Zebra AI: APP competitive product analysis!

2020 was an extraordinary year. The arrival of the epidemic forced many industries to reshuffle. At the same time, the guideline of "suspending classes but not attending classes" also accelerated the progress of online education entering people's field of vision.

1. Purpose of analysis

Comparing products is one of the best ways to identify the quality of products and is an important basis for product iteration and optimization. Nowadays, online education products are highly homogenized. While leveraging strengths and avoiding weaknesses, we also need to focus on product differentiation. Therefore, this analysis is used to explore the future iteration needs of Zebra AI .

2. Market Analysis

2.1 PEST Analysis

2.1.1 Politics

In January 2017, the "13th Five-Year Plan for National Education Development" encouraged social forces and private capital to enter the Internet field in various ways and promote the development of new "Internet + Education" business models.

In April 2018, the Ministry of Education announced that by 2022, the development goals of "three comprehensives, two highs, and one large" would be basically achieved, and efforts would be made to build a new talent training model under the "Internet +" conditions, develop a new Internet-based education service model, and explore a new education governance model in the information age.

In June 2019, the central government issued the "Opinions on Deepening Education and Teaching Reform and Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Compulsory Education." We will encourage "education + Internet", further weaken the scores, continue to advocate "burden reduction", and at the same time strengthen the relevant review mechanism. Not all "flies and mosquitoes" will be allowed in, and supervision will become the new normal.

In the context of "Internet + Education" receiving widespread attention and encouragement from the government, the country has raised policy thresholds while encouraging private teaching institutions. Companies that do not comply with regulations have gradually withdrawn from the market, and more than 12,000 online tutoring institutions have declared bankruptcy. However, brands with high market share and compliant qualifications have developed more steadily, and the brand head effect has become more obvious.

The epidemic has brought new development opportunities. At the beginning of 2020, when the venture capital market was lacking momentum and the development of various industries was restricted, online education went against the trend and the total financing scale increased by 275% year-on-year, ushering in new development opportunities for the industry.

According to data from iiMedia Research, the epidemic still had a significant impact on online children's English education companies. However, with the improvement of the epidemic and the introduction of many support policies for small and medium-sized enterprises, the overall registration volume of companies began to steadily increase.

Data source: iiMedia Research

2.1.2 Economy

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's per capita disposable income reached 30,733 yuan in 2019, and its GDP reached 99,086.5 billion yuan. With the continuous increase in gross domestic product and per capita disposable income of residents, the funds invested by parents in their children's education will gradually increase.

2.1.3 Society

Due to the influence of economic, policy, cultural and other factors in different regions, there is a serious shortage and uneven distribution of educational resources even in the same provinces and cities.

Taking Beijing as an example, high-quality educational resources are concentrated in Haidian District, Xicheng District and Dongcheng District. In 2019, 70.8% of the students in Haidian District scored above 700 points in the college entrance examination science, 63% scored above 680 points, and 48% scored above 650 points, showing an extreme imbalance in educational resources. Moreover, educational resources often conform to the Matthew effect, resulting in high-quality teachers and students increasingly concentrated in educationally advantaged areas.

2.1.4 Technology

With the continuous advancement of educational informatization 2.0 and the application of technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, big data, and AI in the field of education, education practitioners can accurately portray the individual characteristics of each learner, thereby providing differentiated education supply based on the specific needs of each learner while providing large-scale education. This will solve the contradiction between scale and personalization that has long plagued the education sector and achieve high-quality educational balance and high-level lifelong education.

2.2 Market Status

Data source: iiMedia Research

According to data from iiMedia Research, the scale of China's K12 online education market has been growing at a relatively high rate every year and is expected to exceed 37 million people in 2020.

Among them, the scale of China's online youth English market has reached 26 billion yuan, with a user scale of about 5.8 million and a market penetration rate of 22%. The following are some of the more active enlightenment education apps on the market (in no particular order):

It can be seen from the table that basically all K12 education giants have launched enlightenment education products in the past year. Only a huge incremental market can attract the participation of major platforms, so enlightenment education will definitely be a fierce battlefield in the next few years.

3. Choose your competitors

3.1 Reasons for selection

3.1.1 Zebra AI

Zebra AI is a derivative product of Yuanfudao, a first-tier K12 education company. It is an intelligent education platform that provides multi-disciplinary online education for children aged 2-8. Zebra AI was formerly known as "Zebra English". It was officially launched in November 2017. It was revealed that by October 2019, its monthly revenue had exceeded 100 million yuan, and its annual revenue in 2019 exceeded 1 billion yuan.

In February 2020, Zebra English integrated its "Zebra Chinese" and "Zebra Thinking" businesses and renamed it "Zebra AI". In March when the epidemic broke out, Zebra AI's total revenue exceeded 300 million yuan, and the number of users of full-priced courses reached 500,000. By the end of June, the number of users of full-priced courses had reached 1 million, making it a quasi-unicorn in enlightenment education.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Yuanfudao has successfully completed three rounds of financing. The investors are from well-known funds and giant companies such as IDG Capital, Tencent, and Gaoling Capital. The total amount of financing is US$3.2 billion. Yuanfudao's valuation has also reached US$15.5 billion, making it the largest unicorn in the K12 echelon. It will also provide more business support for Zebra AI.

Zebra AI has long been ranked first on the app store's children's list and around 10th on the education list.

3.1.2 Jiliguala

Jiliwulala is affiliated to Chengcheng Network Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. It was launched in 2014 and is one of the earliest products in English enlightenment education. Its products and courses have undergone many years of polishing and sedimentation.

Jiliwulala has currently accumulated 40 million users, covering more than 2,300 cities, counties and towns across the country, which means that one in every six families with children aged 0 to 8 is a Jiliwulala user.

Jiliwulala has long been ranked in the top 3 of the App Store’s children’s list and around 20th on the education list.

3.1.3 GuaGuaLong English

GuaGuaLong English (hereinafter referred to as "GuaGuaLong") is an educational product under ByteDance. In addition to English, it also has two other businesses: thinking and Chinese. It has the huge traffic and financial support of ByteDance, and its overall development speed is very rapid.

