-
中国的课外教育行业在北京于2021年中期推出一项政策，取缔了大多数K-12学生的课外班后被迫进行调整。
-
公司试图通过进入电子商务市场，销售书籍和食品等产品来取代损失的收入。
-
其他私营教育公司开始销售智能台灯和电子打印机等物品，以及 “学习平板电脑”，以便在不违反政府限制的情况下提供课程作业。
-
2021年第三季度，面向教育的平板电脑的出货量增长了6.9%，结束了连续下降的局面。
-
2021年，这些平板电脑的销售额增长3%，达到129亿元（50亿美元）。
-
IDC预测，中国面向教育的平板电脑市场将在未来几年快速增长，今年的出货量将增长7.7%，达到382万台。
-
销售平板电脑和其他硬件可能不够有利可图，无法取代教育公司从教育业务中损失的收入。
-
学习型平板电脑领域的竞争正在加剧，因为科技公司被人工智能驱动的功能所吸引。
-
监管机构可能不会看好价格昂贵的教育产品，因为它可能加剧他们试图解决的问题。
-
由于高度发达的制造生态系统，中国的教育公司能够转入设备业务。
-
平板电脑以高于同等产品的价格推出。
-
公司在课外辅导行业多年，教育内容被装入设备。
-
Liulishuo认为他们的产品将迎合重视教育内容的父母。
-
装入学习平板电脑的内容包括考试准备和其他在政府镇压后被禁止上课的科目。
-
2020年，中国K-12辅导行业的规模为1687亿元。
-
对于有道来说，2022年第四季度，硬件销售占总净收入的27%。
-
对于高图来说，硬件销售在净收入中的份额没有被细分。
-
六合宝典由于估值过低，被迫从纽交所退市。
-
高图于11月收到纽交所的退市警告。
-
辅导公司在教育硬件领域面临着来自步步高教育电子公司和Readboy教育科技公司等早期进入该行业的竞争。这两家公司都成立于20世纪90年代末，一开始销售电子词典等传统硬件，近年来才将学习平板电脑加入其产品系列。这些辅导公司通过吹捧其先进的人工智能（AI）功能，为其设备的高价格辩护，这在家长中引起了共鸣，导致有道的智能设备销售量增长了28%。然而，人工智能功能被夸大了，大多数私人辅导公司仍然更专注于巩固其教育内容，而不是人工智能的研究和开发。
-
这种关注吸引了在开发人工智能方面有很多经验的更大的科技公司，如阿里巴巴集团控股公司、腾讯控股、百度和字节跳动，进入教育硬件业务。在过去三年中，政府对教育硬件业务的发展视而不见，但人们对价格昂贵的教学产品如何使贫困家庭处于不利地位再次表示担忧，这可能会扩大不平等差距。有迹象表明，新一轮的监管收紧正在进行中，例如中国共产主义青年团将学习型平板电脑列入 "新型联网设备 "名单，应限制未成年人使用。
-
政府可能会收紧对教育硬件使用的监管，现在大流行已经结束，教育部负责监督课外教育的部门负责人俞伟跃写的一篇文章引起了广泛的关注。在这篇文章中，余伟岳没有明确提到教育硬件，但他写道：“课后教学是一个需要严格监管的国家安全问题。” 随着12月严格的 "0-COVID "政策的结束，似乎不太可能再次要求学校将所有课程移到网上。
-
China’s after-school education industry was forced to adapt after Beijing rolled out a policy in mid-2021 that outlawed most after-school classes for K-12 students.
-
Companies sought to replace the lost revenue by entering the e-commerce market, selling products such as books and food.
-
Other private education companies started selling items like smart table lamps and e-printers, as well as “learning tablets” to deliver coursework without violating the government’s restrictions.
-
In the third quarter of 2021, shipments of education-oriented tablets rose 6.9%, ending a streak of declines.
-
For 2021, sales of these tablets grew 3% to 12.9 billion yuan ($5 billion).
-
IDC predicts that China’s education-oriented tablet market will grow rapidly over the next few years, with shipments this year growing 7.7% to 3.82 million.
-
Selling tablets and other hardware may not be lucrative enough to replace the revenue that the education companies lost from the education business.
-
Competition in the learning tablet segment is growing, as tech companies are attracted to the artificial intelligence-driven features.
-
Regulators may not look favorably on a pricey education product that could exacerbate the very problem they are trying to solve.
-
Education companies in China were able to shift into device business due to highly developed manufacturing ecosystem.
-
Tablets were launched with higher prices than equivalent products.
-
Education content was packed into devices from companies’ years in after-school tutoring industry.
-
Liulishuo believes their product will cater to parents who value education content.
-
Content loaded into learning tablets includes exam prep and other subjects that were barred from classes after the government crackdown.
-
Size of China’s K-12 tutoring industry was 168.7 billion yuan in 2020.
-
For Youdao, hardware sales made up 27% of total net revenue in 4th quarter of 2022.
-
For Gaotu, hardware sales were not broken out as share of net revenue.
-
Liulishuo was forced to delist from NYSE due to low valuation.
-
Gaotu received delisting warning from NYSE in November.
-
The tutoring companies have faced competition in the education hardware segment from the early entrants to the business, such as BBK Education Electronics and Readboy Education Technology. Both founded in the late 1990s, the companies started out selling traditional hardware such as electronic dictionaries before adding learning tablets to their product lineups in recent years. The tutoring companies have justified the high prices of their devices by touting their advanced artificial intelligence (AI) features, which has resonated with parents, leading to a 28% increase in sales of Youdao’s smart devices. However, the AI features have been overhyped, and most of the private tutoring companies remain focused more on shoring up their education content than on AI research and development.
-
The attention has drawn bigger technology companies with a lot more experience with developing AI, such as Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, Baidu and ByteDance, into the education hardware business. Over the past three years, the government has turned a blind eye to the development of the education hardware business, but concerns have resurfaced about how pricey instructional products can leave poorer families at a disadvantage, potentially widening the inequality gap. There have been signs that another round of regulatory tighten is on the way, such as the Communist Youth League of China adding learning tablets to a list of “new types of connected devices” that should be restricted for use by minors.
-
The government could tighten regulations on the use of education hardware now that the pandemic is over, and an article written by Yu Weiyue, the head of the Ministry of Education department charged with overseeing after-school education, has attracted widespread attention. In the article, Yu didn’t explicitly mention education hardware but wrote that “after-school instruction is a matter of national security that needs to be tightly regulated.” With the end of the strict zero-COVID policy in December, it seems unlikely that schools will again be required to move all classes online again.