Key Points of the Article
1. According to Moojing Market Intelligence, from June 2022 to May 2023, a rolling year saw electronic education products reach a sales volume of 11.15 billion yuan on mainstream e-commerce platforms.The online class scenario under the pandemic and the implementation of the "Double Reduction" policy have become important drivers for the rocketing electronic education market.
2. According to Moojing Market Intelligence, from June 2022 to May 2023, sales of learning machines on mainstream e-commerce platforms reached 5.98 billion yuan,occupying half of the electronic education market. In terms of growth rate, sales of learning machine productsincreased by 51.7% year-on-year from January to May 2023,surpassing the overall growth rate of the electronic education market.
3. From the perspective of brand structure, the market share of the top 10 learning machine brands reached 71.8%,with Xiaodu ranking first in this category,having a market share of 21.3%. Looking at the top products, six out of the top 10 bestselling items on mainstream e-commerce platforms over the past rolling year were from Xiaodu, with the single highest sales volume coming from Xueersi's Xpad.
4. Eye protection, AI, content resources, and parental control,constitute the four key skill points of learning machines. Among them, eye protection and AI are the focus of major brands' accelerated iterations.
In 2008, the phrase "touch where you don’t understand" became popular all over the country. Fifteen years have passed, and the electronic education hardware market has had its ups and downs, with the point reader being a snapshot of its golden development in the early 21st century. As time moved to 2023, with private tutoring in decline, online classes ebbing, internet giants stepping up their involvement, K12 platforms seeking transformation, and learning machines competing in the electronic education market, the race to breed overachievers never lacks business opportunities. Where is the next breakthrough?
According to Moojing Market Intelligence, from June 2022 to May 2023, sales of electronic education products on mainstream e-commerce platforms reached 11.15 billion yuan. The online class scenario under the pandemic and the implementation of the "Double Reduction" policy have become significant drivers for the surging electronic education market.On one hand, the pandemic disrupted offline education; the overarching presence of online classes broke traditional educational scenarios, and consumers began to get accustomed to educational mediums beyond the blackboard and paper money. Online education quickly established consumer mindshare, completing market education and paving the way for the development of electronic educational hardware products. On the other hand, under the "Double Reduction" policy, subject-based training ceased, parents felt increasing pressure to tutor their children's schoolwork, exacerbating the already high pressure of "breeding overachievers." Electronic education products such as learning machines/student tablets, representing various types with a strong ecosystem of content and tools for teaching-assessing-testing, have become a smart substitution for training classes and tutors to some extent, improving students' learning efficiency and alleviating parental anxiety about education.
In the long run, the vigorous development of the electronic education market follows the trend after the "Double Reduction" policy was implemented, and many K12 giants are also integrating their original training ecosystem content through electronic education hardware products, seeking transformation and upgrades amidst policy changes. This is evident from the market growth rate.According to Moojing Market Intelligence, from January to May 2023, sales of electronic education products on mainstream e-commerce platforms increased by 39.2% year-on-year.In the post-pandemic era, teaching scenarios are no longer dependent on online classes, but the electronic education market continues to thrive, which clearly indicates that this is not a short-term demand. The inertia of using electronic education products during the pandemic has been carried into the post-pandemic era, and the formation of user habits heralds a broader market prospect.
Currently, the electronic education market has a wide variety of product types. The earliest trendsetters were auxiliary electronic education products such as reading pens, translation pens, repeaters, electronic dictionaries, and dictionary pens.Most of these focused on English learning, thereby capitalizing on the proliferating trend of English study in the country since the new millennium and experiencing explosive growth at one point. The Bubugao reading pen from 2008, famous for its tagline "touch where you don’t understand," is a classic example. Since this category was one of the first to hit the market, early entrants secured brand recognition and a stable market share. Brands like Bubugao and Youdao's dictionary pens have performed exceptionally well on mainstream e-commerce platforms. New entrants, however, need to carve out their niche with more complete digital content, educational resources, and smarter tutoring functions. Auxiliary electronic education products have now multiplied into a myriad of sub-categories; apart from products for English learning, there are also mental arithmetic devices and others.
