam's membership store rapidly expanding and developing strongly, like$Costco(COST.US)$Warehouse member stores such as Hema Xiansheng, and Metro have also sprung up one after another, and the entire track is getting hot.
Some time ago, a crossover racer came in on a paid membership racetrack to do live streaming with goods$EAST BUY(01797.HK)$A high-profile paid app membership service was launched at a price of 199 yuan per year.
It's not surprising that Oriental Selection can be used as a paid member. Its predecessor$New Oriental(EDU.US)$Including boss Yu Minhong, who has already accumulated a large amount of basic traffic, plus the “book reader” label, it also provided Oriental Selection in the post-New Oriental period with a brand premium different from other MCN's.
There are also quite a few voices in the industry saying that Dongfang Selection wants to become an “online Sam member,” but judging from the annual fee of only 60 yuan, there is still quite a gap between Dongfang Selection's overall supply chain strength and SKU and Sam's membership. According to information, currently the SKUs selected by Dongfang for its self-operated products are less than 5% of those in Sam's supermarket.
However, judging from the MCN tone unique to Oriental Selection, being a paid member is not too obtrusive.
1. A business with matching traffic
If you want to have a paid membership system, the first and most important thing is to have a sufficiently large user base, and the number of fans has reached a certain level. In this matter, Oriental Selection can be described as a professional counterpart.
Let's go back and look at the history of Dongfang Chosen's family. Its predecessor was New Oriental, and the boss standing behind it was Yu Minhong. They were all the basic influencers of Oriental Selection Faiba.
Beginning in 1995, New Oriental entered a period of rapid development. The number of students enrolled each year increased by 100%. In less than ten years, the number of New Oriental students rose more than 2,000 times from 3,500 in 1994 to 750,000 in 2004. By 2000, New Oriental's revenue had exceeded 100 million yuan.
In 2006, New Oriental was listed on the NYSE. It was also the first educational institution in China to be listed on the NYSE. This wave of listings spawned nearly 10 teachers worth over 100 million yuan. Yu Minhong's own net worth was 1.8 billion yuan. Less than a year later, it rose to 5.5 billion yuan.
New Oriental was unable to find rivals in the education and training industry for a while. Yu Minhong has estimated that 70% of overseas Chinese students are New Oriental students.
The family wealth accumulated in the early years has also become a bargaining chip for the East to select entrepreneurs. It's also the key for the same group of people to do different things.
Past successful experiences have helped New Oriental and Yu Minhong accumulate a large amount of traffic and a loyal fan audience, so Yu Minhong also dared to fight back and forth and bring the original New Oriental team to build the “Oriental Selection” brand and break into the live streaming circuit.
Because of this, it has attracted much attention from the outside world since the first day the live broadcast brought the goods.
Lo Wing-ho, who is also a difficult brother and brother, is in a similar situation. In 2012, Lo Wing-ho announced that he had entered the mobile phone manufacturing industry and built a hammer phone. As a result, after 6 years, the business still failed, and was burdened with a huge debt of 600 million yuan. In order to pay off his debts, Lo Wing-ho also embarked on the path of live streaming to bring goods.
Compared to Yu Minhong, Lo Wing-ho has a more assertive personality and is prone to controversy. It is a big IP with a strong sense of intensity. This also pushes the Make Friends Live Room to the C position on Douyin even faster. However, in the same context of being blocked from starting a business and bringing in their own traffic, they began a live streaming career. There is an essential difference between Lo Wing-ho's friend making friends and Yu Minhong's Oriental Selection two MCN companies.
After becoming a “founder,” I still chose to make friends by cooperating with brands to bring goods, but Oriental Selection chose to build its own brand and supply chain soon after the broadcast began, and developed the IP of Dong Yuhui, a “book reader anchor.”
2. Use 199 yuan to “wash out” iron powder
With such a large market of loose traffic, the next step in Dongfang Selection is naturally to select the most loyal core users, and actually settle these fans scattered across various platforms as brand assets for its own apps.
This 199 yuan paid membership is just a sieve.
However, up to now, Oriental Selection is the first and only delivery agency on the entire network to implement a paid membership system. Li Jiaqi, make friends, Simba, and other seniors who entered the game earlier didn't dare to do. Where did the Oriental Selection have the courage?