GuaGuaLong has been online for a short time, and its recent data lags behind Zebra AI and Jiliwulala.

However, since May this year, GuaGuaLong has been promoting its products through live streaming, variety show sponsorship, subway marketing, animation IP co-branding, etc., and has attracted a large number of users in a short period of time. It is expected to become another dark horse in enlightenment education.

4. Competitive product analysis

4.1 Product Positioning

Zebra AI offers three types of courses: English, thinking, and Chinese. The course setting is richer and can solve user needs on a larger scale and improve children's comprehensive quality. GuaGuaLong completely separates the three business lines of English, thinking and Chinese, and users need to download the corresponding app to take classes.

Here, the author speculates that GuaGuaLong wants to use the product matrix strategy in the early stage of the product to obtain more traffic, and will still integrate like Zebra AI in the later stage. Jiliwulala is currently focusing on the English market. The single-point breakthrough approach has advantages and disadvantages, and it also depends on the long-term product and operational capabilities.

4.2 Profit Model

The profit model of educational products is generally clear, and the three are no exception. The core is to monetize through course sales. Zebra AI mainly offers three types of courses at 49 yuan for trial classes and 2,800 yuan for full-priced classes. Jiliwulala offers 9.9 yuan for trial classes, 368 yuan for Guagua English classes, and paid extension classes. GuaGuaLong offers English trial classes at 19 yuan and 2,680 yuan for full-priced classes.

In addition, the three companies will also sell some peripheral physical items, such as teaching aids, dolls, etc., on internal shopping malls and external e-commerce platforms.

4.3 User Profile

The search index may deviate from the actual effect due to the influence of channels and promotion strategies, and is only used for simple user portrait analysis.

4.3.1 Gender

Data source: Baidu Index

It can be seen from the above figure that the proportion of women is higher than that of men. It can be seen from this that in most families, mothers play more tutoring roles than fathers, and mothers pay more attention to their children's English learning than fathers.

4.3.2 Age

Data source: Baidu Index

In terms of age distribution, users of the three products are concentrated in the 20-39 age range, which means the majority of current parents are those born in the 1980s and 1990s.

Compared with those born in the 1960s and 1970s, they have a higher level of education and pay more attention to their children's education. However, these parents generally lack parenting experience, so they are willing to invest more in education.

4.3.3 Region

Data source: Baidu Index

Judging from the regional distribution in the past six months, the number of users in coastal first-tier and new first-tier cities accounts for a relatively high proportion. Their parents pay more attention to their children's education and pay attention to it earlier. It can also be seen that people in economically developed areas have a stronger ability to accept new and physical things.

In addition, due to the population base issue, there are also many users in some populous provinces and provinces with a large number of college entrance examination candidates, such as Guangdong and Shandong. Therefore, in the early stage of launching new services or activities, users in these areas can be given priority for testing and analysis, and then fully launched after continuous iteration and optimization.

4.3.4 User needs (pain points)

Parents:

• I have little time to accompany my children and my tutoring is not professional.
• Offline institutions are expensive and it is troublesome to pick them up and drop them off.
• High-quality teachers are hard to find and expensive

For children:

• Offline institutions have long classes and high pressure
• Prefer a learning method that is interesting and interactive
• The learning process can continuously gain a sense of accomplishment

4.4 Business Model

The business models of the three are basically the same. They take community operation as their core business, convert users into private domain traffic, and improve user retention and activity through teaching assistants' question-and-answer guidance, interaction, and welfare, ultimately achieving conversion between full-priced courses and renewal registrations.

4.5 Curriculum System

4.5.1 Zebra AI

Zebra AI has three courses: English, thinking, and Chinese. The thinking course mainly focuses on learning some mathematical knowledge that can be applied to life. It consists of video interaction + in-class tests + life applications + voice Q&A + learning reports + AI interactive calls. By making mathematical problems more concrete, the output expression of knowledge points is more transparent. In terms of interactivity, the thinking course is also the best of the three courses.

The Chinese language class mainly improves children's abilities in literacy, pinyin, reading, literary knowledge and writing through fairy tales, biographies, poems and other content. The course consists of Chinese character stories + learning Chinese characters + reading ancient poems + in-class tests + learning reports + AI interactive calls.

Zebra AI English courses use self-developed teaching materials, which are written according to foreign teaching materials and examination standards, ensuring the authority and effectiveness of the teaching materials. The BANMAS teaching method is adopted in teaching to comprehensively strengthen children's English ability.

The courses are mainly divided into three levels, S1-S5. The higher the level, the more difficult the course will be and the focus will be different.

Zebra AI English courses use self-developed teaching materials, which are written according to foreign teaching materials and examination standards, ensuring the authority and effectiveness of the teaching materials. The course is divided into five levels, S1-S5. The higher the level, the more difficult the course will be and the focus will be different.

• S1 (2-4 years old): suitable for children with no basic knowledge of English. It helps children develop their familiarity with English through nursery rhymes and picture books.
• S2 (4-6 years old): suitable for children who have no systematic learning experience, focusing on improving children's cognition of letters and words, and cultivating listening, speaking and reading habits;
• S3 (after 6 years old): suitable for children with a certain foundation, strengthening vocabulary, sentences, and oral language, and comprehensively improving listening, speaking, reading, spelling, etc.
• S4-S5 (after completing S3): Suitable for children with a good foundation. Children must complete S3 before they can register. The goal is to improve oral skills and reading comprehension skills in various scenarios.

Each course consists of a foreign teacher video + word recognition + picture book story + oral practice + word spelling + Zebra call (foreign teacher recorded interaction), with a total duration of 15 minutes. The course content is family + campus life scenes. Classes are held five days a week, with AI interactive classes from Monday to Wednesday, review classes on Thursday, and TV live classes (review) on Friday.

Zebra AI's content setting and rhythm control are excellent, and the courses are highly systematic. Its characteristic is that the content has been de-gamified, which prevents children from becoming obsessed with games. The learning atmosphere is more intense and it is easy to develop correct learning habits.

