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Educational technology is not only an online course. GRWTH young seedlings have gradually grown into a big tree. Business models have been transplanted to Africa.

2019-12-31T12:11:14.019Z


Compared with other industries, education is a slow-moving job that requires a lot of patience. However, the development of education technology (EduTech) is the same as the development of technology in other fields.


Thematic interviews

Written by: Jingjing He

2019-12-31 20:01

Last updated: 2019-12-31 20:02

Compared with other industries, education is a slow-moving job that requires a lot of patience. However, the development of education technology (EduTech) is just as rapid as the development of technology in other fields. Global education technology The market is expected to increase from US $ 152 billion last year to US $ 342 billion by 2025.

The impression of the outside world on education technology is often that it only provides online courses. However, the local education technology company GRWTH has used the latest electronic payment technology to open up new sources of income and hope to rewrite the education ecology of Hong Kong. After their services were launched, they not only quickly seized the primary and secondary markets in Hong Kong, but also gained international recognition for their business models and were introduced to the Mainland, Taiwan, and even Africa.

In recent years, many start-ups have emerged. Through technology, they have brought "destructive innovation" to various industries. Many of them are "unicorns" that have not been listed in the stock market for more than 10 years, but have not been listed on the stock market, but have a valuation of more than 1 billion US dollars. According to the "Hurun Global Unicorn List 2019", there are approximately 494 unicorn companies in the world. In addition to Internet services, medical care, and artificial intelligence, the "unicorns" in the education industry are also emerging. On the list, 15 are educational technology companies with a total valuation of 180 billion yuan.

Byju'S is currently the unicorn with the highest market value in education technology. (Site screenshot)

Global education market size is up to $ 5.9 trillion

Among educational technology "unicorn" companies, Indian online course company Byju'S has the highest valuation and ranks first with a valuation of 40 billion yuan. Byju'S core product is a mobile application (APP) that can provide students with personalized and customized tutoring. The second and third are VIPKID, an online English education brand for young children in the Mainland, and Ape Coaching, an online education company in the Mainland. On the list are companies such as Homework Gang, Gordon, Working Together, Age of Learning, Coursera, DaDa English, and Huike Education.

The global education industry research company HolonIQ's 2019 report predicts that the global education technology market is expected to increase from US $ 152 billion last year to US $ 342 billion by 2025, a huge increase. The report also shows that compared to the current US $ 10 trillion medical market that has supported 5 trillion market value medical companies, the US $ 5.9 trillion education market has only created US $ 150 billion education companies, which is obviously not proportional. Education The market still has great growth potential.

(Source: HolonIQ Education Technology Report 2019)

Why the educational technology market has huge potential, and well-known companies such as Facebook, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu have invested heavily in educational technology companies, but this market has not attracted the attention as in other fields? One of the reasons is that compared to other start-ups in the field, the current business model of education technology is relatively single. Take the 15 education technology companies on the Hurun Global Unicorn List this year as an example, most of them are to provide personalized online courses Mainly, investors are worried that the overly similar business models will make unicorns inevitably cut off throat competition in order to snatch the limited market.In addition, a large and growing amount of free learning materials on the Internet will also be used for educational technology. The long-term business model poses a certain threat.

But in fact, education technology is not just about providing personalized learning courses online. Although the market value of GRWTH, a local education technology company in Hong Kong, is far less than the unicorns mentioned above, it has proposed a different business model. In addition to the company's built-in instant messaging, electronic announcements, school calendar, homework log Mobile phone applications with other functions facilitate communication between schools, students, parents, and service providers, and also establish the latest payment and content marketing business model, which should be "unprecedented" in the Hong Kong industry.

The CEO of GRWTH, Chen Chunlin, believes that the business model of "the lowest price is the biggest obstacle" to the development of education technology in Hong Kong. (Photo by Li Zetong)

"The lowest price wins" hinders the development of education technology in Hong Kong

GRWTH co-founder and chief executive officer, Chen Junlin (Adam), has been in the industry for 17 years. Before founding GRWTH, he was the general manager of the industry leader myIT-School. He was the chief technical consultant of the e-learning alliance and a consultant of the Education Bureau. The development of educational technology in the past ten years. In an exclusive interview, he pointed out that Hong Kong was once one of the most advanced areas of education technology in Asia, and would go to Taiwan, Singapore, China and other places to share. However, time has changed, and as Hong Kong's education technology has not advanced, it has retreated. At present, more countries have come to Hong Kong to share.

He blamed this change on the market ecology of the "pond-rolling pond fish" in the education sector: In the past, most educational technology companies have adopted a business-to-business (B2B) model. It will always be the lowest price. The market does not seek good quality, but only low prices, and it is naturally difficult for enterprises to invest resources in research and development and innovation.

GRWTH charges considerable fees through electronic payment services. (Photo by Li Zetong)

Breakthrough revenue bottlenecks with fintech

In the face of the "market structure", Chen Junlin thought for a long time. At that time, myIT-School had a market share of more than 50% in the industry. However, as the general manager, he still couldn't reverse the downward trend of education technology in Hong Kong. . In the end, he resigned resolutely and established GRWTH with other partners in 2015. He hopes to change the entire industry with innovative business models with the flexibility of start-ups. "One of the cores of GRWTH is to turn B2B business into a B2B2C model. Is no longer stuck in the single source of income for schools. "

Chen Junlin explained that a major innovation of GRWTH comes from its three-tier income structure. The first part is electronic payment. The company cooperates with Mastercard and HSBC to provide electronic payment solutions for schools and parents. Schools can provide parents with APPs on the APP. Issue a notice and list the relevant fees (such as tuition, school bus, meals, activities, etc.). If parents agree to the fees, they can pay as soon as they click, without having to deal with cumbersome cash or checks. For schools, it can also simplify the complicated charging procedures, immediately know the payment records of each student, save administrative and reporting tasks, and pay the service provider in one go.

