This chapter discusses the Chinese EdTech economy in the COVID-19 era. After studying the characteristics of the Chinese online education market and its market size, this research focuses on the differences in business strategies and market responses among online education applications during the COVID-19 era and the subsequent institutional changes, as well as analyzing the factors that cause such differences. For the analysis, a few cases of successful online education companies in China are selected, and their business models and technology applications are discussed. The authors conclude this chapter by addressing the challenges that China's online education faces and providing corresponding suggestions.
TopThe Characteristics Of The Chinese Online Education Market
Online education in China refers to an educational method that applies information technology and Internet technology to disseminate educational content. The online education industry covers early childhood education, K-12 education, adult education and other educational stages.
Figure 1. Online share of the education market in China 2016-2020, by sector
As indicated in Figure 1, out of the three categories (namely, early childhood and quality-oriented education, K-12 education, and occupational training and adult language education), occupational training and adult language education account for a significant share, that is, 42% of the Edtech market in 2020. Meanwhile, early childhood and quality-oriented education and K-12 education are both growing at a rapid rate of over 100% (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1221013/china-online-share-of-education-market-by-sub-sector/).
Lei et al. (2021) suggest that online education, as opposed to the more conventional offline education, will overcome the limitation of time and space, and allow Internet users to access education in their spare time. In addition, online education gives consumers more flexibility in terms of the selection of educational brands and teaching methods.
Moreover, with the advancement of big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other technology in the education sector, online education can help address the issue of unequal distribution of educational services across countries, minimize the time burden on families, and support more marginalized families (World Bank Group, 2020 b).
As for educational institutions, online education can increase consumer acquisition and lower some fixed costs such as rent and utilities (Zhang et al., 2021). It also makes the platforms of teaching processes more open (see more details in iResearch, 2020). All these benefit the domestic private education and training sector.
Indeed, the number of online education users in China has been growing at a steady rate since 2016. In 2016, there were slightly over 100 million users. In 2018, the number of users already exceeded 200 million, and in 2019, it even reached a staggering 269 million, as indicated in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Number of online education users in China 2016-2020 (in millions)