China's online extracurricular education market to expand significantly: UBS

BEIJING -- China's online extracurricular education market is expected to have grown markedly by 2025, a report from UBS said.

The market is forecast to expand from 29 billion yuan (about $4.3 billion) in 2017 to 714 billion yuan in 2025, according to the report.

Edwin Chen, UBS analyst, said the internet penetration rate of the education industry in China is much lower compared with other sectors such as e-commerce, news and wealth management, leaving it room to grow.

The acceptance and experience of training sessions online will improve due to an increasing number of computer-savvy parents and the application of technology including data analysis, virtual reality and facial recognition.

In China, education is always high on families' agendas. To make their children competitive enough to be admitted into universities, Chinese parents usually expect their children to take extra lessons after school.

Online services are now competing with traditional lessons. Chen predicted that online courses would make up around 50 percent of the market in 2025, up from 13 percent last year.

Zuoyebang, a popular online extracurricular training platform, completed series D round financing of $350 million on July 18, led by Coatue hedge fund.