Dong Yuhui emulated Yu Minhong, and the 9-month shelf-life cake incident backfired.

This year during the "Double 11" shopping festival, Li Jiaqi, known as the "top streamer on Taobao", sold 2 trillion tokens in half an hour in his live stream, while Dong Yuhui, the "top streamer on Douyin", launched his first self-operated brand.

On the evening of November 5, Dong Yuhui launched the first product of his self-owned brand "Heyu Chunshi" in the live stream: a durian mille crepe cake. Each box has a net weight of 450 grams, comes in two flavors of Musang King & Golden Pillow durian, and pure cocoa butter chocolate, priced at 56.9 yuan for one box and 99.9 yuan for two boxes. According to public data, the sales of this cake exceeded 100,000 units 10 minutes after it went online, 150,000 units were sold in 16 minutes, the peak number of online viewers exceeded 260,000, and the stock was in short supply in less than half an hour. The GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) of this single cake alone reached tens of millions of yuan.

However, before the popularity of the explosive orders faded, controversies emerged: the shelf life of this cake was marked as 9 months. Many netizens questioned that a cream cake that can be stored for 9 months must contain a huge amount of preservatives. Soon the product was ridiculed as "full of excessive food additives and industrial processing tricks".

On November 10, Dong Yuhui responded to the controversy in the live stream, stating that the product is stored at minus 18 degrees Celsius, and it is common sense that the shelf life will be longer in a frozen environment. The customer service of Heyu Chunshi previously replied to netizens that the 9-month shelf life is under the condition of "unopened and frozen below -18°C", which is achieved by fresh locking through freezing and sealed packaging, no additional preservatives are added, and the cake cannot be refrozen after thawing.

A new self-operated product became a hit as soon as it was launched, and was immediately put under public scrutiny. The test for Dong Yuhui's self-operated business path has only just begun.

01 The shelf life is longer than that of Freshippo and Sam's Club 

Although the shelf life of the cake is highly controversial, Dong Yuhui has not stopped his live streaming schedule. According to the reply from Heyu Chunshi's customer service, the second batch of durian cakes will be launched on November 20, and currently it is only sold in the "Yuhui Tonghang" live stream room.

When the first batch of cakes was launched, many fans of "Yuhui Tonghang" failed to grab them, and those who got them paid great attention to posting "unboxing videos" on social media after receiving the goods. Dong Yuhui's self-operated cake seems to have become a kind of social currency. Although the shelf life is too long, fans do not seem to mind it.

A netizen who often shops in Dong Yuhui's live stream told Tech Planet that he did not pay attention to the shelf life because he finished the cake in less than a month after receiving it. "I only pay attention to the ingredients, and I basically never check the production date for his products. Besides, I won't buy them if I don't plan to eat them immediately, so I eat them as soon as I buy them."

Dong Yuhui publicly explained that "it is common sense that the shelf life will be longer at minus 18 degrees Celsius", and an employee of a factory that specializes in producing and storing cream and baking ingredients agreed with this statement. The employee revealed to Tech Planet that under the condition of minus 18 degrees Celsius, 9 months is totally fine. The storage time of cream manufacturers and raw materials in the baking industry mostly exceeds 9 months. The length of shelf life mainly depends on storage conditions: it is a few days at room temperature, and it can be stored for a long time at minus 18 degrees Celsius.

There is no big controversy in the fan circle, and a 9-month shelf life under the condition of meeting freezing requirements is also compliant. But just like the founder of Xibei once came out to explain that frozen broccoli is not a pre-made dish, in an era that pays more attention to healthy "freshly made" food, products with a longer shelf life than the market average will inevitably be questioned about "why its shelf life is longer than other brands".

In comparison, as a popular product, the OEM manufacturers of durian mille crepe cakes vary slightly among different brands.

