Crazy layout in the field of online education, what kind of companies is BAT more optimistic about?

Yingsheng Observation will give you the answer:

The development of the online education industry is booming, attracting many entrepreneurs and investors. Although BAT has not acquired education companies on a large scale, it has recently , they not only launched their own online education distribution platforms, but also competed for high-quality educational content. The platform layout of the three companies has begun to take shape, but their characteristics are different. Some analysts believe that what Baidu wants to do is a platform, and with the accumulation of traffic in its Baidu Library, this is not a problem; Tencent mainly relies on its social tools, and its investment projects serve its WeChat; and Alibaba, according to the current logic, is supplementing Address the shortcomings it lacks.

In the future, giants such as BAT will continue to integrate more vertical education companies through mergers and acquisitions or equity investments to lay out their respective ecological education circles.

Let’s take a look at the current layout of the three giants in the education field:

Baidu

Baidu’s mission of “connecting people and services” covers all aspects. Online education projects basically serve the education platforms established under it. Baidu's investments in education companies are on the order of tens of millions of yuan. They are all equity investors, not controlling shareholders, and "do not let entrepreneurs be their bosses."

Baidu laid out the education market earlier and launched its own platform

Baidu laid out the online education market relatively early. In October 2012, Baidu Wenku officially launched the Wenku course, and in April 2013 In March, the foreign language training website learning.baidu.com was launched, which was Baidu’s first exploration in the field of education.

In August 2013, Baidu launched Baidu Education, an online course platform. Free live video or on-demand courses are provided by settled educational institutions, covering vocational training, language training, IT training, primary and secondary education and other categories. Currently, it has It has settled in education and training institutions such as Zhongda Online School, Xueda Education, and Zhongguang Online School. In January 2014, Baidu Education added the "Du Xuetang" module, which provides courses in primary and secondary schools, IT, art and other categories in the form of live broadcast.

In July 2014, Baidu Video teamed up with a number of educational institutions to launch the Baidu Video Education Channel to fully enter the online education market, which covers genuine educational video courses on the market.

Zuoyebang

Zhuoyebang was launched in January 2014 and is regarded as the "vertical education version of Baidu Tieba". It is an application and functional section created by Baidu specifically for primary and secondary school students. There are homework assignments, student circles, and newly launched video courses from famous teachers. In August this year, Zuoyebang split from Baidu and changed its name to Xiaozhou Chuhai. Lu Senlin, director of the Internet Education Research Institute, analyzed that the biggest purpose of Zuoyebang’s move was to raise funds and finally package it for listing.

The educational companies invested by Baidu include:

Merger and acquisition of Chuanke.com as a branch channel

In June 2013, Baidu invested US$10 million in Chuanke.com In August 2014, Baidu officially acquired Chuanke.com and renamed it "Baidu Chuanke" with a valuation of nearly US$30 million.

Chuanke.com is a C2C online education platform. Its founders are former Kingsoft PowerWord CTO Wang Haiming and COO Tong Hexin. Chuanke.com is positioned in the field of primary and secondary education. It mainly targets the K12 examination market, introduces front-line teachers, and adopts online interactive live broadcast and on-demand teaching methods. Businesses include C2C course publishing and trading platforms, payment services, online interactive classrooms and IM services. The main products include Chuanke.com, Chuanke KK, and Chuanke online live classroom.

It can currently be seen that Baidu Chuanke is officially a branch channel of Baidu Education, supplementing the content of Baidu’s online course sharing platform.

Invest in Wanxue Education, complementary advantages

In July 2014, Baidu made a C-round investment in Wanxue Education, with an amount of approximately tens of millions of dollars. Wanxue owned Baidu Third-level domain name.

Wanxue Education was founded in 2006 and officially opened in 2007. It is an educational institution for college students. It provides training services such as graduate entrance examinations, civil service recruitment examinations, and career development. It has Haiwen Postgraduate Entrance Examination. , Jinlu Civil Service and other brands.

In February 2008, Wanxue Education received US$20 million in Series A financing from Sequoia Capital and Lenovo Group; in February 2011, Wanxue Education received funding from DCM, Sequoia Capital, Lenovo Group Investment Company and Singapore Phoenix Fund *** An investment of US$20 million.

Wanxue Education has abundant offline resources, which can improve Baidu’s closed-loop structure in the education market. Baidu has Internet thinking and traffic advantages, which is enough to help Wanxue Education bring offline resources online and realize The layout of online education O2O can form a good complementarity between the two.

