(Yicai) Feb. 5 -- East Buy Holding will broadcast its first show on internet giant Tencent Holdings’ video feed WeChat Channels today but reports say that the Chinese livestream e-commerce site operator has no intention of starting new livestreams on the site.

East Buy will replay a conversation between its Chief Executive Officer Yu Minhong, writer Yu Shicun and a live streamer on its app that took place last night on WeChat Channels, the unit of New Oriental Education and Technology Group said today.

East Buy has no plans to begin livestreaming on WeChat Channels, but this may still change in the future, The Paper reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

East Buy has been branching out onto different platforms recently. Last year, the Beijing-based firm began livestreaming on a new app that it rolled out in July that year, on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, as well as on Alibaba Group Holdings’ e-marketplace Taobao.

After China moved to restrict extracurricular education for school children in 2021, East Buy, formerly known as Koolearn Technology Holding, abandoned its online tutoring business and moved into livestream e-commerce broadcasting.

East Buy’s logged a 57.4 percent dive in net profit in the first half of its fiscal year ended Nov. 30, 2023 to CNY249 million (USD34.6 million) due to higher costs, while revenue jumped 34.4 percent to CNY2.8 billion (USD389 million), according to its latest financial results released on Jan. 24.

The company’s gross merchandise value surged 18.7 percent last year from a year ago to CNY5.7 billion (USD794 million), most of which came from its live broadcast studio on Douyin.

Editor: Kim Taylor