4.5.2 Jiliguala

Jiliwulala has extremely diverse product content design. For children aged 0-8, it divides courses into three types, namely early education classes, budding classes and Guagua English classes.

Early childhood education class (pregnant women, parents of children aged 0-1): Through nursery rhymes and videos, parents are taught how to raise children in English, such as how to comfort, how to interact, etc. This course is also free.

Bud class (children aged 1-2 years and parents): Each day's course consists of a parent class and four animation videos. It mainly teaches parents to sing, and then parents lead their children to move along with the songs.

GuaGua English classes are for L0-L6 (children over 2 years old). Each class consists of an animation class + listening practice + in-class test. Interactive elements are beginning to be added to the course, which also increases the output of knowledge. The course is also sold in bundles with morning nursery rhymes. Classes are held five days a week, with AI interactive classes from Monday to Wednesday, test practice classes on Thursday, and review classes on Friday. Each class lasts about 10 minutes.

Overall, Jiliwulala’s courses are clearly graded and the output of knowledge points is targeted. Incorporating parent elements into the early courses can bring a more English learning atmosphere to the family and also provide correct guidance to the children.

In the later courses, children mainly learn vocabulary through games, which makes them more interested in learning.

4.5.3 GuaGuaLong

Although GuaGuaLong has only been launched for a short time, the overall course content is still relatively complete. GuaGuaLong courses are divided into three levels, K0-K2, which are the enlightenment stage, basic stage and upgrade stage respectively.

• K0 (2-4 years old): Suitable for children with no basic knowledge, focusing on building English language sense and familiarity, mastering the 26 letters and simple vocabulary.
• K1 (4-6 years old): Improve interest in learning English, cultivate the habit of speaking and reading pictures and texts, and begin to practice the ability to listen, speak, read and write simple vocabulary.
• K2 (6-8 years old): Add more vocabulary related to social and natural scenarios to improve comprehensive English proficiency and enable children to integrate English into their lives.

The course composition of GuaGuaLong is basically similar to that of Zebra AI, and the duration is also about 15 minutes. The difference lies in the final Game module and the Zebra Call module of Zebra AI. Game is some simple card flipping games, which are mainly used to test and consolidate the knowledge learned. There are classes six days a week, with main courses from Monday to Wednesday, review courses on Thursday, extension courses on Friday, and fun competitions on Saturday.

Similarities:

• AI empowerment: Using AI to reduce the labor costs of teachers and make courses standardized and replicable on a large scale;
• Graded courses: Children of different ages and foundations are divided into different learning levels to improve the matching degree between the course and the children;
• Learning closed loop: fragmented learning and review before, during and after class;
• Service matrix: Focus on service, with standard WeChat group learning SOP process, which helps to improve user favorability, user participation and repurchase rate;
• IP-based: The learning content is mainly based on the student’s own animated image.

Differences:

• Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong focus on systematic learning and have a low degree of gamification, while Jiliwawa courses are highly gamified, and the course content is more interesting and interactive;
• Zebra AI English courses can be combined with thinking and language learning, which is more effective for children's comprehensive improvement;
• Jiliwulala’s course grading is more granular, covers a wider range, and incorporates parent elements into the course.

4.5.4 Summary

Currently, the courses of the three are still in the weak AI stage. In terms of human-computer interaction, interactive functions such as voice question and answer and answer selection have been added to some course nodes, but real scenarios have not been integrated into the courses.

Therefore, in addition to basic courses, better services and functions are needed to enhance the user experience.

4.6 Product Functional Architecture

4.6.1 Zebra AI

The first-level tags of Zebra AI are composed of four parts: [Courses], [My Courses], [Expansion], and [My].

• The [Courses] tab is the user’s first landing page, where they can intuitively view courses and recent activities. Users can learn about the courses through [How to take the course] and [Purchase consultation], and customer service is also available to provide online answers;
• [Expansion] Zebra AI reviews and extends the classroom content through graded reading, natural spelling and holiday picture books, and expands children's cognition and improves their love for English through the two columns of "Zebra Sees the World" and "Zebra 3D Children's Songs". In addition, Zebra AI also has two practical application functions, oral arithmetic and reciting ancient poems, which can allow children to conduct targeted training after class to improve their arithmetic sensitivity and poetry memory ability. However, these two functions are relatively simple and less interesting overall, so you can try other diversified expansion functions.
• [My Courses] is the currently purchased course, where you can take the course and then check the learning status of the course you have learned and the schedule for the next class;
• The functions in [My] are mainly to assist and motivate users to learn, such as [Zebra Mall] and [Recommendation Gifts]. The other functions are not particularly outstanding in design and are used relatively infrequently. Overall, the content under this tag is somewhat redundant. It can be categorized and integrated to highlight high-frequency, high-value functions and hide less frequently used functions.

4.6.2 Jiliguala

Jiliwulala adopts horizontal screen operation mode, which mainly consists of five parts: [Homepage], [Extracurricular Extension], [Course Introduction], [Parent Center] and [Check-in Rewards].

• The [Home] tab is different from that of Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong. It displays the current course and is the page for taking classes. It is also the homepage linking all other pages.
• There are a total of 11 functions and courses in [Extracurricular Extension], two of which require payment. One is the animation [album series course], which combines Disney characters in the content, such as the Disney Princess series, the Disney Brave series, etc.; the other is a fun extension course, the content revolves around fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, etc. Both are conducted through storybooks and real-person interactions, and are excellent in terms of interactivity and fun. In addition, the two functions of [Daily Spoken Language] and [Spoken Language Practice Room] are also differentiated functions of Jiliwulala. Children can express their own short sentences through daily spoken language, and at the same time they can view the voices of other children for interaction; in the spoken language practice room, they can interact with AI characters through question and answer. Overall, the content of this function is relatively small, and content repetition appears after a few rounds of interaction. The rest are some relatively common functions, such as morning nursery rhymes, words, animations, etc.;
• The [Course Introduction] introduces the content of each lesson at each level, such as the core vocabulary and vocabulary types of each lesson;
• To enter the Parent Center, you need to pass a rotating verification code. After entering, you will see some common functions. It integrates functional modules with the same attributes, which is simple and intuitive overall.
• [Check-in Rewards] is a sign-in system. Users can get teaching aids rewards if they can check in and study within the specified time.

