Online education cross-border investment: false or business opportunities?

Online education ushered in a wave of climax in 2014.

The industry Development report published by an educational institution shows that from 2013 to 2014 November, a total of 149 online education projects were invested, amounting to 910 million U.S. dollars, of which only since May 2014, the amount of investment has reached 470 million dollars.

More attention is being paid to the fact that many companies that do not educate themselves "cross the border" into this area.

BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) and other giants, have laid out online education, and is known as online education "spoiler" yy (gathering time), but also frequent movements, people's Daily and Xinhua website, have said to invest heavily in the layout of online education, Liansen Horse costumes and Xi ' an diet also layout online education ...

However, although online education seems to be in full swing, but currently does not see a clear profit model, "understand the education of the Internet, do not understand the Internet education" This sentence, seems to become the whole industry nightmare. It is particularly noteworthy that among these cross-border groups, some of them are "ignorant of the internet and uneducated".

Insiders point out that Cross-border entry means that the industry has more capital to participate in, can well popularize online education, but on the other hand, cross-border access needs to be cautious, which requires enterprises to understand education. Admittedly, education is a "slow work out of the malt" industry, it needs to slowly precipitation carefully polished, rather than in the promotion of capital in one go.

2014: Online education investment boom

The online education market erupted sharply in 2014.

Institutional statistics, 2014, the domestic daily about 2.6 Internet education company was born. In a growing number of online education start-ups, there are also many companies are standing in a round or even B round with tens of millions of dollars, billions of dollars built on the runway.

For example, in this February, MC Education announced the financing of nearly 100 million U.S. dollars, b round; After that, the Department of Education (Class) Financing of about 100 million yuan, a round; a job network is funded at least tens of millions of dollars in C-round, according to media reports, while online English education institutions 51talk to get Sequoia capital of 55 million dollars, C-round financing is also the highlight of this year's online education industry.

As industry investors point out, education is now ushering in the best investment opportunities, and education is one of the most rewarding industries, from the capital point of view. In the First World Internet Conference, Ma Yun also said that in the next decade's list of investment plans, the education industry is ranked first. Earlier, Wanguo released the "Internet Education industry in-depth report" shows that the next five years, China's education and training market scale will reach 700 billion yuan, and the Internet education market will reach 400 billion yuan.

Do clothing and catering companies have to do online education?

The upsurge of online education, especially the growth of the concept of education, has also attracted the eyes of some listed companies. Not only some Internet companies and traditional education and educational auxiliary companies have entered online education, even apparel, catering companies have launched their own online education strategy.

At present, investment education is no longer a slogan for the listed companies in the capital market. More and more listed companies are investing a lot of real money in the education industry, which is evident from the recent reports of the listed companies.

In many Cross-border online education companies, in 2014 yy is "grab the limelight." This February, YY launched an independent brand 100 education, stepping up the layout of online education (currently, 100 education has independently developed and launched a full platform of online interactive live teaching client and mobile app, and to provide users with free TOEFL, IELTS and English class 46 Test course services). December 8, the gathering time of the company's 100 education and announced the establishment of 100 school, at the same time to acquire IELTS online Education representative Zheng Strong company. According to relevant sources, the acquisition cost 300 million, may be the 2014 online education industry's largest takeover case.

In the past six months has been two times to sell online education, The total amount of the acquisition of online education amounted to 520 million yuan; After the release of the 2014 financial year on November 21, Chen, chairman of Renren, announced that Renren would launch an online education business in the first quarter of next year, after everyone had invested in an online education platform, "million-door".

November 18, the old education company North Teaching Media in the new Sanbanxi, based on the "traditional book publishing industry will be subject to the impact of digital media publishing media," and other risks, North Education media low-key launched an online educational new product cross-learning network. According to our correspondent understand, at present, the cross-learning Network has formed a number of platforms, including students, teachers, school-side, in the future will adopt a proxy model in the country to spread the market.