The OEM manufacturer of Dong Yuhui's "Heyu Chunshi" durian cake is Liulian Food (Shandong), which provides product supply chains for Meituan and many supermarkets. The label of a durian mille crepe cake named Sultan King Durian Mille Crepe on Meituan's Xiaoxin Supermarket shows that the manufacturer is also Liulian Food (Shandong), but the shelf life of this cake is 3 months.

The OEM manufacturer of East Buy is Liumangyike, and the shelf life of its multiple cream mille crepe cakes is 60 days, that is, 2 months. The supplier of Sam's Club's signature durian mille crepe is Enxicun, and its shelf life is 3 days, which belongs to refrigerated cakes. Many frozen durian mille crepes and Swiss rolls of Freshippo are also produced by Enxicun, in addition to suppliers such as Maliuxiang and Haomaiduoduo. It is worth mentioning that Haomaiduoduo and Liulian Food are the same company. Tech Planet's comparison found that a "Sultan King Durian Mille Crepe Cake" from Freshippo has a shelf life of 180 days, that is, 6 months, and the shelf life after thawing is 2 days.

Some brands and stores follow the route of freshly made, refrigerated short-shelf-life products. Most frozen durian mille crepe cakes have a shelf life of 2-3 months, and 6 months or 9 months is indeed longer than other brands.

02 The price is aligned with East Buy and Sam's Club 

Putting aside the shelf life, comparing the specifications and prices of cakes from different brands, there is almost no big difference. Dong Yuhui did not set a much higher premium on the pricing of his first self-operated product.

Heyu Chunshi's durian cake is 450g, priced at 57 yuan, with a total durian pulp content of more than 50% for two flavors. Sam's Club's 1000g cake is priced at 109 yuan, with Sultan King durian content of 33%. Xiaoxin Supermarket's Sultan King durian mille crepe cake is 400g, with durian pulp content of 50%, priced at 36.9 yuan. It seems to have the highest cost performance, but at the same time its ingredient list is also the longest. East Buy's ordinary durian mille crepe is 450g, with durian pulp content of about 30%, that is 135g, priced at 54.9 yuan. Freshippo's Sultan King durian mille crepe cake has two durian contents of >40% and >10% respectively, 500g, priced at 49.9 yuan.

After comparison, the prices of Heyu Chunshi, East Buy and Sam's Club are on par, and Xiaoxin Supermarket and Freshippo have more cost-effective prices.

The price of a durian cake is linked to the durian pulp content and weight. A relevant employee of Liulian Food told Tech Planet that the minimum order quantity starts from 10,000 boxes, the specification is determined by the brand itself, and the price is usually above 30 yuan. As for the shelf life, the other party did not say whether it can be shortened, but only stated that they have done special tests and all comply with the explicit regulations.

Before launching the first self-operated product, Dong Yuhui had already made dozens of customized products. According to incomplete statistics, in the whole year of 2025, dozens of customized products were launched accumulatively; from December 2025 to January 2026, 17 customized products were launched in the live stream, with cumulative sales exceeding 100 million yuan. In October 2026, he jointly launched customized sanitary napkins with Niceday, a brand under PurCotton. According to netizens who often shop in Dong Yuhui's live stream, the best-selling customized products in the live stream include milk, beef balls, chicken chops, hand-held pancakes, towels, shrimps and so on. Some people frantically snap up these products like they are obsessed.

For top-tier live streamers, the influence of product promotion, the ceiling faced by live streaming e-commerce, and product quality control issues will accelerate the pace for streamers to start self-operated business. Because the greater the influence, the greater the corresponding ambition, the greater value they strive to create, and the deeper the involvement in the supply chain. On the other hand, problems in product quality control that make streamers trapped in negative public opinion will force them to improve quality control.

Even with great product promotion influence, it is inevitable to encounter mishaps. Dong Yuhui has experienced many setbacks in the past, and was pushed to the forefront of public opinion several times due to product quality control problems, and was once called "falling from the altar" by the outside world last year.

