TAL Education Shifts Focus to Smart Hardware and Life Science Research

TAL Education, a leading after-school tutoring services provider in China, is exploring smart hardware development and life science research. Recently, it has set up a number of subsidiaries with business scopes including software development, technical services and intelligent hardware.

Sina Tech learned from sources close to TAL Education that the company is adjusting its business and organization according to shifting education policies in China. As a result, it is now looking for new businesses, potential breakthroughs and growth paths, and is turning to non-educational sectors such as science and technology services, intelligent hardware and life sciences.

At the TAL Opening Conference 2022, Zhang Bangxin, founder and CEO of the company, pointed out that he was considering changing the company’s mission to “Love and Technology Create a Better Life.” TAL Education also aims at developing life science research, and has always paid close attention to this field. As early as 2018, a brain science laboratory has been established by the firm, and it has reached agreements with many universities to cooperate in exploring research in the field of brain science.

Since a series of policies tightening the online education space were issued by Chinese authorities in 2021, TAL Education has drawn a line with discipline training and found a new transformation direction in the past eight months. The company is now turning to the enterprise services market, giving full play to the advantages of past educational science and technology, providing services for government institutions and schools.

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On December 21, 2021, TAL Education announced that its enterprise business was upgraded, and it has launched a new brand “Meixiao” to provide complete livestreaming, training and AI system solutions for the education industry, aimed at improving its scientific and technological services and its level of digitalization.

In addition to Meixiao, TAL Education is exploring various overseas markets. After the introduction of new restrictions in China, it published an open letter internally. The letter wrote that “the company will continue to establish overseas business models, branding and operational capabilities in the next five to ten years or even longer, including new business models with technology and content as the core.”