4.6.3 GuaGuaLong

The overall product architecture of GuaGuaLong is similar to that of Zebra AI, with the first-level labels consisting of four parts: [Home], [Courses], [Expansion], and [My].

• [Homepage] is used for users to purchase courses and related consultations. The banner displays the latest activities and reminds users to contact the class teacher on WeChat.
• The [Course] section is used for taking classes and checking learning progress. The difference is that it adds a [Voice Wall] function in each class, which allows users to view and listen to other children's voices in the course. This is equivalent to adding a certain social attribute, which can motivate children with poor oral skills to learn;
• [Expansion] Some of the content is relatively simple, with only picture book stories and children's song FM. Picture book stories are classified according to age, and children's song FM has themes such as Halloween and daily greetings. Generally speaking, they are not very attractive to children. Some animation videos for learning can be added appropriately.
• There are several well-designed features under the [My] tab, such as the [My Badge] feature, where users can get badges after completing their learning goals; [Voice Comment Record], where users can view the teaching assistant's comments on the child's oral ability; and [Course Weekly Report], where users can view the child's learning situation. The design of the weekly report is more detailed and personalized than that of Zebra AI. The remaining functions are mostly homogeneous, and the information architecture is also somewhat redundant.

4.6.4 Summary

From the perspective of information architecture, the settings of Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong are easier for users to view and use. The label settings of Jiliwulala are rather complicated and cumbersome for users to use, but its feature is that when users click on a label, there will be voice guidance and introduction to let users understand the function of the page.

From the perspective of product functions, except for the difference in extension courses, the other three functions are less differentiated. The difference lies in the different design styles and levels of sophistication of the same function. The designs of Zebra AI and Jiliwulala are relatively simple, while that of GuaGuaLong is richer in color and content.

5. Operational strategy analysis

No matter how good a product is, it will not last long without operations. No matter how good a user is, they will not be able to continue using the product without operations. Here we analyze the operation strategies of the three through a common user growth and user stratification model - the AARRR model.

The AARRR model corresponds to the complete life cycle of a user from coming to a product to becoming a loyal user of the product and self-propagation, that is, the five links of user acquisition (Activation), user activation (Activation), user retention (Retention), user conversion (Revenue) and self-propagation (Refral).

5.1 User Acquisition (Activation)

User acquisition is the first stage in achieving growth, and here we use Eric Ries’ three growth engines to analyze it.

5.1.1 Paid Growth Engine

The paid growth engine refers to reinvesting the revenue obtained from users into acquiring new users, that is, acquiring users through external channels through payment methods. The core is ROI>CAC.

Information flow accounts for the largest proportion of all delivery channels. Taking Douyin as an example, the online education advertising expenses consumed during this year's epidemic alone reached more than 50 billion. Since there is no internal data of the three, we will not elaborate here.

Taking the Baidu Index in the past year as an example, in SEM, Zebra AI has been rising rapidly since it officially integrated its business line in February. It took only two months to reach the same level as Jiliwulala. Subsequently, there have been several higher peaks. Jiliwulala's search index has also decreased due to the popularity of Zebra AI, while GuaGuaLong has been growing at a relatively stable rate.

Judging from the number of keywords in the past six months, Zebra AI is also in a leading position.

Data source: Baidu Index

As one of the most stable and cost-effective channels for acquiring customers, Zebra AI has basically maintained the No. 1 position in the children's list for half a year, and even surpassed its own Xiaoyuan Search and Yuanfudao on the education list and ranked No. 10; Jiliwulala is relatively behind Zebra AI in ranking, but it still ranks No. 5 on the children's list and is highly competitive with Zebra AI, and is also in an upper-middle position on the education list.

GuaGuaLong fell behind in this regard. It was not on the children's list and was only ranked 43rd on the education list. Judging from the keywords in App Store, Jiliwulala has the widest coverage, but is slightly lower than Zebra AI in some core words, and GuaGuaLong still has a large gap.

Data source: Qimai Data

In terms of KOL, both Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong invited Luo Yonghao, the top anchor of Douyin, to promote their products. Zebra AI's total sales volume was 10,800, with sales of 526,800 yuan; GuaGuaLong's 5,000 courses were sold out within 10 seconds, with sales of 95,000 yuan. GuaGuaLong's initial seed users were also converted from this live broadcast.

Overall, taking advantage of the short, frequent and fast sales by well-known anchors can gain huge traffic exposure and conversions, but at the same time it also requires paying huge "slot fees".

In addition, Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong have also done a lot of advertising and marketing in subway stations, choosing subway transfer stations that are close to the city center office area and have large traffic flow, which can attract many white-collar office workers born in the 1980s and 1990s. Their characteristics are that they spend less time with their children, have high average wages, and are highly receptive to online education. They are standard target users.

Both companies also use program sponsorship to increase brand exposure and visibility, and to generate long-term traffic to the platform.

5.1.2 Sticky Growth Engine

The sticky growth engine mainly acquires customers through the operation of its own channels, and achieves growth and conversion of existing users with high-quality content and benefits.

5.1.2.1 Internal diversion

The best way to acquire customers through your own channels is internal traffic diversion, which can not only greatly reduce the cost of acquiring customers, but also accurately acquire more mid- and high-value users.

Relying on the brand endorsement of Yuanfudao, Zebra AI can receive support from business lines such as Xiaoyuan Search Question, Yuanfudao, and Xiaoyuan Kousuan at the same time. In particular, tool-type products with high activity such as Xiaoyuan Search Question will also have a large amount of traffic, making it a high-quality channel for early cold start and later growth.

