 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | October 2013 |
| Founders | Cindy Mi, Jessie Chen, and Victor Zhang |
| Headquarters | Beijing , China |
| Website | https://vipkid.com |
VIPKid, also known as VIPKID, is an online teaching and education company.
| | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | October 2013 |
| Founders | Cindy Mi, Jessie Chen, and Victor Zhang |
| Headquarters | Beijing , China |
| Website | https://vipkid.com |
VIPKid, also known as VIPKID, is an online teaching and education company.
Founded in 2013 and formally launched in 2014 by Cindy Mi, the VIPKid platform connects paying students with teachers in the United States and Canada. [1] [2] Its online-classroom portal enables students to receive 25-minute English language lessons from fluent English-speaking teachers. [3] [4] Students and teachers communicate via its global classroom platform. [5]
In 2017, VIPKid launched a new service, Lingo Bus, to teach Mandarin to students of 5 to 12 years old. [6] [7]
In 2017, VIPKid reported that it had raised $200 million in initial series funding, [8] and in April 2018 raised an additional $500 million in series D+ funding. [9] [10] Combined, this amount equated VIPKID's valuation to $3 billion. [10] As of November 2018, the company reported having 60,000 contracted teachers to teach 500,000 students.
In May 2020, VIPKID announced that all current teachers would gradually transition to a new service fee structure and the base rate adjustment policy will be phased out. This will effectively result in a pay reduction for the vast majority of their teachers. [11]
In 2021 the company stopped providing services in China involving teachers based abroad. [12] China-based customers will use Chinese citizen teachers in China and/or teachers residing in China who have teaching licenses. [13]
In February 2020, VIPKid donated 1.5 million English and math classes to affected students from the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, and children of medical workers were given priority for free classes. [14]
There are several hundred languages in China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on Beijingese, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as Hanyu, that are spoken by 92% of the population. The Chinese languages are typically divided into seven major language groups, and their study is a distinct academic discipline. They differ as much from each other morphologically and phonetically as do English, German and Danish, but meanwhile share the same writing system (Hanzi) and are mutually intelligible in written form. There are in addition approximately 300 minority languages spoken by the remaining 8% of the population of China. The ones with greatest state support are Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang.
Tutoring is private academic support, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects.
New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., more commonly New Oriental, is a provider of private educational services in China. The headquarters of New Oriental is located in Haidian District, Beijing. It is currently the largest comprehensive private educational company in China based on the number of program offerings, total student enrollments, and geographic presence. The business of New Oriental includes pre-school education, general courses for students of various age levels, online education, overseas study consulting, and textbook publishing. New Oriental was the first Chinese educational institution to enter the New York Stock Exchange in the United States, holding its IPO in 2006. As of 2016, New Oriental has built 67 short-time language educational schools, 20 book stores, 771 learning centers, and more than 5,000 third-party bookstores in 56 cities in China. New Oriental has had over 26.6 million student enrollments, including over 1.3 million enrollments in first quarter 2017. The company's market capitalization was approximately US$14 billion.
Huizhou University is a provincial undergraduate college in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, southern China.
italki is an online language learning platform which connects language learners and teachers through video chat. The site allows students to find online teachers for 1-on-1 tutoring, and teachers to earn money as freelance tutors. italki is headquartered in Hong Kong, China.
Education in Tibet is the public responsibility of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Education of ethnic Tibetans is partly subsidized by the government. Primary and secondary education is compulsory, while preferential policies aimed at Tibetans seek to enroll more students in vocational or higher education.
Yu Minhong, or Michael Yu is the founder and president of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., and a member of the central committee of China Democratic League. As the owner of one of the largest private educational services, Yu is known as the "richest teacher in China", and "Godfather of English Training". On Hurun Report's China Rich List 2013, he had an estimated wealth $1.1 billion and was ranked No. 245 on the list. On the same list of 2015, he had an estimated wealth of $1.09 billion and was ranked No. 487. Also he was ranked No.1759 on Hurun Global Rich List 2015, with an estimated wealth of $1.1 billion. As of November 2018, he is ranked #148 on Forbes China Rich List 2018 and #1020 on Forbes Billionaires 2018, with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion.
Udemy, Inc. is an education technology company that provides an online learning and teaching platform. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar.
Coursera Inc. is a for-profit U.S.-based global massive open online course provider founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects.
Brainly is an education company based in Kraków, Poland, with headquarters in New York City. It is an AI-powered homework help platform targeting students and parents. As of November 2020, Brainly reported having 15 million daily active users, making it the world's most popular education app. In 2024, FlexOS reported Brainly as the #1 Generative AI Tool in the education category and the #6 Generative AI Tool overall. Also in 2024, Andreessen Horowitz reported Brainly as #6 in the Top 50 Gen AI Mobile Apps by monthly active users.
The emphasis on English education in China only emerged after 1979 when the Cultural Revolution ended, China adopted the Open Door Policy, and the United States and China established strong diplomatic ties. One estimate of the number of English speakers in China is over 200 million and rising, with 50 million secondary school children now studying the language.
ClassDojo is an educational technology company. It connects primary school teachers, students and families through communication features, such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day, and messaging that can be translated into more than 35 languages. It also enables teachers to note feedback on students' skills and creates a portfolio for students, so that families can be aware of school activities outside of meeting with teachers.
Vedantu is an Indian multinational online tutoring platform launched in 2014 based in Bengaluru, India. It primarily provides services to students from grades 4 to 12.
Bolt is an Estonian mobility company that offers ride-hailing, micromobility rental, food and grocery delivery, and carsharing services. The company is headquartered in Tallinn and operates in over 500 cities in more than 45 countries in Europe, Africa, Western Asia and Latin America. The company has more than 150 million customers and more than 3 million driver and courier partners. The company has plans for an initial public offering in 2025.
Byju's is an Indian multinational educational technology company, headquartered in Bangalore. It was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath. As of January 2024, Byju's made a valuation ask of $200 million, a sharp fall given its peak valuation of $22 billion in 2022. As of April 2023, the company claims to have over 150 million registered students.
Slater Rhea is an American singer, songwriter and TV personality on national TV in China. Rhea is a performer of Chinese music and has made appearances on China Central Television, China Education Television as well as local and provincial television stations across China. Rhea performs in Chinese, Mongolian, and English. While he rose to prominence in China for singing traditional Chinese folk tunes, he also writes and sings Chinese pop and educational music and performs a variety of English-language material including American jazz standards and rock-and-roll.
Cindy Mi is a Chinese entrepreneur. She is the co-founder of ABC English and founder of VIPKid.
Squirrel AI is a Chinese online education technology company that specializes in intelligent adaptive education. It is one of the first companies offering large scale AI-powered adaptive education solutions in China.
Shenzhen Capital Group Co., Ltd is a state-owned venture capital company based in Shenzhen, China. It is affiliated with the Shenzhen Government and its investments cover industries supported by national policies. According to South China Morning Post, from January 2019 to May 2020, it was the second most active venture capital firm in China.