GRWTH supports the current common payment systems in Hong Kong, such as credit cards, Alipay, Tap & Go, etc., a certain fee will be charged for the payment. According to Chen Junlin, the company can receive a total of about 1 to 1.5 million per year for each school. The payment fee is considerable, and more than 60 schools now use the payment system. He described that many places around the world are studying how to implement smart cities, and medical care and education are the core parts. One of the key is payment. What GRWTH is doing is the integration of the two important parts of payment and education. .

GRWTH's multiple intelligence analysis records the development progress of students' different skills. (Photo by Li Zetong)

Build home-school community content marketing to earn commissions

GRWTH's second source of income is commissions from online purchases of products and services from the platform. The APP not only records the comprehensive development progress of students inside and outside the school, but the system also puts forward different suggestions for student development. For example, Chen Junlin pointed out that, for example, if students are good at cycling, the APP will display bicycle-related content, such as route suggestions, videos of bicycle skills, bicycle products, protective gear, bicycle courses, and so on. Other balance-related activities are also suggested.

He pointed out that in recent years, soft skills that have been emphasized by the education community have been studied outside the classroom. However, at present, the school lacks communication with the parents, and the school is not aware of the situation of students studying outside the school. Parents must also go out to find out what good interest classes are in the community. He pointed out that GRWTH hopes that it can make intelligent recommendations on the APP and comprehensively record the growth of students.

"Schools have always played the role of referrals and screenings for parents. However, in the school book fairs, appropriate supplementary exercises were introduced, and Parents' Day suggested to parents what students can learn, etc. At present, the entire process is put on the APP There are already more than 300 cooperative agencies on GRWTH, providing different information, and these community suppliers are suggested by the school, "said Chen Junlin. The name GRWTH is from Growth, but the letter "o" disappears, symbolizing that the student's seed is poking out of the soil and needs irrigation to thrive.

GRWTH's "Community" page has more than 300 partner institutions offering different information, courses and products. (Photo by Li Zetong)

He pointed out that the commonality of basic education is very high. Students all have the time to learn governance and specific skills. There are many things for parents to share and exchange. GRWTH is not just trying to be a store, but is trying to be a community. Content marketing. Suppliers can put their existing products on GRWTH and attach different classification marks. Users can easily search for products and services in different regions, categories and prices, and they can also give ratings.

"Students have been studying for six years. If parents have established tuition and miscellaneous fees in the APP, and the habit of viewing different information, the efficiency of this APP to promote products will be very high. It ’s high. ”He said that the company cooperated with an ice hockey activity center in August to achieve a one-month transaction volume. He also revealed that, in general, the commission for decommissioning can be as high as 30%.

GRWTH wants to build a parent community and provide them with the right information and products. (Profile picture)

"Great sale" to seize 80% of the market

The third part of the company's income is to collect "service fees" from schools and parents, but this part has accounted for very little. He smiled and said that it is actually difficult to change the habit of "lower prices" in education, but "free is the lowest". In the past, a "solution" that could cost more than 100,000 yuan was now provided for free and only charged 4,800 schools. Yuan, which provides a series of functions such as home-school communication, electronic administrative functions, mobile applications for cloud storage, web platform, and electronic payment.

He revealed that the price can be kept so low, in addition to using the fees paid and the commissions provided by the suppliers to subsidize, it is also using the funds of investors to subsidize and accelerate business expansion. "GRWTH has been in balance from development to launch in just three years. But if I just want to break even, I have done it more than a decade ago. I need to start a business. What we want is to change the entire education technology ecosystem. Therefore, another round of financing this year is aimed at driving down prices and speeding up entry into schools. The goal is to achieve 50% to 80% of elementary schools within this year, and now there is a great chance of meeting the standard.

GRWTH has many functions, but it only charges 4800 yuan for the school. (webpage Screenshot)

Chen Junlin emphasized that Hong Kong has a population of more than 7 million, which is not large enough compared with China. In fact, it should be done in the local market alone. "In Hong Kong, there are approximately 880,000 students in primary and secondary schools, involving 500,000 families. Each student spends nearly 10,000 yuan a month at school and nearly 40,000 yuan a year outside school. Together, this is a market of more than 20 billion yuan. Is definitely enough to support the development of Hong Kong's education technology companies and to go public! "

In addition to growing a large tree in Hong Kong, GRWTH's business model has also moved across the ocean and established roots in different markets. Chongqing, Taiwan, Africa and other places have introduced GRWTH systems. Chen Junlin described that smart cities are being established everywhere, and the GRWTH model is exactly in line with their needs. Take Africa as an example. Because it is a developing country, its own banking and payment system is not perfect, so it is happy to try overseas solutions. It is to cooperate with one of the largest telecommunications companies in the local area. They are responsible for local operations and support, and GRWTH is responsible for providing the system and business model.

Entrepreneurship

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2019-12-31

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