GuaGuaLong mainly relies on the two business lines of "GuaGuaLong Thinking" and "GuaGuaLong Chinese" to divert traffic. However, as the core product of ByteDance's Education, GuaGuaLong can theoretically also divert traffic through business lines such as gogokid and Tsinghua and Peking University Online School, but its user matching degree will be lower.

Jiliwulala has a relatively single business line and lacks backing, so there is basically no way to divert traffic.

5.1.2.2 Official Account

WeChat official accounts are a major battlefield for online education. Both Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong have set up a large number of matrix accounts here. Zebra AI has 39 official accounts, GuaGuaLong has 29 (including thinking and Chinese language lines), and Jiliwwala has only 6.

Judging from the name and content, Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong are basically building an early childhood education ecosystem, outputting high-quality content and welfare activities to private domain traffic users through the public account matrix, thereby achieving the effect of sticky customer acquisition.

Of course, there are also many accounts that have stopped updating, and it is not ruled out that they are maintained by someone else.

5.1.2.3 New Media

In terms of new media, the three have a wide range of coverage and have been deployed in multiple fields and platforms.

Take Douyin as an example: Zebra AI mainly has two accounts, "Zebra AI" and "Zebra Thinking", with 109.2W and 864W fans respectively, which is much higher than Jiliwulala and GuaGuaLong.

From the perspective of account functions, Zebra AI has opened a Douyin store, where users can directly realize purchase conversions on Douyin, while Jiliwulala and GuaGuaLong still need to download the app to make purchases.

Judging from the short video content, Zebra AI has the richest form among the three, with content such as foreign teacher English expansion, Chinese teacher ancient poetry and children's song animations, and a course purchase link is also added below the video; Jiliwulala's content focuses more on children's teaching, teaching through animated nursery rhymes and other methods; GuaGuaLong's short videos are situational dramas combining Chinese and foreign teachers. The overall copywriting, music, and editing are excellent, but the content is not suitable for children and is more targeted at parents.

5.1.2.4 E-commerce

In terms of e-commerce, all three have opened flagship stores on platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, mainly selling courses and peripheral products.

On the one hand, opening e-commerce channels can gain greater exposure and increase user access channels; on the other hand, it can also enable close participation in various promotional activities of the platform and increase GMV, such as the June 18th and Double Eleven events.

Taking this year's Tmall Double Eleven as an example, according to the information released by Taobao Education, Zebra AI's transaction volume exceeded 10 million on the first day of the Double Eleven event this year, ranking first in the primary and secondary school training list and fourth in the overall education list, surpassing Zuoyebang and its own Yuanfudao.

Although Jiliwulala and GuaGuaLong lag behind Zebra AI in ranking, it is still very impressive that they can stand out among many enlightenment education apps.

5.1.3 Fission Growth Engine

The fission growth engine is a growth model that drives users to spread the product through word of mouth and rewards. Depending on the reward form and operation process, it can be divided into group buying fission, distribution fission, referral fission, assistance fission, community fission and other gameplays.

Although there are many ways to play, the core is to develop and optimize around the following fission model:

Core elements:

• Custs (0): The number of seed users. Seed users can be selected through activity thresholds and targeted delivery. The more seed users there are, the fewer levels are needed to spread the same information to the same people, and the more stable the customer acquisition quality is;
• K fission coefficient: the average number of new users brought by each person (quantity), which is affected by many factors such as products, copywriting, rewards, etc., and is the most critical factor in fission. If the K value is greater than 1, it indicates positive exponential propagation, and if it is less than 1, it indicates user churn.
• ct fission cycle: the average time (speed) it takes for each person to bring in new users. According to statistics, activities with ct>6 hours are basically ineffective, and an increase in ct will also lead to a decrease in K value.

Due to space and structure issues, we will only briefly introduce fission growth here, and the specific fission methods of the three will be discussed in detail in the self-propagation section.

Summary: Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong both rely heavily on investment to acquire customers, mainly targeting users of public domain traffic. At the same time, they have established a large number of customer acquisition channels in the entire Internet ecosystem. Jiliwulala spends very little on investment, and focuses more on exploring private domain traffic.

5.2 User Activation

We usually use whether the core value of the product is experienced as the key indicator of user activation. For enlightenment education apps, taking classes is the process of experiencing the core value. Here, from the perspective of users who purchase courses within the app, the activation paths of the three are analyzed.

5.2.1 Zebra AI

After opening Zebra AI, the first thing you enter is the login and registration process. The one-click login method is the login method with the best user experience.

After registration, you need to fill in your child’s personal information, including avatar, gender, nickname and birthday. The avatar is also set as a required option. This step is relatively cumbersome for new users and will increase the user churn rate at this point to a certain extent. It is recommended to change the required field of avatar to optional field, and then guide users to complete it through subsequent task rewards.

After filling in the information, you will be directly redirected to the group buying activity page. By inviting 4 friends to participate in the group buying, you can get Chinese poetry card rewards. Zebra AI uses group buying activities as the landing page of its APP, bundling users and the platform in the form of benefits, which improves users' initial stickiness and favorability, while also gaining new traffic through group buying.

After the activity, you will return to the Zebra AI homepage, where [How to take classes] and [Course Purchase Consultation] are set up to help users understand course content, class mode and other information. It also provides online customer service to answer parents' questions.

From the homepage to the specific course, Zebra AI has set up a verification code, and you need to enter the corresponding numbers based on the capital Chinese numbers.

This verification is mainly used to identify whether the user is a parent or a child, which can prevent children from making independent purchases, but the security of the verification code is often inversely proportional to the user experience.

The verification code here is strong enough to identify users and reduces the possibility of children purchasing by mistake, but it is very disturbing to real users.

Here we suggest that Zebra AI optimize the pop-up rules of the verification code or modify the verification form to a state that is more balanced between security and user experience. If necessary, you can also choose to delete the verification code and confirm the course indirectly via SMS or phone call.

Entering the course interface, users can see the daily course content and class schedule, and the introduction is relatively detailed. Since the course itself is free, the user's decision-making cost is extremely low, so users will generally choose to purchase it, and the target users who are lost at this point must be a small number.