Xinhua June 27 appeared in the IPO list of pre-disclosure companies. Xinhua prospectus disclosed that the proposed fund-raising 1.497 billion yuan, of which 100 million yuan will be used for online education programs. Prospectus Disclosure, Xinhua Online education Business Planning four types of business, first, the technical support, including learning platform construction, learning platform rental, courseware customization development, the second is the curriculum services, including in-depth observation, industry knowledge and other courses; third, education information, including training system design, hybrid learning design and implementation, value-added services, Including credit education, professional certification, has begun to provide services for National civil Service training, financial industry training, professional certification of mobile Internet practitioners and other projects.

If the companies involved in online education can understand, then the clothing, catering enterprises to do online education that is somewhat puzzling. Sen-Ma Costumes in the previous release of the three quarterly earnings show, has acquired a 70% stake in the genius baby parent, the future will be developed app and other forms of child education mobile Internet products. Xi ' an diet June 27 announced that the joint venture to establish XI ' an West drink children's Growth Experience Center Co., Ltd., which the company intends to invest 7.6 million yuan in cash, accounting for 95% of the equity of the joint venture company. The joint venture Company's formulation business scope is the child education, the experience and so on for the main business management.

The old manufacturing Enterprise Helen piano also proposed the transformation strategy, will extend from the piano manufacture field to the art education field. November 17, following the previous investment in four education companies, Helen piano again to be self-financing more than 30 million yuan in Beijing set up a wholly-owned subsidiary, "Beijing Helen Network Information Technology Co., Ltd." (tentative), engaged in intelligent piano, network education system research and development.

In the near future, Dr. Peng, A shares listed companies such as Dalian Holdings, announced the Cross-border march into online education.

In fact, from the whole Internet education industry, the prophase development needs to invest a lot of capital and cost, and the profit cycle is relatively long. According to industry judgment, do education industry, especially online education industry, from project initial to business model operation success, 3-5 years is short, 5-8 years time to obtain success is normal.

Optimistic about the future, but the profit model is slim

Although online education seems to be in full swing, many companies do not have a clear profit model at the moment.

Current online education companies either do the platform or do the content. The business model is relatively simple, which is mainly divided into three types of platform, advertising fee and course cost. Content providers provide courses in the form of apps, including recording video, live broadcast, and smart software, which provides video as the primary way.

Under the existing mode, the online education profit point still needs to be fully tapped. Industry insiders pointed out that a large number of online education providers at this stage, relying solely on the model to expand on-line education services, and this model does not change the traditional education profit model.

For the capital, the platform of online education must have strong hematopoiesis ability. Dai says the run-off network attracts the flow of suppliers on its platform and delivers the products and services that suppliers offer, while services and products are basically done online.

To YY as an example, at first, YY did not take education as a key development, only the user found YY language model, spontaneous in YY on education courses, and then slowly developed into a separate education channel. After that, only 100 education independent brand emerged.

"We are very optimistic about the future, but we are not clear that this is our profit model." "100 education director, YY Vice president of the Liu Army had been interviewed by this newspaper reporter said."

The industry has also expressed mixed attitudes towards the Cross-border education. Some industry insiders believe that some fresh faces into the online education, means that the industry is full of opportunities, which is conducive to the accelerated development of the industry.

"Cross-border people have brought some different thinking, the market is open enough for anyone to enter should be more tolerant." An online education practitioner told our correspondent.

Industry experts say that Cross-border entry means that the industry has more capital to participate in, can well popularize online education, but on the other hand, cross-border access needs to be cautious, which requires enterprises to understand education. There is also a point of view that education is a slow, it needs to slowly precipitation carefully polished, rather than in the promotion of capital in one go.

More analysts have made it clear that it is not a sensible choice for practitioners not to cross borders and blindly plunge into the industry because the industry is "hot".

"Because the lack of innovation and profound understanding of the practitioners easily join the industry to replicate what others do now, even if the surface of the" shape ", but can not understand the" soul ", and ultimately still can not achieve profits, such risks are enormous. Han Shaoyun, founder of the technology, spoke bluntly in an interview.

(Responsible editor: Lvguang)