In recent years, many tech giants have heavily invested in comprehensive electronic education products like learning machines.They focus on early childhood enlightenment and comprehensive subject learning for primary and secondary education, developing functions around the entire educational process of teaching-assessing-testing. In terms of product form, they are mainly in tablet form, which is why these learning machines are also known as learning tablets.
According to Moojing Market Intelligence, from June 2022 to May 2023, sales of learning machines on mainstream e-commerce platforms accounted for 54% of the electronic education market, dominating half of the market share. In terms of growth rate, sales of learning machine productsincreased by 51.7% year-on-year from January to May 2023, higher than the overall growth rate of the electronic education market.
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Data source: Moojing Analysis+Looking at the brand structure, the market share of the top 10 brands reached 71.8%, with leading brands dominating the market. Xiaodu ranks first in this category with a market share of 21.3%. Among these leading brands, there are internet giants such as Xiaodu, a sub-brand of Baidu, and Dali Education, which is under ByteDance. There are also top K12 players, such as Xueersi and Ape Tutoring who launched Xiaoyuansouti; there are tech companies focused on fields like AI, such as iFLYTEK with a strong AI focus and BOE Technology leading in LCD display shipments; as well as traditional players in the educational hardware track, like Bubugao, Dushulang, Youxuepai, and Seewo. A multitude of brands compete in the market, leveraging their own brand DNA to build their moats; internet giants, and technology companies have R&D advantages in embedding technologies like AI, allowing them to quickly iterate new products. Meanwhile, K12 and educational hardware brands benefit from years of accumulated educational resources, have advantages in ecosystem building, and possess a comprehensive operational logic for educational consumption, holding a head start in marketing to parents. In the future, new brands entering the field need to fully consider their unique features and can target different aspects, such as technology, content, and cost-effectiveness, to create distinct advantages and break through from the sidelines without any weaknesses.
Looking at the top products, six out of the top 10 bestsellers on mainstream e-commerce platforms over the past rolling year were from Xiaodu, which aligns with the previously mentioned brand structure where Xiaodu holds over 20% of the market. Among these Xiaodu bestsellers, there are products below 2,000 yuan and others priced between 3,000-5,000 yuan, indicating a clear segmentation in pricing and a differentiated product line that caters to various target audiences. Among these top-selling Xiaodu products, G16 is the single product with the highest sales on mainstream e-commerce platforms, reaching a sales volume of 140 million yuan over the past rolling year. This learning machine is priced in the 1,000 yuan range, taking the cost-performance route, and emphasizes features such as eye protection, AI tutoring, comprehensive subject and grade-level resource coverage, parental controls, etc.
Looking at these explosive products, the overall direction of intense competition is consistent. Eye protection + AI + content resources + parental control have become standard features for learning machines.
The intense competition in the eye protection track mainly includes hardware technology, function reminders, and trust endorsements on three levels. In terms of hardware technology, they usually come equipped with paper-like eye-protective screens, with function reminders that include application duration control and posture/distance reminders, etc., while trust endorsements rely on authoritative certification from various institutions to build consumer trust, the most common being the German TUV's low blue light certification, and the German TUV's flicker-free certification, etc. Targeting eye health, learning machines continue to break through. This year, BOE has introduced the first "mechanical" grade eye-protection learning machine, the Little Lesson Screen E3 Medical Edition, which has passed the Class II medical device registration with the Drug Administration, and so far, it is the only "mechanical" grade product series in the learning machine industry. The same E3 Series products have embedded "human-grade intelligent light control" technology to match the optimal screen brightness for children's learning vision, making it more comfortable for the eyes. Eye protection has become the main feature of this series of products.
AI is currently a feature that various major brands compete to integrate into their learning machines, marking the transition from an innovative medium that breaks through traditional learning scenarios to an innovative role of "human-like" tutoring. For example, several popular models from Xiaodu are equipped with Baidu's large model, and in May of this year, iFLYTEK launched the T20 learning machine equipped with iFLYTEK's Spark Cognition big model. The application of these AIs has elevated the learning machines beyond mere ecological resource content, spoken language practice, essay grading, and precise AI learning have become hot AI features. In reality, these functions have extended the learning machine from a self-help learning tool to an interactive tutoring direction, enriching the product's role positioning.