What follows is the normal process of transitioning from the public domain to the private domain. After adding the teaching assistant’s WeChat and completing personal information, you can enter the community. After a period of inactivity, the community will organize an opening ceremony and then formally begin classes.

5.2.2 Jiliguala

After logging into Jiliwulala, you need to fill in two pieces of information first, namely the child’s date of birth and English proficiency.

After making your selection, you can log in with one click, and then a simple learning report will be output, recommending the appropriate course level to the user, and then a voice will guide the user to start the free course trial directly.

Overall, the activation path of Jiliwulala is very smooth and brief. A few simple steps tell users what you need and what I can give you, allowing users to experience the core courses in the fastest way, and the user experience is excellent.

This activation method avoids the problem of a long waiting period for the start of a course after purchasing it. The disadvantage is that due to the lack of teaching assistants and community services, it is difficult to achieve a closed loop in the user's usage process, and the possibility of loss in the later stage will also increase.

GuaGuaLong user path:

GuaGuaLong is fundamentally different from Zebra AI and Jiliwulala in terms of key activation points. The prerequisite for activating GuaGuaLong users is to first purchase a 19-yuan trial class. In comparison, the activation cost of GuaGuaLong users is higher, so there are more points to consider in the path.

The use of GuaGuaLong is somewhat similar to the visitor mode. After entering the APP, the user does not log in first, but goes directly to the homepage. At this time, the user can get a basic understanding of GuaGuaLong by browsing the [Course Introduction] and [How to Take Classes].

Entering the course interface, since the course itself is not free, users will pay more attention to the introduction of this interface. The actual setting of the GuaGuaLong course interface is better than that of Zebra AI. In addition to the graphic and text introduction, the interface also includes a video introduction, allowing users to understand the course information more intuitively.

In addition, a manual telephone service has been added to the left side of [Buy Now]. The working hours are 9:00-22:00, which basically meets the user's real-time question and answer needs.

After clicking to purchase, the user needs to log in, register and fill in personal information. The login is one-click login, and the only information to be filled in is nickname and birthday, which provides a good user experience.

However, from a business perspective, the more user information collected, the more beneficial it will be for subsequent marketing conversions and services. Therefore, after the user adds the teaching assistant on WeChat, the teaching assistant will confirm the user information, thus avoiding the problem of insufficient information.

Summary: Zebra AI focuses more on attracting users to activate by offering free classes and group purchase rewards, which can increase new users' favorability and stickiness to the platform. However, due to too many forced interference factors, the possibility of loss will also increase.

Jiliwulala’s activation is the fastest and most convenient, the guidance throughout the process is very thorough, and the user experience is good. GuaGuaLong’s user path has a high degree of freedom and the user experience is also good, but because it combines activation and conversion together, it still needs more convincing reasons for users to choose to buy.

5.3 User Retention

Retention and activation are actually two complementary links. A good activation method can promote users' short-term retention indicators such as next-day retention and 7-day retention. However, it is impossible to maintain long-term user retention indicators, so a series of high-quality services and functions are needed to improve user stickiness and achieve the ideal DAU.

5.3.1 Community Operation

The service is a refined community service. Through the full-link tracking learning of teaching assistants before, during and after class, guidance, supervision, knowledge sharing, welfare distribution and other services are provided throughout the user's life cycle. The role of teaching assistants is used to connect users with products, helping users to understand and use the core value of the product to the greatest extent, thereby improving the long-term retention rate of new and old users.

After purchasing a course, users will generally enter the community through teaching assistants. Generally, there will be a window period of several days or weeks after entering the community. During this stage, it is inevitable that some users will be lost.

Therefore, the three teaching assistants will maintain private message interaction with parents, guide them to modify notes, understand group rules, download APP and notify the opening ceremony time in the community. This link is basically the same for the three.

Taking the opening ceremony as an example, Zebra AI mainly includes the teaching assistant’s self-introduction (recording) + the children’s self-introduction + course introduction + welfare activities + course preview. The teaching assistant will respond to and encourage every child who introduces himself.

GuaGuaLong consists of the teaching assistant's self-introduction (video) + GuaGuaLong introduction (video) + Q&A + study arrangements + welfare activities + children's self-introduction. Compared with Zebra AI, GuaGuaLong has optimized the teaching assistant's self-introduction into a video version, and added an introduction video to GuaGuaLong. The content setting is richer, and the frequency of interaction between teaching assistants, parents and children is also very high during the process.

Jiliwulala is relatively rigid in this regard. It lacks the process of the teaching assistant introducing himself and commenting on the children, and spends a lot of space to introduce the product and the course itself.

Before the formal start of the class, the three are basically the same, all of which are supervised in the form of "class reminder + content preview"; during the class stage, some learning skills, experience sharing, knowledge cards and other content will be shared to create and maintain a good English learning atmosphere; after class, children will be helped to correct pronunciation, comment on their learning situation, review the day's learning content, and preview tomorrow's courses. In addition, Q&A sessions, sharing sessions, live broadcasts and other interactions will be held from time to time.

5.3.2 Product Features

5.3.2.1 Mall

The functions offered by Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong are also the most popular functions among users. You can get virtual currency rewards by completing course learning, checking in and sharing tasks, which can then be used to redeem physical goods or offset purchases.

The mall not only increases the platform's monetization channels, but more importantly, it can improve user stickiness, guide users to continue learning through rewards, and then gradually cultivate users' learning habits.

In terms of the types of rewards, both are based on high-frequency daily necessities such as calendars, thermal insulation and learning aids. They strengthen users' brand awareness by implanting animation IP into products, and use offline physical objects to influence online retention.

In terms of reward redemption methods, Zebra AI’s gold coins can be used for full redemption and deduction of purchases, while GuaGuaLong only allows redemption and does not support deductions. The deduction method can greatly improve users' expectations for some large-value goods and reduce users' decision-making and action costs for completing tasks. However, its disadvantage is that it will reduce the value of gold coins and lead to direct purchases without completing tasks.

