(Yicai Global) July 28 -- Shares in East Buy Holding surged today after the e-commerce unit of New Oriental Education & Technology Group saw traffic to its main app surge after one of its secondary live broadcast studios had a three-day ban imposed by the Chinese version of TikTok, attracting the attention of netizens.

East Buy’s share price [HKG: 1797] closed up 28.8 percent at HKD38.90 (USD5) today, after plunging 6.5 percent yesterday.

Douyin did not close East Buy's main livestreaming studio, but that of a subsidiary account called East Buy Self-Operated Products, the Beijing-based firm said on Weibo yesterday, adding that its other sales channels on Douyin are operating as normal.

The ban raised East Buy’s profile and the main app ranked fifth among Chinese shopping apps on Apple's App Store yesterday with sales soaring to a new daily record of CNY23 million (USD3.2 million).

East Buy Self-Operated Products informed its followers on July 26 that its livestreaming room on Douyin was being shut down for three days for not following certain rules, but did not specify which rules.

East Buy Self-Operated Products’ studio was temporarily closed because the company displayed its app’s QR code in its Douyin studio , trying to redirect user traffic on Douyin to the app, The Paper reported yesterday, citing a person close to the Beijing-based platform.

East Buy was formerly an online education provider known as Koolearn Technology, but turned to e-commerce when China launched a crack-down on after-school classes in 2021 and business dried up. It has achieved a degree of success on Douyin and its main account had 30 million followers in early July. To build more independent and diversified sales channels, East Buy launched its own app last August.

Earlier this month, East Buy announced that it would add a livestreaming feature to its app, sparking rumors that it might quit Douyin. In response, New Oriental's founder Yu Minghong said that East Buy and Douyin have a good relationship and they succeed as partners.

Editor: Futura Costaglione