Invest in Zhike.com, targeting the foreign language training market

In September 2014, Baidu made a US$10.6 million Series A investment in Zhike.com. After this round of financing, Zhike.com was estimated to be The value is also close to US$100 million.

Zhike.com was launched in February 2014. It was co-founded by former New Oriental executives Wei Xiaoliang and Zhai Shaocheng. It is an online learning platform for overseas examinations, providing students with classes by famous teachers, detailed lectures on popular question banks and free Live lecture. Together with its sister product Jizhi Correction Network*** launched in 2013, it provides students with a closed-loop online learning service that integrates "learning, practice, and management".

According to Baidu Investment Director Maggie, the investment in Zhike.com was based on the following two reasons: First, in online education, foreign language training is a huge market, and the industry prospects are very promising; second, it is a fancy Liaozhike.com has a series of standardized products and service systems that enable users to implement personalized teaching plans online. Baidu, which has abundant capital and large traffic, can use this move to strengthen its own camp and form a synergy with Zhike.com’s advantages in teaching content research and development and online education closed-loop services.

Invest in Hujiang and strengthen the camp

In September 2014, DCM, Baidu, and Haoran Capital made a US$100 million Series C investment in Hujiang. This news was announced by Fu Cairui, the founder of Hujiang, disclosed it for the first time. Hujiang is currently valued at US$1 billion. It is reported that it is still negotiating with Baidu for a new round of financing and is actively preparing for an A-share listing.

Hujiang.com was established in 2001 and began corporate operations in 2006. It is a large-scale Internet learning platform in China. Its businesses include Internet portal media, online SNS communities, B2C e-commerce, and the first domestic online interactive learning platform Hujiang Online School. At the same time, Hujiang is also the only Internet education company in Shanghai that has obtained the modern distance education qualification directly issued by the Ministry of Education.

In 2015, Hujiang.com changed its name to Hujiang and carried out brand upgrade. "Hujiang" will serve as the company's parent brand, connecting various business lines and clarifying the brand system: 1) "Hujiang.com" Focus on providing users with learning information; 2) "Hujiang Community" is a professional learning community for users; 3) Learning tools such as CCTalk, Kaixincichang, XiaoD Dictionary, Listening Cool, etc.; 4) Two major learning platforms: recording and broadcasting The platform "Hujiang Online School" and the live broadcast platform "CC Classroom".

Alibaba

As we all know, Jack Ma has a strong sense of being a teacher, and Alibaba’s layout in online education should not be underestimated. Alibaba does not lack platforms, but its vertical segments are not outstanding. This is also Jack Ma’s investment logic in the education field.

Alibaba’s own education platform - Taobao Classmates (Education)

In 2013, Alibaba launched Taobao Classmates, using a live broadcast interactive operation model to build a hybrid (2B 2C) education platform. Gather resources such as educational institutions, teachers, and courses. Taobao Classmates has a series of recorded and live courses. Institutions can provide teaching resources, and users can also publish courses themselves or apply for online live broadcasts. Since the overall online education at that time was not orderly enough, the original intention of Taobao was to integrate the online education market.

In May of this year, Taobao Alumni changed its name to Taobao Education, using the advantages of the platform to help offline institutions transform into online institutions. At present, 150 training institutions such as Global Online School, Hujiang Education, and Youmi.com have settled in, and the courses they publish are mainly online video courses.

The education companies invested by Alibaba include:

Invest in TutorGroup to build a content system beyond the platform

In February 2014, Alibaba announced a partnership with Singapore’s Temasek , Qiming Venture Capital *** also raised US$100 million in Series B financing for TutorGroup Group, the parent company of online English learning platform VIPABC.

It is understood that TutorGroup (Maiqi Education), where VIPABC is located, was founded in 2004. It is a platform focusing on online learning business. It was founded by two brothers, Eric Yang and Ming Yang, and its R&D headquarters is located in Silicon Valley. TutorGroup has four brands. In addition to VIPABC for mainland China, there are two English teaching brands, TutorABC and TutorABC Jr., and TutorMing, a Chinese teaching brand. VIPABC is a live online English learning platform that builds a teaching material system through crowdsourcing based on the needs of professionals. In May 2012, TutorGroup completed US$15 million in financing from Qiming Venture Partners.

According to relevant information, the sales of Alibaba’s Taobao courses in 2013 were 200 million yuan, far from truly leveraging the power of Taobao. I believe that the parent company that led the investment in VIPABC also wanted to expand beyond Alibaba’s existing platforms. Build your own content system. In addition, due to Alibaba's intervention, VIPABC's industry status has indeed improved. It also welcomed Yao Ming as its spokesperson, and the publicity in each scene was in place.