Content resources are one of the core competitive points of electronic educational hardware products, including learning machines, a legacy that continues to this day. The educational resources hidden inside the learning machines are an important factor for which parents are willing to pay. For this reason, the sales performance of Xueersi Xpad is very persuasive. On mainstream e-commerce platforms, sales of this single product link reached 186 million yuan, ranking top in its category (TOP1). One of the product's main selling points is Xueersi's self-developed teaching resources. In the consumer reviews of Xueersi learning machine products on JD.com, 42% mentioned content resources. Relying on accumulated online course famous teacher resources during the K12 period, Xueersi's learning machines have gained consumer favor in terms of content resources.
Regarding learning resources, parents' demands tend towards full age range and full subject coverage, and current major brand learning machines are also configuring their resources ranging from pre-school enlightenment to primary and secondary school, from exam subjects to quality development . Delving into consumer comment feedback, we can find that the main pain points regarding content resources are reflected in incomplete textbook versions, insufficient content depth, and lack of abundant online course resources.
Besides eye protection, AI, and content resources, Parental Control is also an important feature of learning machines. Compared to the first three functions, parental control is more like a feature that is not of core utility but is nonetheless essential to be equipped. After all, as early as 1993, the first generation of learning machines was forced to a turning point in development due to doubts that "computer learning machines are actually game consoles". Thirty years later, "Tablet-shaped learning machines must not truly degrade into tablets for playing games" remains very important to parents. According to Moojing E-commerce Listening, in the last rolling year, JD.com consumers' feedback on learning machines includes "games" mentioned at a high rate of 24%, with comments all pointing to "cannot download games", "preventing children from playing games", etc., making app control a necessary feature to address parents' concerns.
Currently, common parental control features on the market include APP Control and Learning Situation Management . Based on these two points, different learning machines will also have their own differentiated features. For example, the hot-selling Seewo W2 emphasizes one-click WeChat file transfer; Xiaodu's G16 can enable video calls without receiving to achieve real-time control.
Eye protection, AI, content resources, and parental control form the four key skill points of learning machines. Among them, eye protection and AI are the focal points where major brands accelerate iteration. Eye protection is actually targeting the children's health market, and the most health-related aspect of using learning machines is eye health. Many brands are intensely competing in terms of technology and endorsements, striving to convince parents that "this learning machine is the least tiring to the eyes". And now, the intense competition in health direction is no longer limited to eye health. In July, iFLYTEK launched the new LUMIE 10 series, which not only obtained a certification for natural light level eye protection but also mentioned hearing health, extending the health competition of the learning machine from vision to hearing. In addition, in the posture reminders related to eye health, this learning machine further expanded the scenario to spinal health, featuring dual-mode posture detection. In the future, major brands' excavation of the health aspects of learning machines will go deeper, with technology involving eye health continuing to iterate on one hand, and on the other, expanding the focus of health from the most conventional vision health to hearing, spine, lumbar, among other aspects.
Compared to eye protection, the escalating internal competition in AI for learning machines is even more intense. With the surge of ChatGPT, AI has undoubtedly become the main battleground where major brands enhance the functionality of their learning machines. Targeting the interactive intelligence of ChatGPT, integrating proprietary large models into products, and using artificial intelligence to achieve "human-like" interactive tutoring with learning machines has become an important direction for major brands. According to Moojing Market Intelligence, in the first half of 2023, the sales of learning machines that directly mentioned AI in their titles accounted for 33% of the market share, which represents an increase from the same period last year, and the sales growth rate of these AI-labeled learning machines increased by 90.2% year-over-year, faster than the overall learning machine market. In the future, further development of AI functions by major brands for learning machines will accelerate the evolution of the learning machine towards the role of "one-on-one tutoring for all subjects".
Against the backdrop of the educational training industry's decline and the ebb of online courses, learning machines, with their advantages in resource integration and efficiency enhancement, have become a tool for more and more parents to alleviate educational anxiety. With the iteration of functions, learning machines will further dispel parents' concerns about the unhealthy use of machines/screens. At the same time, through further refining AI functions for interactive tutoring, they will enrich the product's role positioning. In the future, learning machines are expected to create more imaginative possibilities in the never-ending field of education.
