Exclusive | Zhang Yiming’s education dream dashed by Beijing as ByteDance pulls back from tutoring
- Beijing’s policy change on private tutoring has killed Zhang’s dream of building up an extensive, sustainable private education empire
- Due to the sheer size of ByteDance’s education unit, even partial job losses could be huge after Beijing’s policy change to ban profits in off-campus tutoring
ByteDance is making a speedy retreat from the education sector, formerly a strategic area the Beijing-based owner of TikTok had invested heavily in over the past two years, after Beijing’s new policy banned the pursuit of profit from off-campus tutoring.
According to local media reports, the tech giant created nine years ago by young entrepreneur Zhang Yiming in his Beijing flat, is sacking thousands of employees in its educations business. ByteDance has denied that all its employees on education products will be fired, but did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on Friday.
Sources close to the matter, who declined to be named as they are not authorised to talk with media, said while it was clear that ByteDance is throwing in the towel on education, the final job cuts could be lower as some employees may be diverted to other business areas.
One source close to ByteDance told the South China Morning Post that Beijing’s policy change on private tutoring had killed Zhang’s dream of building up an extensive, sustainable private education empire. “Zhang had treated education as the new strategic direction,” the source said. “As Douyin is a tool for people to kill time, he believes education can create more social value.”
Under Beijing’s new rules, Zhang’s plan is impossible to roll out, the source said. For instance, Gogokid, a product developed in 2018 to teach Chinese kids English via one-on-one courses with native speakers, will be illegal under China’s new regulatory framework because Beijing has banned tutoring platforms from hiring foreign teachers outside China to teach Chinese students.