Online learning enjoys a surge

Online education has been developing rapidly in China in the past few years, with both the number of programs and the amount of financing growing at a high speed, a blue book has reported.

The number of educational science and technology enterprises has been growing at 50 percent since 2013, a year dubbed by sources in the Chinese education industry as the first year of the online education era, according to the Blue Book on the Current Situation in China's Educational Science and Technology which was released in early December.

Compiled jointly by online education media jiemodui.com, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent as well as WaleyWorks Career Center, a company that provides services to job seekers and businesses, the blue book said the number of online education programs has surpassed 3,000 as of September. By November, financing in China's online education rocketed to $1.76 billion in total.