Is there a bubble in online education?

Absrtact: The profit predicament is forcing the online education transformation O2O ladder NET and that good net closes the news, causes the education circle to the on-line education to encounter the bubble period the big discussion, but is difficult to solve the profit pattern difficult problem to become the main reason which puzzles the profession pattern. In this respect, new Oriental dong
Profit dilemma O2O Online education transformation

The ladder net and the good net closes the news, causes the education circle to the on-line education to encounter the bubble period the big discussion, but is difficult to solve the profit pattern difficult problem to become the main reason which the industry pattern is troubled. In this regard, new Oriental chairman Yu Yu believes that there will be no pure Internet education in the future, only internet-based education, he believes, O2O would be a complete union. In fact, O2O this model is being recognized by more and more online education enterprises, in addition to the new Oriental, learning major education, the technology, network, 51Talk, studious education is trying to experiment based on O2O.

Ladder nets fail

The controversy over the industry bubble

The former century Jia Yuan CEO gong into the online education, the establishment of ladder nets and the good network encounter shut down news, undoubtedly become the focus of industry attention last week. Because "too optimistic aggressive, the front pull too long, so that a few months ago spent the company's financing," gong two of the K12 project all fall, leaving only online foreign language platform 91 foreign Education Network.

At the same time, the industry started a big discussion about whether online education bubbles. "All say 2013 is the year of online education, said the spring of online education has blown, but spring has not come, the winter is coming." "In Beijing, the micro-letter group of journalists, some industry insiders said.

Lusenlin, dean of the Internet Education Institute, sees the online education industry as a bubble that has emerged and is the second bubble in online education around 2005. Lusenlin to Beijing business newspaper reporter Frankly, accompanied by the bubble period must be a group of online education companies fell, he had predicted that the tide of bankruptcy will appear in 2015, but may be early, along with the ladder nets and the good net of the early exit, most online education companies will be closed in the next 2-3 years. "This one, K12 is the hardest hit." Even the already funded several well-known primary and secondary school online education project, seemingly infinite scenery, in fact, the heart is very anxious, because in this area after the field feel K12 ' bucket General ' resistance. ”

"Online education is now going through a phase that is similar to the one that two or three years ago in the group buying industry, where online education is likely to repeat itself." Hourich, senior analyst with June Consulting Group, said that in the peak group buying site thousands of, to now can be called a handful of famous, in the past year, the average birth of 2.6 online education companies, and finally really can stay is not much.

But while the "bubble theory" has been heard, it has not hampered capital mania. Third-party agencies statistics, only last month, the public disclosure of domestic online education investment and financing (including acquisition) cases reached 13, the cumulative amount of more than 1 billion yuan.

Pure Internet Mode

Online education is difficult to pass through?

Online education has "closed", "bubble", in the final analysis because the industry is not yet out of the profit dilemma. Like other startups in the Internet industry, the vast majority of online education companies are still surviving on financing, and few companies are truly profitable.

When it comes to the ladder nets and the good net failures, Mr Yu argues that the entrepreneurial business is not focused and all-encompassing and naturally leads to failure. "If there are 1 billion dollars, after five years of development, the ladder network may be able to achieve success." However, the investor will certainly not wait for such a long time. ”

Mr Yu has poured cold water on the current hot Internet education pattern, "there is no such thing as pure Internet education, but an internet-based form of education". In Mr Yu's view, educational products are intangible and there is no way to standardize them. Moreover, education itself can not be separated from the face-to-face communication between teachers and students, even if the Harvard University courses are all online, can not affect the number of students on the Harvard campus, so he believes that the Internet can not be eliminated in primary and secondary schools, and even can not eliminate the school tutoring institutions.

What he (Mr Yu) actually said is O2O (Online to Offline). From online to offline can form the existing standardization and system, and then to the offline, but the opposite will be very difficult, it is difficult to standardize things offline and then move to the line. "Wisdom Lesson NET CEO Wei Xiaoliang said.

However, for the idea that the pure Internet education model is difficult to pass, the 100 education head, Liu, has a dissenting opinion. He cited 100 education for example, 100 education is a pure form of internet education, and has taught more than 10,000 TOEFL, IELTS students, this pure Internet education students average score as high as 95 points, and is currently considered relatively mature areas.

Transformation O2O

into the industry to explore the focus

When it comes to online education patterns, Mr Yu admits O2O will be the inevitable direction of future development. For the new Oriental Development Strategy, he gave four directions: one is to stick to the development of the ground education; the second is that the new Oriental ground education must be reformed, and the O2O of the online education should be integrated; third, the joint Tencent and other institutions to jointly develop on-line education; Four is to invest in other online education companies, in the future or acquisitions or shares.

In fact, in addition to the new Oriental, other online education companies are actively exploring in the field of O2O. As early as late last year, the online education Outlook and hotspot analysis, written by the China Economic network, showed that O2O was seen as the most promising form of business in online education.

For the traditional educational institutions such as education, the O2O model is undoubtedly the best attempt in the course of transforming the online education. In the first half of this year, the major education release e learning large online platform, and in the country about 500 major education and teaching center synchronized use. Using this platform, the traditional teaching mode of diagnosis, testing and after-school work should be entrusted to e-learning, while teachers will devote more attention to teaching, including the preparation, implementation and evaluation of teaching. Through this mixed teaching mode, online and offline in the teaching process to complete their respective division of labor.

In addition to traditional educational institutions such as education, some new online education companies are experimenting with O2O models. Take 365 good teacher For example, the organization is also main one-on-one training, but it uses information matching model and large data system, will each teacher "move" to the Internet, students online to complete the teacher's choice, payment, etc., the teacher through the line to complete the teaching. Another online educational institution--studious education represents a brand new O2O play: In a nationwide large-scale open franchise stores, students through the online quality education resources to complete the study, the franchise is responsible for organizing the student model test, promotion and supervision of learning. For 51Talk, such as online education star, also take the line to open the experience shop model to carry out O2O attempt, on the one hand, branding, on the other hand, is the concept of online learning.