Article
Golden age of the Chinese education market
China's education industry is entering a "golden age." It is rapidly expanding in terms of both industry scale and market activity. Government policies, capital flow, frequent cross-border business, and technological innovation are driving China's education industry toward six major transformative trends. This report shares insight into this transformation.
Viewpoints / key findings
A summary of our key findings:
Trend 1: Capital inflow promotes education industry development
In 2015, an influx of social capital investment in the education industry, through investment and M&A, as well as the direct and indirect impact of three forms of listings, injected new vitality into the industry's development.
Trend 2: Individuation and differentiation are the keys to online education
As online education in China continues to grow, the profitability and profit model have shown differentiation in various market segments. Industry development still has vast potential, and profit opportunities lie in using the Internet to provide personalized services to customers.
Trend 3: O2O needs to "return to reason" following capital influx
Although education O2O experienced a capital inflow frenzy in 2015, it is generally in its early stage and needs in-depth exploration in terms of services and profitability models. Focuses should include specialization, scenarios, and ecological breakthroughs.
Trend 4: Policy reforms will drive the industrialization and diversification of education
Policies and regulations in private education, pre-school education, K12 education, higher education, and vocational education should provide new development opportunities.
Trend 5: Multi-models assist foreign investment penetration of China's education market
Increasingly open policies, economic development, and international culture communication has gradually increased the foreign capital flow into China's education industry, which has six major models: self-built schools, Chinese-foreign collaborative schools, franchise chain investments, M&As, online education, and educational resources.
Trend 6: China's education industry needs to explore "going global" in the future
Currently, the balance of imported and exported educational resources is uneven, and the industry is still in its infancy, limited by domestic institutions' weak educational resources. Enterprises in different industry segments should seek deployment strategies for "going global."