Yu Minhong was originally born as a cultural person, and worked in the education industry in the past, so the live broadcast room selected by Dongfang focused on pioneering a different approach, using fresh verses and accumulated knowledge to break a path of blood in various hawker-style live broadcast rooms, and quickly exploded.
While all the other anchors were saying “Don't pay 39 yuan 9, don't pay 29 yuan 9, get on the bus for a limited time now,” Dongfang Choices anchor Dong Yuhui is not in a hurry to sell the goods. Instead, he said, “When you memorize words, Alaska's cod is leaping out of the water; when you do math, South Pacific seagulls are leaping over the coast; when you study late, the Earth's polar circle is colorful. But as a teenager, you have to make your dreams come true, and you have to see the world for yourself; it's worth your efforts for the future.”
Dong Yuhui
Looking at the comparison, the content of Dongfang's selection live broadcast room was high enough and differentiated enough. It also links to the story of New Oriental, which had dared to fight against fate and never gave up even if the building collapsed overnight. Once operated, it was directly filled with ethical and highly qualified intellectuals.
At times like this, consumers are willing to place orders. They are interested not only in the product itself, but also because they like and recognize the anchor and trust in Dongfang's selection of IP.
According to data from the GF Securities Development Research Center, judging from the fan composition, 23.11% are exquisite mothers, 20.17% are senior middle class, and 18.07% are up-and-coming white-collar workers. It attracts more women aged 25-40 from Tier 1 and 2 cities. The customer unit price of 50 yuan or more accounted for 72%, and the customer unit price of 100 yuan or more accounted for 44%.
This kind of “alternative” live broadcast room has indeed won the hearts of quite a few people. They are willing to pay this 199 membership fee, and fans who have been purchasing for a long time can also get a discount and earn back the 199 yuan membership fee.
Dongfang Selection comes with a layer of filters to attract high-net-worth users. This is also a place where other live streaming rooms, such as making friends, cannot do it.
3. I want to become a self-operated brand company
However, at least for now, there is still a gap in Oriental Selection who wants to become Sam.
Sam's Club can continue to implement a payment mechanism, and what really supports it is the huge supply chain behind it.
Currently, the Oriental Selection App only has more than 200 self-operated products, but as of June 2023, Sam's Club has 4,500 SKUs. Recently, during the live broadcast, Yu Minhong also proposed the goal of “requiring 400-500 types of self-operated products by the end of 2024”. Even if the goal is achieved, there is still a huge gap with Sam's Club.
In an earnings conference call, Dongxu Sun, CEO of Dongfang Selection, said that Dongfang Selection's proprietary products did not consider entering offline channels, so there are fewer sources of offline traffic, and they also lack the advantages of offline warehousing and logistics. For example, Sam has set up front warehouses all over the country to provide a “fast delivery” service for door-to-door delivery.
On the other hand, Oriental's idea of choosing to build a brand is also very different from Sam's Club.
Sam's Club is a typical warehouse-style supermarket. It is aimed at households with a large population. It mainly sells large quantities of products. The quantity and volume are large, but the unit price is low. One shopping session can meet the needs of a family for a week or even longer. The main one is high volume and relatively affordable.
However, Oriental Selection has always followed a high quality route, and doesn't pay much attention to cost performance. At the beginning, they started a live broadcast debate with Simba because of the 6 yuan per root of corn, and was still at the forefront of public opinion.
According to zinc financial calculations, fresh frozen prawns imported from Thailand at Sam's store sold at 104.5 yuan per 908 grams, with an average price of 57 yuan per catty. Domestic frozen shrimps selected by the East sold at 103 yuan per 750 grams, with an average price of 69 yuan per kilogram; Taiwanese sausages at Sam's Club were 64.9 yuan per 1,000 grams, with an average of 32.5 yuan per catty. 4 boxes of fried yakiniku sausages selected by the East were 113 yuan, an average of 35.3 yuan per catty.
Left: Sam's Club Mini Program/Right: Oriental Selection App
It's not hard to find out that the price of products at Sam's Club seems to be higher than that of Oriental Selection, but considering the gram count issue, Sam's Club can still be quite a bit more discounted than Oriental Selection.
Overall, it's not surprising that Oriental Selection is able to become a paid member. In addition to having the traffic advantages accumulated in the early years, what is more important is that in future operations, users' consumption habits can be firmly retained in Oriental selection through the form of paid memberships.
edit/lambor
