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“Cultivating global competence of Chinese children” |
Founded: 2013 in Beijing, China
Category: Online education Primary office: Beijing (China) Core technical team: Beijing, China Status: Private Range of employees: 5001-10,000 Amount raised: $1.1 billion (5 rounds – September 19, 2019) |
OVERVIEW
PERFORMANCE METRICS
ACHIEVEMENTS
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Sells
- VIPKID: provide online English one-on-one 25 minutes courses to children aged 4 to 15
- Lingo Bus: provide online Mandarin courses to children globally
- Dami Wangxiao: provide online mathematics and English classes to children aged 6 to 18
Channels
- “Bring a friend” to obtain free courses
- Word-of-mouth promotion: High quality of courses and services has gained good reputation
- Invite celebrities to use and recommend
- Targeted advertisements on TV, social media, etc.
- High social responsibility (e.g. provide free English classes to 1,000 low-income rural schools and 50,000 students in China)
Competencies
- Expertise on high-end one-to-one online education
- Technology enabling personalized learning and a connection between teachers and students across the world
- Artificial intelligence and big data analytics
- Novel applications of games, video, role swapping to stimulate learners
Resources
Assets
- Influential financial and strategic stakeholders (e.g. Coatue Management, Tencent, Sequoia Capital and Yunfeng Capital)
- Strategic partnerships (e.g., National Geographic Learning, TESOL, Lexile and 20+ educational institutions) to develop learning programs
- Deep cooperation with Microsoft in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality and other advanced technologies
- Copyright privileges with Oxford University Press, Bob Books, Collins, Teacher Created Materials etc.
- High-quality, vetted, professional teachers
- Global offices in Dallas, San Francisco, Texas etc., to provide support
Processes
- Multichannel customer support – collect and respond to feedback quickly through social media, websites, and email
- Courses are divided into units and charge per unit thereby allowing a wider range of income groups to attract more users
- Apply artificial intelligence and big data analytics applied to increase intelligence and personalization of online teaching
- Integration of outstanding educational resources globally
- Attract and retain teachers through means such as working from home, flexible scheduling and competitive salaries
- Continuously raise funds to develop and expand
Priorities
- Vision: To be the leader of global K12 education
- Keep learning and create more opportunities to grow
- Partnerships with high technology companies to improve artificial intelligence and data analytics to provide better courses and services
- Increase cross-border operations (expand from China base)
- Increase user base
- Continuously develop new platforms and courses to meet market needs
- Core value: Student at heart, fighting spirit at the core
Assertions That Best Describe What the Company Did to Scale Early, Rapidly & Securely
- Develop and sell products that address a problem, job to be done or a need that is shared by a large and growing number of individuals and organizations in various regions to increase sales
- Increase the company’s value by continuously seeking and receiving funding to support the company’s plan to scale and improve its image in the marketplace
- Sell online using a variety of online and offline promotional channels to increase the number of new customers and the retention rate of existing customers
- Enable users to participate in the rapid development of company products and services
- Increase sales by applying big-data analytics to produce information about users, suppliers and customers
- Increase value by using a compelling image of the desired future company to convince others to provide the funding and resources the company requires
References
- Baidu. 2020. https://baike.baidu.com/item/VIPKID/19514636?fr=aladdin
- Crunchbase. 2020. VIPKID. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vipkid#section-investors
- Lunden, I. (2018, Jun 21). China’s VIPKID, which links English tutors with online learners, raises $500M at $3B+ valuation. Techcrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/chinas-vipkid-which-links-native-english-speakers-with-online-learners-raises-another-500m-reportedly-at-3b-valuation/
- VIPKID. 2020. https://www.vipkid.com/teach
- VIPKID Chinese official website. 2020. https://www.vipkid.com.cn/web/aboutus
Contributors
- Mengya Chen