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The story
History
Beijing New Oriental School was established on November 16, 1993, by Yu Minhong (aka Michael Yu), a graduate of Peking University with an English major. Prior to venturing into entrepreneurship, Yu Minhong served as an English instructor at Peking University. Initially concentrating on offering preparatory services for the TOEFL and GRE exams, the institution later diversified its offerings to encompass a broad spectrum of test preparation and curriculum. On September 7, 2006, New Oriental was listed on New York Stock Exchange.
Transformation
In July 2016, New Oriental expanded its online tutoring market to third- and fourth-tier cities with its new platform Koolearn. As of May 31, 2021, Koolearn had entered 273 cities in 27 provinces in China.
On March 28, 2019, Koolearn was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the stock code 01797.
Starting in September 2021, Chinese authorities banned for-profit tutoring in subjects on the school curriculum in an effort to ease pressure on children and parents, leading to a wave of school closures and lay offs across the private education sector. As of January 2022, New Oriental dismissed 60,000 employees and saw operating income plunge by 80% after Beijing enforced new sweeping rules on the country's private education industry that barred for-profit tutoring last year, according to its founder.
On December 28, 2021, New Oriental launched its live streaming E-Commerce platform "Oriental Select" on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, positioning itself as a new-era e-commencer for agricultural products. Koolearn Technology Holding has been transformed into an online retail company, and was later renamed East Buy. The company pivoted to leverage the educational background and presentation skills of its former teachers, like Dong Yuhui, in its new e-commerce venture.
From Wikipedia’s article on New Oriental, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8