Leading the investment in Super Curriculum, focusing on the student education social market

In June 2014, Super Curriculum received tens of millions of US dollars in Series B financing, led by Alibaba.

Super Course Schedule was founded in August 2012 by Yu Jiawen. It is a course schedule and social application for college students. By docking with the university's academic administration system, it can quickly enter the course schedule into the mobile phone to achieve cross-department learning within the school. Skip the class. On August 27, 2013, Super Curriculum received multi-million yuan investment from Xu Xiaoping Zhen Fund; in December 2012, it received angel investment from Shenzhen Innovation Valley.

The super curriculum quickly became popular because Yu Jiawen wanted to distribute 100 million yuan in profits to employees. Many people commented that Alibaba’s investment was “misguided.” However, Alibaba, which has a complete scientific system for evaluating a team and a product, invests in super curriculum, perhaps because it values ??the student social market and uses it as an O2O entrance to connect with Alibaba's local life.

Tencent

Tencent’s own education platform - Tencent Classroom

In April 2014, Tencent launched Tencent Classroom, an online course distribution platform that aggregates educational institutions. , teachers and course resources, providing QQ users with course training in language learning, skills training, certification and grading examinations, etc. After users register for the course, they can directly listen to the live course through the QQ group and discuss with other students. Tencent has also opened an online payment function for the QQ group. As an open platform, Tencent Classroom plans to help offline educational institutions settle in and jointly explore new models of online education.

Education companies invested by Tencent:

Established an online education company with New Oriental and launched the product YouAnswer

In July 2014, Tencent and New Oriental *** The online education company "Weixue Tomorrow" was established, and in December it launched the online Q&A product "Youda". Youda is a question bank product that aims to provide each student with more intelligent English training without increasing the burden on students. In the future, Youda will be introduced to all subjects, allowing students to learn in pure online learning. Complete learning in an environment.

To build an intelligent learning platform, New Oriental itself does not have such technology, but Tencent has accumulated many years of live broadcast technology and it is very mature. We may be able to look forward to more mobile online education products in the future.

Invest in Kuokao Education and improve the ecological chain

In August 2014, Kuokao Education received a RMB 30 million Series B investment from Tencent Fund, and the group was renamed Rui vocational education and enter the online vocational education market.

Kuaikao Education was established in 2004. It is a comprehensive education service group integrating postgraduate entrance examination, MBA, professional master's and Ph.D. examination training, network services, book publishing and high-end personalized tutoring. It focuses on cross-school examinations. , inter-professional postgraduate entrance examination, professional master's degree.

Kuaikao Education enters into the segmented postgraduate entrance examination market in a traditional way. Offline operational capabilities are the most basic lifeline, but the impact of the Internet has brought greater room for imagination.

Invest in Yitiku to make up for the shortcomings in the traffic of group teachers

In January 2015, Tencent Industry Fund made tens of millions of yuan in Series A investment in Yitiku to accumulate teachers and topics resources, as well as technology updates and talent recruitment, etc.

Yiqiku was launched in March 2014. It is an intelligent question selection and examination system, which is a question bank product in online education.

The main business of Tencent Industry Winner Fund is to incubate and acquire high-quality enterprises and build Tencent's ecological chain. Obviously, Tencent’s main purpose of investing in Yitiku is to take a fancy to the development prospects of Yitiku in order to build its own ecological chain. The traffic of teachers is one of Tencent’s shortcomings, and it has to seize the leading entrance to teacher users; while Easy Question Bank can make full use of the traffic brought by Tencent to stand out among the many question bank products.

Investing in Crazy Teacher has long been optimistic about the education O2O platform

In June 2015, Tencent made a Series B investment in Crazy Teacher, taking the first step in the education O2O field. After this round of financing, Crazy Teacher is valued at US$100 million.

Crazy Teacher is an O2O extracurricular tutoring information service platform for primary and secondary schools based on the mobile Internet. It opens up online and offline links. Users can choose teachers online and teach offline, thus eliminating the need for traditional offline The agency's agency fees and third-party handling fees are designed to help parents find suitable teachers. It is reported that Crazy Teacher completed angel round financing in October 2014, and subsequently received tens of millions of yuan in Series A investment from IDG Capital partner Zhang Suyang, Tencent Vice President Wu Xiaoguang and others.

Since this year, tutoring O2O has continued to be favored by the capital market. The booming development of this type of enterprise actually coincides with the trend of "disintermediation" of the Internet. Tencent has made frequent moves in the O2O field before, and its investment in Crazy Teacher is in education. The first step in the O2O field.