China’s tutoring crackdown: online class giant Koolearn triples its revenue on pivot to live-streaming e-commerce

  • New Oriental’s education technology subsidiary Koolearn saw a 260 per cent year-on-year jump in revenue between June and November
  • Revenue from live-streaming e-commerce contributed to over 85 per cent of total revenue during the period, interim report figures show

Ben Jiangin Beijing
A New Oriental app featuring elementary school summer packages before China banned after-school tutoring of core subjects. Photo: Bloomberg

China’s most famous online cram school chain tripled its sales in six months, riding on a pivot to selling food and farm products on live streams after Beijing’s abrupt ban on for-profit after-school teaching in 2021 upended a multibillion-dollar industry.

Koolearn Technology Holding, a subsidiary of Beijing-based private tutoring giant New Oriental Education & Technology Group, on Tuesday posted revenue of 2.08 billion yuan (US$307 million) from June to November, a 260 per cent jump from the same period in 2021.

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