Therefore, Zebra AI and Jiliwulala can set a certain amount of discount for some large-value goods, thereby maximizing the LTV in the mall scenario.

5.3.2.2 Medals

GuaGuaLong’s unique function is equivalent to achievement rewards. Users can obtain medals with titles after completing a certain amount of learning accumulation, such as speaking 480 times in total and learning 50 words in total. Children often desire a sense of accomplishment and honor. By setting specific goals for children, they can become self-motivated and learn spontaneously.

5.3.2.3 Check-in to receive gifts

Jiliwulala has a unique check-in system. You can successfully check in by completing one course every day. You can get free physical rewards by completing the check-in within the specified time.

Jiliwulala’s setting here is different from the other two. In the past, teaching aids would be given directly to users after purchasing a trial class, but Jiliwulala sets the teaching aids as rewards for completing the check-in, motivating users to learn through product functions, thereby indirectly reducing the cost of the service.

5.3.3 Recall

Recall is a method to improve retention by retaining users and reducing user churn. There are two main forms of recall: one is SMS, push, and public account notifications based on rule strategies, such as welfare recall, event recall, class/absence reminders, etc.; the other is recall based on teaching assistant service calls and WeChat private chats.

Take the recall of teaching assistants as an example: after the author deliberately missed a trial class, Zebra AI and Jiliwulala only made an inquiry through private WeChat chat, while GuaGuaLong first asked through WeChat and then provided guidance and supervision through telephone communication. Overall, the recall effect of GuaGuaLong's teaching assistants would be better, but the cost would also be greater.

Summary: The retention process of the three is mainly achieved through the "service-oriented + reward-driven" approach. From the service level, the community sop of Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong is finer in granularity and more personalized, while Jiliwulala is too mechanical and standardized.

From the perspective of product functions, Zebra AI has fewer functions for retention, and the entire process relies more on community services. Jiliwulala and GuaGuaLong have improved their functional retention systems through check-in and medal functions, guiding users to self-motivate and thus improve retention.

5.4 User Conversion (Revenue)

User conversion is the link where users truly produce value for the platform. For enlightenment education products, the core is to realize commercialization through selling courses. The three main conversion products are as follows:

5.4.1 Zebra AI

• 0-yuan trial class, with a trial period of 5 days, used to activate and recall users;
• The trial course costs RMB 48, and the trial period is one month. It is a core course. Through the course combination, we also offer trial courses at RMB 78 and RMB 89.
• The full-price course is 2,800 yuan, with a cycle of 1 year, and is the core source of income.

5.4.2 Jiliguala

• 9.9 yuan for a trial class, 5 days of trial period, core delivery courses;
• Guagua English course L0-L6, buy one level separately for 368 yuan, the core source of income;
• The fee for special extension courses ranges from 100 to 400 yuan and is a secondary source of income, used for activation and retention.

5.4.3 GuaGuaLong

• 19 yuan trial class, trial period 2 weeks, used for user activation and conversion, core delivery courses;
• The full-price course is 2,680 yuan, with a cycle of 1 year, and is the core source of income.

The conversion process covers the entire user life cycle. In the early stage of attracting new users and activation, the focus is mainly on converting experience courses, while in the retention stage, the focus is mainly on converting full-priced courses and repeat purchases.

Trial classes are mainly used as a transition to full-priced classes. Good trial classes can improve users' expectations for full-priced classes and reduce users' decision-making costs for purchasing full-priced classes. They are a necessary basis for conversion to full-priced classes.

From a macro perspective, the three are mainly the following three transformation links:

1) New users switch to trial classes

The trial class is the first conversion target of the three and is also the course with the most external delivery, so this link is generally in the stage of attracting new customers.

Through advertising, users’ understanding and awareness of brands and courses are enhanced, and preferential subsidies are used as bait to attract user conversions. Taking the Douyin information flow as an example, the conversion effect is mainly affected by the delivery cost, delivery strategy, advertising video and H5 advertising page.

In terms of advertising costs, although there is no specific internal data, judging from the financing situation and growth data of the three, Zebra AI should be the one with the highest expenditure and the most sufficient funds, followed by GuaGuaLong, which has strong support from ByteDance Education, and then Jiliwawa.

The delivery strategy directly affects the accuracy and conversion efficiency of advertising, and requires delivery personnel to have a high level of understanding and control over the industry, competitors, channels, user psychology and characteristics. I will not go into details here.

The purpose of the advertising video is to stimulate user interest, stimulate user pain points, and allow users to enter the course purchasing interface.

Zebra AI mainly introduces courses through conversations close to users' life scenarios, such as grocery shopping, express delivery, classrooms, and roadside stalls, and uses users' psychology of conformity and loss aversion to stimulate purchasing motivation. The videos of Jiliwulala and GuaGuaLong are relatively lacking in scenes and atmosphere, and they mostly use animations or teachers to provide a single-point introduction to the courses.

After swiping left on the short video, you will enter the H5 advertising page. In terms of page style, Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong have adopted the e-commerce shopping template, which provides a better shopping atmosphere and makes browsing smoother.

A [User Reviews] column is inserted on the page to convince new users and generate trust through the usage experience of old users. Compared with the course introduction itself, user reviews can arouse emotional resonance among users, thereby increasing the chance of placing an order. The static text and image format of Jiliwulala’s page lacks a lot of interaction and is mainly based on course introductions.

In terms of page themes, all three are mainly focused on introducing benefits. Zebra AI’s main promotion is “buy a class and get free classes and teaching aids”. Users pay 49 yuan to purchase a single class and 89 yuan to purchase two classes, as well as teaching aids for 10 Chinese classes and 3 types of courses. Jiliwulala’s main promotion is “cash back after completion of study”. Users can get a full cash back after completing a week’s course within the specified time. GuaGuaLong’s main promotion is “buy a class and get free teaching aids”. Users who buy English classes will get free teaching aids.

In terms of purchasing methods, both Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong adopted the group buying method. The page added scrolling group joining reminders, group joining countdowns, and words such as "XX people have participated in the group buying" to arouse the herd mentality through the herd effect, thereby stimulating users' purchasing behavior.

