Online teaching platform gains major investment

An education O2O (online to online) platform has received financing of $20 million from Tencent to serve K12 tutorial teachers and help them form their own brand and improve their income.

Crazy Teachers enables K12 tutorial teachers to find clients online. Founder Zhang Hao believes large offline K12 tutorial institutions may disappear within three to five years in the fast changing Internet era.

"Large numbers of teachers who used to work for these institutions will have to turn to online platforms to keep their careers going," Zhang said.

"What’s great about the online platform is there are no institutions or agents in between taking away a percentage of money all of which should have been paid to the teachers".

Through the platform, clients - usually students and their parents - can communicate with teachers and each other directly, which Zhang believes can help a teacher develop a widespread reputation and personal brand if he or she does a good job.

Zhang said traditional offline tutorial classes are committed to cater for the needs of students and parents, while teachers are usually overworked but low-paid.

"We are determined to serve the teachers, helping them form their own brand and improve their income," he said.