A number of large recent investments in online education startups have illustrated the huge market potential for private online education at all levels in China. One of the largest investments in recent months was 17zuoye.com’s $100 Mn USD investment in February, valuing the company at $600 Mn USD. 17zuoye provides a platform for primary and secondary teachers to set, manage and assess students’ homework, and counts 600,000 teachers and 11.7 Mn pupils among its users.

Last month, two major online test preparation startups also received multimillion dollar investments. Yuan Tiku, which focuses on assisting students to improve their scores in China’s gaokao university entrance examinations, received $60 Mn USD, while Xiaozhan Jiaoyu, which focuses on practice tests and live tutoring for international certificates like IELTS, TOEFL and GRE, received $29 Mn USD.

Another recent investment was the recent purchase of education app Haizixue by major Chinese internet company Dianping. This service helps teachers and parents to find and coordinate after-school classes in both curricular and extra-curricular subjects.

According to an online education report released last November by the TAL Education Group, startups in China’s online education sector had at that point received a total of $910 Mn USD in investment since 2013, including $470 Mn USD between May and November 2014.

Sources: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-04/02/content_19980990.htm

Analysis by Xiaoyang (Sarah) You, Manager Education Services
According to information from the Ministry of Education in 2014, China currently has 95 million primary school students, 44 million lower secondary students and 24 million senior secondary school students, not counting those in secondary vocational schools. A large proportion of Chinese students are enrolled in after-school tutoring.

Although Chinese students are becoming more and more familiar with online education services, this is still a market with potentially huge growth, as illustrated by the venture capital investments discussed above. In the public sector, the Ministry of Education’s plans encourage Chinese schools to focus more on online courses, and the central government’s March 2015 work report raised the “internet plus” concept encouraging traditional industries to take advantage of the Internet to better serve people's needs. Online education may present an opportunity for UK institutions who would like to enter this market, especially in the English language field.

Pls. contact Sarah You at Xiaoyang.you@britishcouncil.org.cn if there are any enquiries.