Online education, or yy voice of King Hill?

Recently, the "Education 100", an independent education brand under the age of the gathering (that is YY, listed on Nasdaq in November 2012), has become an Internet-educated upstart, sparking a sustained focus on the media with a "war of words" between the new Oriental, the traditional education and training giant.

YY was founded in 2005. It is difficult to imagine, do online Game Team Voice Command tool started the YY, one day can be a high-profile on-line education. Starting from the game, born for the game, in the 7 years after the establishment, YY in the field of the associated industry of online games, experienced a round of wild savage growth.

According to YY before the IPO, as of September 30, 2012, YY registered users of 400.5 million, peak at the same time online number of 10 million people, August 2012 active users nearly 70.5 million people. In addition to the game field, yy at that time there are 537 educational institutions, 253,047 signed music singers.

Sitting in a stable voice function, as well as industry-leading instant call technology, YY is difficult to satisfy the only voice communication tools of the basic product positioning. From the involved music, to the test water film live, integrated game applications, and then to enter the educational institutions, regardless of from which point of view, yy are looking forward to successfully out of the shadow of "World of Warcraft", gorgeous turn, transformed into a high-quality integrated voice service provider.

Rise to meet the ceiling, to change to touch the red line

From the 2005 "World of Warcraft" national clothing in the mainland Open limited test, tribal and allied wars dominate the youth memory of a large number of players, a group of high-quality network games have opened in the mainland market gold Rush "Pioneer" mode, the domestic Internet industry with the momentum of the magnificent "big game" era. Internet café industry hit.

As a team command tool, YY's rise to a great extent to benefit from the time when the timing and location. However, with the entertainment market in recent years the diversification of the upgrade and game players gradually return to rational consumption, the heat of the online game industry has long been the same, once arrogant of internet cafes have been basically extinct. At the same time, the new social application developed more and more mature, instant voice calls on FB, micro-bo, micro-letter products such as is not an impossible problem, and then in the instant call technology is bound to encounter the industry ceiling.

Do not put all the eggs in a basket, this reason everyone knows, change and constant seems to be not the crux of the problem, in fact, all the way, YY has been trying to peel off their body affixed to the "online" and "dependencies" tag.

As early as a few years ago, YY team to realize the "success or failure Xiao" truth. Although the "抱粗腿" can stimulate short-term benefits surge, but as a stand-alone platform brand, self-confidence is more likely to be a risk of being a boiled in the warm water of the frog. Cultivate the core competitiveness, establish independent brand self-confidence, has become a consensus within the team, but, touch the stone transformation yy in the process of change, once again touched the policy of that red line, is dangerous.

yy to change the road hundred turn thousand back, the reasons behind the transition project can not control the super high policy risk, the first to launch the online live function of the "YY music Project" the brunt. With tens of millions of active user base Group and IM technology advantages, "YY music Project" In theory enough to support the YY platform on each live broadcast by anonymous anchor broadcast content by the million-level users throughout the country to listen to. But because can not do the direct content of the cleaning and filtration, virtually increased the country's social dimension of stability costs, coupled with the yellow scandal frequently, become a constraint yy successful transformation of the biggest uncertain factors.

In the current network legislation gradually mature, the tightening of policy and regulation, the purification of the network environment is increasingly high, always high risk, high return of the erotic edge of the business survival space is getting smaller, fast sowing, MO and other "artifacts" high-profile announced "self purification", is the cusp of "YY music Project" I'm afraid the embarrassment yy transformation of the big.

Aspire to transformation, seek online education blue sea

The internet really has a magical subversive power to see what Taobao, Jingdong, barley, Ctrip have done. One after another, the pattern and pattern of traditional industries have been broken, demolished and rebuilt by Internet enterprises. What else has not been profoundly affected and changed by internet companies? Two years ago, some people said that medical treatment, so there is a guahao.com (registered network), a year ago, some people said finance, so all kinds of treasures springing up. Do music a lot of constraints, YY and played an online education abacus.

To do online education, YY has two unique advantages. One is the mass of young user groups, these young people can almost count as online education potential users, the second is the industry-leading voice communication technology and rich experience.

This February, YY launched an independent education brand "100 Education", from online learning English training into online education, and said in the next two years will be in the field of online education investment of 1 billion RMB funds, the formation of a dedicated team, the introduction of Android, WP, Mac OS and IOS platform independent clients.

