According to the White Paper on China's 2017 Online Education Industry released by iResearch Global, the domestic online education market boasted 281 billion yuan ($33.4 billion) in revenues in 2017 and is expected to reach over 300 billion yuan in China this year.
Together with early childhood education, vocational training education, interest education and higher education training, K-12 education, which refers to the North American designation for students from kindergarten through 12th grade, has taken a much more significant position in the current online English education market.
"The rise of K-12 education is based on the internet boom. The online English learning pattern has broken through space-time restrictions and solved the unbalance of educational resources -- therefore, more and more families have been involved in this trend," said Yang Zhijia, English teacher and study researcher from Beijing Chaoyang Foreign Language School.
Although K-12 business has gained much momentum in recent years, the market is now faced with fierce competition. Many online education brands including 51Talk, HitalkKids, DadaABC, VIPKid all have taken measures to seize the market.
In a recent survey concerning K12 education conducted by the 36Kr Research Institute, Chinese parents spend 8,318.8 yuan on average for the K-12 education.
Meanwhile, more than 86 percent of Chinese parents with their children at the age between 4 and 15 express their willingness to let their children take online English courses in the future.
The survey also indicates that teaching abilities, cost performance of courses and teachers' patience towards children are the top three factors when parents choose a certain brand for their children.
On Feb 28, one of the brands 51Talk held a press conference in Beijing and decided to use the "51Talk" brand exclusively to represent its K-12 online English education offerings, officially positioning the company as focused on serving the K-12 market.
"When the revenue of K-12 business has accounted for almost 80 percent of the total, I think it is time that 51Talk should upgrade itself. The expansion of the K-12 education business truly reflects the changing of the online educational market, so all we do is to adapt to the changing market demand," said Huang Jiajia, founder and CEO of 51Talk.
"From an English training provider targeted at adult users to an online educational company that focuses more on K-12 business, 51Talk has undergone the biggest transformation since it was born, and I am confident that our team made the right choice," added Huang.
Meanwhile, unlike many English training institutes that invite foreign teachers from European and American countries to teach children, 51Talk has blazed a new trail in recruiting Filipinos. In 2017, the company trained more than 6,000 teachers in over 20 cities across the Philippines.
"It goes without saying that language environment means much to children's English learning. But many may ignore that the frequency of speaking also matters. The more times children speak English with others, the better the English fluency. After all, practice makes perfect," said Dai Yun, Academic Vice President of 51Talk.
"It is a true fact the labor cost in the Philippines is much lower than that in Western developed countries. Therefore, the high cost performance of the courses is appealing to many families. Also, 51Talk maintains a strict recruiting process. From initial audition to final appointment, only 3 percent of candidates work as online teachers."
"In addition, children from China and teachers from the Philippines do not have to worry about the 'time difference' problem, and they can do the online courses more frequently and efficiently," he believed.
Targeted at young English learners, 51Talk also collaborates with the hit movie Monster Hunt by launching a series of animations during the Spring Festival period. In the short video, Huba, a cute monster from the film, has English dialogues with 51Talk's own mascot Max.
"The language learning points are contained in the short video and I always like to combine linguistic learning with entertaining activities to create the best learning experience possible. In the future, our team also plans to bring more advanced educational resources to China's second- and third-tier cities," said Zhang Liming, co-founder and Chief Operation Officer of 51Talk.
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