Toutiao Enters the Online Education Industry with “Gogokid”
Toutiao entered the industry of online English courses for children by launching of a new educational product branded “gogokid”.
The developer of this product is Lianmeng Technology Shenzhen Co. Ltd. whose selfie-taking application “Faceu” was acquired by Toutiao for $300 million in February of this year.
According to its website, gogokid hires its teachers all from North America, delivering online one-to-one classes in American English. The courses can help children with pre-class guidance and interactive preparation for lessons. They also use voice recognition technologies to do pronunciation and spoken English proficiency analysis.
During class, the teachers will encourage their student to practice speaking in English, which takes up 60% of the class time, and also teach according to the learning targets made based on the customized reports. After class, the teachers will carry out reviews while customizing the learning database for every kid and drawing each a dynamic learning plan.
According to an introduction, the courses are designed by combining the U.S. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with the national curriculum standards by the Chinese Ministry of Education.
Apart from knowledge and skills training, the courses also emphasize on applying the English language for daily use and fostering their thinking in English.
From core subject classes to extracurricular options and open courses, gogokid offers the online courses at eight levels available for children aged from 4 to 12 years old.
At the end of last year, Toutiao hosted the “eduTECH 2017 Toutiao Future Education Summit” and released the data on Toutiao users’ views and understanding of the education industry. According to Chen Duye, the General Manager of Toutiao’s Marketing Center, from 2016 to 2017, the number of Toutiao’s business partners in education has increased by 263% , and advertising consumption by 260%.
As of December last year, the total page views of education-related articles on Toutiao have exceeded 10.7 billion, 44 % of which were topics relating to the three major education stages—preschool education, K-12 education and tertiary education.
