Asia Market Opportunities
Asia is expected to rebound faster than other economies post pandemic. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, COVID-19 has accelerated technological adoption and innovation in the region. Its highly adaptable digital population has continued to embrace new digital services enthusiastically over the past years. Asian companies have continued to scale up even during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance profit pools and unlock productivity through accelerating digital adoption.
No EdTech market in the world is as exciting as Asia’s, with hundreds of millions of students, a cultural emphasis on education, a growing middle class, government support, and an abundance of capital. Asia Pacific is anticipated to become the most lucrative market, growing at CAGR of 19% from 2022 to 2030.
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Massive market size with over 600 million K12 students
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China’s college-educated talent pool is expected to number 195 million people, more than the entire U.S. labor force
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Average family could spend up to 40% in education related products and services
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The APAC region is also likely to witness the highest growth rates in corporate e-learning, reaching to USD$90 billion by 2026
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Different Government funding schemes to support digital reskilling and upskilling and EdTech development
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Abundant pools of family offices with more patient capital
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Plenty of growth and exit opportunities, with considerable corporate interests in acquiring digital learning contents, diversifying their portfolios, strategic investments as well as M&As.
China Market
The EdTech market in China has undergone some major regulatory changes in the last two years, mainly because of the government policy to discourage school tutorial classes and an exam-oriented culture. It does not mean that the Chinese government is against the use of technology to facilitate meaningful learning. On the contrary, the government is very supportive of the use of technology (both software and hardware) to enhance the learning experiences in K12 education. Good contents are in strong demand in soft skills development, STEAM and liberal arts education, as well as teachers training, parents and family education.
Quality vocational education is also in high demand, especially in areas such as elderly care, medical care, aviation, aerospace, Artificial Intelligence, and digital skills upgrading. For higher education, collaboration between Chinese and foreign institutions are encouraged in terms of teaching content, pedagogy, practical training, internships and cultural exchanges.
For enterprise learning, large foreign and local enterprises are looking for quality and integrated learning solutions serving the needs of different employees in the organisation. Again good contents are in demand, especially in entrepreneurial and business skills development.
Content is really king. To succeed in the Chinese Mainland market, content localisation is key and hence finding the right partner is essential e.g. partnership between Udemy and Sanjieke, a leading vocational education platform in China focused on addressing the digital skills gap for young professionals. In recent years, more Chinese EdTech companies are interested in “going out”. Whilst they have the technology, they will be interested in partnering with foreign partners in content development, customer engagement and marketing to international markets.