As Dong Yuhui himself said in the preview video, his team has been deeply engaged in the consumer goods field for about 3 years, "the number of products delivered exceeds 700 million orders", and has a deeper understanding of consumer demands. At the same time, they "noticed that some key problems have not been solved", so they decided to develop their own products. "Heyu Chunshi" has been prepared for nearly a year. The team's research found that when consumers have specific demands, the current market "may lack supply or the supply is unstable", so the company tries to independently control the production process.

03 Targeting high gross profit, the next self-operated product may be skin care products 

Dong Yuhui has embarked on the same self-operated business path as his former employer East Buy.

Coincidentally, the first self-operated product of both parties is related to durian. East Buy's first self-operated product is Golden Pillow durian, and one of the flavors of Dong Yuhui's "Heyu Chunshi" mille crepe cake is durian cake.

In just 9 days, as of press time, the Douyin account of Heyu Chunshi has gained more than 1.14 million new followers.

Choosing the self-operated model that requires heavy assets and tests the supply chain more, East Buy has already paved the way in advance. At present, self-operated products are the core foundation of East Buy. Its financial report data shows that in the 2026 fiscal year, East Buy's overall GMV reached 10.2 billion yuan, of which the GMV of self-operated products was 5.4 billion yuan, accounting for about 52.6% of the total GMV. The total revenue of self-operated products was 4.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.4%, accounting for more than 80% of the total revenue. The gross profit was 2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.2%, and the gross profit margin rose from 32.0% in the previous fiscal year to 35.8%. The large increase in gross profit is largely due to self-operated products. The company has launched a total of 1009 self-operated products.

The self-operated model has higher gross profit and greater profit margin. Industry data shows that the average gross profit margin of the baking category is as high as 60%, far exceeding the 25% gross profit margin of fresh food. By taking product selection, pricing, supply chain and brand in their own hands and eliminating intermediate links, the gross profit margin will be thicker.

Self-operation has become the common choice of top streamers. Li Jiaqi officially launched his own brand "Meiwan Premium" two years ago. Xinxuan under Xinba started to develop self-owned brands very early, and has successfully incubated multiple self-operated brands including the sanitary napkin brand "Cotton Password", food brand "Jianfeng Shike", beauty and skin care brand "Benzhi", daily chemical brand "Miaojiesi" and so on. Among them, Cotton Password has accumulated sales of 3.331 billion yuan in 8 years, and more than 20 products have achieved sales exceeding 100 million yuan.

From the perspective of fan scale and product promotion influence, Dong Yuhui is still in the absolute top tier. According to the "2026 Hurun China Top 100 New Traffic Forces List", in the first half of this year, the GMV of Meituan (Meiwan), Yuhui Tonghang and Xinxuan Group all exceeded 10 billion yuan in the first half of 2026. The cumulative GMV of Dong Yuhui's live stream rooms on the Douyin platform reached 14 billion yuan, ranking second among the top 100 agencies.

However, there are also hidden worries. The entire live streaming e-commerce industry is in a context where traffic and commission have reached their peaks. The data of Yuhui Tonghang is also declining. Third-party data shows that since the beginning of this year, the average number of online viewers, average stay duration and conversion rate of Yuhui Tonghang's live stream room have all shown a downward trend.

Moreover, the self-operated road is not easy to take. Dong Yuhui got a good start with his first product, but it is still unknown whether consumers will pay for other subsequent products. On BOSS Zhipin, among the 78 positions currently recruited by Yuhui Tonghang, many are product managers. One of the recruitment information for a skin care product product manager states that the employee will be independently responsible for the 0-1 whole process development and launch of new skin care products. In Dong Yuhui's self-operated product plan, there is likely to be a skin care product, which is another high gross profit category.

In addition, another challenge is that self-operation takes the initiative of profit and quality control into their own hands, but at the same time, it also takes the main responsibility when products have problems. In the past, when live streaming e-commerce had accidents, streamers could cut off relations with brands, but after that, if problems occur again, Dong Yuhui himself will become the first person in charge.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Tech Planet" (ID: tech618), written by Zhai Yuanyuan, authorized to release by 36Kr.