Expert: Internet will make education 'not a luxury'

The combination of internet and education will make education itself "not a luxury", even though high-quality resources are imbalanced across the country, according to an industry insider on Thursday.

Xu Kexin, co-founder of Jiliguala, an online education startup focused on early English education, said, "The world is becoming flat as the internet traverses time and regions to make online learning accessible to every child."

With 700 million bits of data on her platform, Xu found that there is huge market potential not only from major Chinese cities but also third- and fourth-tier ones, and even rural areas.

She said that her company's users from first- and second-tier cities are almost equal to those from third- and fourth-tier ones, with 51 percent and 49 percent of the total respectively.

"Also, it is the integration of internet and education that makes education no longer a luxury for certain groups of kids. In China, we are able to introduce leading content from abroad to help our kids to learn," she said.

To tap into this demand, Xu noted that her startup has scrambled to introduce more preschool educational resources in China. The company has cooperated with Penguin Random House, a world leading publication group, in developing immersive courses based on famous creative works.

Jiliguala, founded in 2014, mainly leverages online immersive courses to help kids 8 years old and younger to learn English online.