The most important part of "100 education" is that it includes the online intensive course of TOEFL and IELTS, this intensive class will completely cover the teaching content of the course, and include the classroom interaction and after-school counseling. In terms of fees, the current line of TOEFL, IELTS training market plate about 3 billion, but Yy decided to strengthen the online class service permanently free (if there are completed intensive classes of students, and send 100 yuan), so that students can enjoy the Internet access to these educational resources.

yy this one out, the outside is posted on the "Subversion of New Oriental" label, a moment to earn enough attention. However, simply put the "online" function and traditional "offline" education "pull Lang match" simple model can produce the expected chemical reaction, it is difficult to draw conclusions. There are people in the industry pointed out that the two major business sectors of entertainment and education in the same platform Neinian compatibility, network piracy problems, network teaching users experience a high degree of focus on the problem, may cause a series of discomfort ripple effect.

Overall, the "Education 100" project cycle is too long, the project team mainly to the first-line lecturer, the Internet background weakened, can adapt to the Internet online education rhythm has yet to be a view. However, from the present situation, although most of the training institutions are interested, but still in the wait-and-see stage, the project platform occupancy rate is generally lower than the outside expectations, the product delay can not be updated on the line, the combination of marketing strategies tend to be conservative, in addition to the free attract users can not

It is worth mentioning that, in addition to "education", YY also spent 10 million of investment in another online education platform-邢帅 education. Unlike the "academic school", which educates 100 professional institutions, the internet gene of the 邢帅 education entrepreneurial team is more pronounced.

It is also an ugly duckling to change the story of the Swan, 邢帅 Education Project team, initially initiated by several PS enthusiasts, in the online Professor PS software courses, grass-roots breath full. In a few short years, in the Internet software education segments of the market has accounted for a certain share of the basic user group die Loyal, complete curriculum system, high user stickiness, it is easy to form a user base barrier. It is reported that in the YY million investment, 邢帅 education in the near future will be worth looking forward to the big Show.

The author is relatively optimistic about this young team, in the final analysis, the internet industry, "winners take" the brutal competition mechanism decided, in hand-to-hand combat, compared to capital advantages, patterns, genes and team factors more profound impact. However, constrained by the size and disadvantage of small teams, plus the curriculum specialization degree is too high, the structure is unitary, causes the risk centralism, the dependence is strong, also does not have the obvious technical barrier to provide the strong safeguard, this yy regards as "the Star of Hope" the entrepreneurial project can become unintentionally inserts the Willow the God to make, also needs the time examination.

Multifaceted, all the way from the beginning, delimit the sphere of influence. In fact, the Internet oligarchs staring at the online education market are far from YY, Taobao launched the "Electronic Business" of the online education platform, "Taobao classmate", Ali received the real education online platform TutorGroup; Baidu 3.5 million strategic dollar investment transfer course network, Tencent QQ Group added video education function ... The three crocodiles are using their familiar ways to demarcate the Internet's sphere of influence in the blue sea. Industry Pioneer NetEase Open class and cloud classroom also try to further expand the leading edge. The capital market is very active, the market space is big, the technological reform pace accelerates, all these all indicate that the online education business has entered an exponential growth period, the future will certainly usher in the new eruption.

The sky is dead, Huang. The saturation of the entertainment market, will certainly be forced yy reform, online education is a good choice. However, the current Internet education is not a mature and reliable industry, whether from the mode or the technology, full of variables and uncertainties. Two investment, the industry's evaluation is mixed, but no matter what, YY has sounded the Internet education King Mountain Battle Horn.

Additional: According to YY voice of last year's fourth quarter and the full year earnings,

1 in the fourth quarter of 2013, yy average monthly live users of 92.3 million, compared to 1.5 (August 2012) 70.5 million of the monthly live users increased by 76.4%.

2 year 2013, YY net income of about 1.8 billion yuan, an increase of 122.4%, mainly thanks to Internet value-added services revenue 135.4% year-on-year growth. YY income has two major sources, one is value-added services, the other is online advertising. In the fourth quarter of last year, YY value-added services income of about 569 million yuan, compared with the same period of 144.1%, of which, online music and entertainment about the contribution of 337 million yuan, an increase of 217.1%, online game revenue of about 163 million yuan, the year-on-year growth of 66.1%, Members and online games, such as live broadcast and other income of about 69.5 million yuan, an increase of 140.9%. In the fourth quarter of last year, YY online advertising revenue of about 43.4 million yuan, an increase of 28.5%.

3 in 2013, the net profit attributable to YY was about RMB 478 million, which grew by 435.7%.

4 CEO Lee Colling said YY online music and entertainment last year, the income performance is good, 2014, will be based on existing platforms existing advantages, increase access to user strength, enhance user participation, through more infiltration of online entertainment, live broadcast, education and other vertical areas of traffic to become present, YY will transform into a "large, Focus on the site, the user sticky high online entertainment platform "