A Glimpse on China’s Online Education
Chinese tech people are not missing out on the online education revolution. Over 100 online education startups emerged. It’s a business easier to justify than those such as group-buying: in such a big country where quality education resources are concentrated in bigger cities, well-recognized teachers or for-profit schools can reach more students and make more profits through the Internet.
Some existing educational organizations or online services have tasted the sweetness. New Oriental Education’s online business, Koolearn which was founded ten years ago, has its revenues increased 50% for the six consecutive years, and the margin, at the same time, are higher than that of offline classes, according to its CEO (article in Chinese). Hujiang, a language-learning site founded in 2001, claims it has made 100mn yuan ($16mn) in revenue this year from 15mn registered users (source in Chinese).
Different from other copy-to-China businesses, most online education services, though there still are MOOC-like or Shareskill-style ones, are in very Chinese ways, 1) most online classes are for pre-exam training, 2) teacher is the key resource to attract users, 3) most founders are from tech background, not education background, 4) most courses are not for free.
Examination-oriented & Teacher-centric
Almost all well-known private schools in China, such as New Oriental Education, have been focusing on pre-exam training and language learning. That doesn’t change for online education and is expected to be so for a long time. And in the whole education system teachers are absolutely respected by the mainstream society. They want teachers to help their kids get high scores in exams.
Laoshi, teacher in Chinese, is a platform for students and teachers to reach deals. The website holds the tuition paid by students till the end of all classes, and will refund the remain fees if a student isn’t satisfied with classes that have taken. Students will get cash rewards by rating or reviewing teachers after all classes.
Fenbi, chalk in Chinese, is “an interaction platform between professional training teachers and learners” as it describes itself. It takes the micro-blogging format that students can follow teachers/schools, reading notes/materials they post as timeline feeds, access learning materials uploaded by teachers/schools, or taking part in Q&As. The platform covers all kinds of exams a Chinese’d probably come across in a lifetime. Founded by Li Yong, former editor-in-chief of Netease news service, and his colleagues. It raised A round of funding, 10mn Yuan, from IDG, saying they won’t be worried about monetization in two years.
Few founders with education background
Most founders are from tech scene, engineers or tech media people. The rest with education background are from primary/middle schools where teachers are motivated as they have been paid for out-of-school classes when preparing examinations.
It’s hard to imagine that professionals from higher education system in China would build an online service like Coursera or anyone could come up with online classes so attractive as Khan Academy’s. So far I haven’t heard about any professor or university teachers opening online classes.
たいていの創業者はテクノロジー関連業界、エンジニアあるいはテクノロジーを扱うメディア出身の人々だ。残りの教育分野出身者は、小、中学校の教師である。彼らは試験対策として行う学外授業から利益を得ることが、その動機付けとなっている。
中国の高等教育制度出身の専門家がCourseraのようなオンラインサービスを構築する、あるいはKhan Academyと同じほど魅力的なオンラインクラスを思いつくことができる、とは想像し難い。これまでのところ私は、大学教授や講師がオンラインクラスを開いている、という例については聞いていない。
Different from building up a social network or group-buying site that what you need to do is attracting as many users/merchants to join in, the key for an online education service is content, well-organized classes. There has been technically well-supported sites that can enable all kinds of online educational activities but few offers professionally organized classes.
Taobao
Yes, Taobao is everything. Some people managed to making a good living by selling self-made teaching videos there. They don’t necessarily be teachers, or it can be on a part-time basis.
Educational organizations also set up stores on Taobao’s Tmall. New Oriental School and Hujiang Online School, among other services, even took part in the November 11th marketing event this year — the first time for educational organizations, offering online classes at half the prices. The total transactions on education reached 200mn yuan ($32mn) on that day, according to data released by Taobao (source in Chinese).
そう、Taobaoが全てだ。自作の教育ビデオを販売して良い暮らしができている人もいる。必ずしも教師でなくてもいいし、パートタイムで教えてもいい。
教育機関もTaobaoのTmallに店舗を設置している。中でもNew Oriental SchoolとHujiang Online Schoolは今年の11月11日に実施されたマーケティングイベントにも参加した。教育機関が半額でオンライン授業を提供するのは初めてのことだ。Taobaoの発表したデータによると、教育市場の取引高はその日2億元（3,200万ドル）に達した。（中国語情報源）
そう、Taobaoはなんでも扱っている。幾人かの人々は、そこで自家製の教育動画を販売することで生計を立てていた。彼らは皆が教師というわけではなく、パートタイムで行っていることもある。
さらに、いくつかの教育機関もTaobaoのTmallで開店している。New Oriental SchoolとHujiang Online Schoolは、他のサービスに加えて、今年11月11日のマーケティングイベントに教育機関として初めて参加し、オンラインコースを通常の半額で提供してもいる。Taobaoによって発表されたデータ（中国語の情報元）によると、その日の教育関連の総取引額は2億元（3200万ドル）に達した。
YY Education
With its virtual currency, users can access online classes on YY Education through YY software. YY wants to make the education business, launched in June 2011, as successful as YY Music in terms of popularity and revenue. But so far it hasn’t shown how different it is from other online education startups.
