Hottest Online Education Startups in China

The rapid technology development has greatly impacted people’s lives. Not only has it changed how people shop, pay, or date, it has also changed how people learn. Online education has come to the forefront in recent years. It is estimated that the scale of e-learning users in China will reach 296 million in 2020.

Why is online education so popular?

Comparing with traditional offline education model, online education has outstanding advantages. E-learning is flexible, convenient, and rich in resources; combining with AI, VR, AR and other technologies, it can better meet users’ personalized needs.

Here we cover some hottest online education startups in China.

K12 English online learning platforms

Zuoyebang

Founded: 2015
Location: Beijing,China

As the largest K12 online education platform in China, Zuoyebang offers a comprehensive suite of services including the Zuoyebang Super App, Zuoyebang Live Courses App, Zuoyebang Oral Arithmetic App. Zuoyebang currently has over 800 million users registered in total, with over 50 million daily active users and over 170 million monthly active users. It’s said that the online education company is about to complete a new round of US$700-800 million in financing, with a post-investment valuation of more than US$11 billion.

VIPKid

Founded: 2013
Location: Beijing (China)

VIPKID is an online teaching and education platform, providing one-on-one English courses for Chinese children between age 4 to 15 years. All of its teachers are based in North America and must be certified by the company before teaching on the platform. VIPkid has its own self-developed educational curriculum, and in 2018 it signed a stategic coopeartion agreement with HMH to bring premium English content, making it the first online education platform to get full access to HMH’s K12 curricula.

Gogokid

Founded: 2017
Location: Beijing (China)

Gogokid, founded by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, is a brand new one-on-one English learning platform for children aged 4 -12. Gogokid creates a connection between children in China and the world by providing a global learning experience. It aims to foster students to learn the English language as a tool, not as a goal, and to become individuals with creative and critical thinking skills.

DaDaABC

Founded: 2013
Location: Shanghai (China)

DaDaABC is also a one-on-one online education platform for children aged 4 – 16. It uses cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to improve the teaching efficiency. The immersive live interactive classroom allows the native speaking teachers and children to communicate more.

AI + Learning platforms

LAIX Inc

Founded: 2012
Location: Shanghai (China)

LAIX Inc., is an English learning platform driven by AI technology. Its proprietary AI teacher utilizes cutting-edge deep learning and adaptive learning technologies, big data, well-established education pedagogies and the mobile internet. LAIX has released a few English learning applications, such as “English fluency”, “IELTS fluency”, as well as other language learning alternatives like “English for you”, “Fluent reading”, and “Authentic pronunciation class”.

Squirrel AI Learning

Founded: 2014
Location: Shanghai (China)

Squirrel AI, founded by Yixue Group, is the first K12 EdTech company which specializes in intelligent adaptive education in China. It aims to optimize students’ daily learning sessions through AI adaptive learning engine.

SEE ALSO: Here is How AI is Bringing Equality to Education in China

Online tutoring platforms

Yuanfudao

Founded: 2012
Location: Beijing (China)

Yuanfudao is the largest online live course platform, servicing primary and secondary school students in China, to help students improve their test scores. The platform connects students with tutors, who livestream through the app. Students can choose one-on-one tutoring services or join a group class. Some teachers teach a series of classes, typically on the exam-specific material, while others teach one-off courses.

Recently Yuandaodao completed the G2 round of US$1 billion in financing, led by DST Global, which was the third financing completed by the company in 2020, with a total annual financing of US$3.2 billion.

GSX

Founded: 2014
Location: Beijing, China

GSX Techedu Inc. (NYSE: GSX) is a technology-driven education company and a leading online K-12 large-class after-school tutoring service provider in China. It offers K-12 courses covering all primary and secondary grades as well as foreign language, professional and interest courses. The company had its US IPO in June 2019 and it is the first profitable K12 large-class company in the education industry. Its stock price has increased nearly 6 times since the beginning of 2020. Now GSX is worth of US$24 billion.

Tomorrow Advancing Life (NYSE: TAL) 

Founded: 2003
Location: Beijing, China

Tomorrow Advancing Life (NYSE: TAL) is a leading education and technology enterprise in China that offers after-school education for students in primary and secondary school. On Oct.20, 2010, its predecessor Xueersi went public in New York, becoming the first China’s primary and secondary education institution listed in the United States with the stock code TAL. The current market value of TALis US$47 billion

Zhangmen 1to1

Founded: 2010
Location: Shanghai (China)

Zhangmen is an online tutoring platform provides tutoring courses to students from 8 to 18 years old. Through the online and mobile apps of Zhangmen 1to1, primary and middle school students can select top teachers who have graduated from China’s first-class universities such as Tsinghua, Peking University, and Fudan, for personalized, one-on-one tutoring sessions and teaching is offered for subjects like maths, English, physics, chemistry, etc. They provided online education services in a one-to-one comprehensive transformation.