The immediate purchase method adopted by Jiliwulala is more difficult to arouse users' desire to buy than group buying.

The three courses are introduced as follows:

• Zebra AI: Course features - teaching methods - course benefits - brand endorsement - Q&A;
• Jiligua: Course benefits - teaching methods - course system - Q&A;
• GuaGuaLong: Course benefits - brand endorsement - teaching staff strength - teaching methods - course schedule - Q&A.

Judging from the proportion of the introduction, the core of the three is to introduce the course benefits and use the course benefits to drive users to place orders.

Among them, the introductions of Zebra AI and Jiliwulala are relatively broad, allowing users to understand the basic teaching mode and course content. The introduction of GuaGuaLong is more granular, and it is the only one that introduces the teaching staff and course arrangements.

2) Convert trial class to regular class

The conversion of full-price courses directly affects the core interests of the platform. Compared with trial courses, the conversion of full-price courses is more complicated and cannot be achieved simply through promotion and subsidies. Therefore, this article uses Dr. BJFogg's behavioral model B=MAT from Stanford University to analyze it.

This model points out that every time a user performs a behavior (Behavior), he or she must first have the motivation (Motivation) and the ability (Ability) to perform this behavior, and then use specific triggers (Trigger) to induce the user to perform the behavior.

Motivation (M): Motivation is the most direct reason for users to act when they expect some kind of reward. The so-called expectation mapped to this scenario is the expected value of the full-price class after the trial class, and how much improvement the full-price class can bring to the children. Therefore, a good trial class experience is the key to the establishment of motivation.

From the perspective of parents, a good trial class means caring and responsible service, effective courses and affordable prices. From the perspective of children, it means interesting courses and a relaxing process, which reflects the community supplementary learning services of teaching assistants, the scientific and systematic nature of the curriculum system, the strength of subsidies and discounts, and the interactive and interesting course content.

Ability (A): refers to the ability that users need to complete their desired actions, which is mainly affected by the price of the course in this scenario. The most expensive one is Zebra AI at 2,800 yuan/year, followed by GuaGuaLong at 2,680 yuan/year, and the last is Jiliwulala at 368 yuan/level/half year.

From the user's perspective, the lower the price, the lower the capability requirements and the lower the cost.

Among them, Jiliwulala has greatly reduced users' one-time expenditure through tiered purchasing, and can adapt to more users with limited capabilities; from the platform's perspective, users lack the ability to act, so more support should be provided to users, thus creating an extremely important promotion link in conversion.

The teaching assistants of all three will carry out promotional activities within the community, such as limited-amount promotions, limited-time promotions, etc., which can reduce the price of full-price courses by tens to hundreds of yuan, thereby indirectly improving users' behavioral capabilities.

Trigger (T): It induces users to take action. A good trigger can reduce the negative impact of motivation and ability, so it is also the most critical step in the model.

There are two main forms of triggers. One is external trigger, such as advertising trigger, friend sharing trigger, KOL recommendation trigger, etc.; the other is internal trigger, and the user’s core pain point is aroused again, such as offline classes are more expensive, pick-up and drop-off are inconvenient, etc.

In actual practice, the two triggers are often uncontrollable, so teaching assistants are needed to provide personalized guidance to users, guiding them to access more appropriate triggers rather than standard sops.

Because of this, the process requires the teaching assistants to have sufficient understanding and knowledge of users and marketing, which also leads to different conversion rates among different teaching assistants.

3) Repeat purchase

Repeat purchase means renewal. At this stage, users already have a deep experience and understanding of the product. It is difficult to increase the user repurchase rate through a single-point operation strategy. Therefore, it is also necessary to continuously improve and optimize the product value experienced by users during their life cycle to create a high degree of stickiness to the product.

The cycle of full-priced courses is relatively long, so the service requires long-term companionship and guidance from teaching assistants to establish a high degree of trust between teaching assistants and users, and use a marketing method that is mainly emotional and supplemented by rationality to guide users to complete repeat purchases.

In terms of content, we will improve the knowledge system of the course, enhance the continuity and extensibility between each lesson, meet users' long-term learning needs, and constantly create surprises for users.

When facing high-value users, the key to promotional activities lies in differentiation.

For example, Zebra AI and Jiliwulala have launched sharing-reward activities for users of full-priced courses, where users can get rewards by sharing posters. Compared with ordinary users, these high-value users need to obtain more permissions, more benefits and a more closed service system. This value-discriminatory treatment can provide users with a better experience.

5.4.4 Summary

Zebra AI and Jiliwulala use a graded conversion method, so the user conversion process spans a smaller span. Since GuaGuaLong only has trial classes and full-price classes, the conversion span is large and the user decision-making cost is high.

The core of conversion still lies in the service and marketing of the teaching assistants. From this perspective, the conversion pace of Zebra AI's teaching assistants is slow and the follow-up level is also insufficient. Jiliwulala’s conversion based on WeChat for Business is too mechanical and causes a lot of disturbance to users. GuaGuaLong is in a moderate state compared to the first two, and has the best grasp of single-point marketing.

5.5 Referral

Self-propagation refers to guiding users to spread the product through word-of-mouth and event-based dissemination. Word-of-mouth dissemination mapped to enlightenment education is mainly the process of "showing off your baby", while event-based dissemination is a fission activity centered on old customers bringing in new ones and new customers bringing in new ones.

Both methods run through the entire user life cycle of the product. Compared with advertising, this method can reduce customer acquisition costs and obtain more accurate users, thereby improving conversion efficiency.

5.5.1 Showing off your baby

There are two main ways to show off your children's learning experience: one is to have teaching assistants guide parents to share their children's learning process and achievements in social networks and friend circles through videos or pictures; the other is to output learning reports, weekly learning reports and other posters after the children have completed the course, and guide users to complete the sharing by rewarding mall coins for sharing.

Taking after-class sharing as an example, Zebra AI shares in the form of links. New users can directly receive free courses after clicking to browse, and the conversion process is convenient.

Jiliwulala and GuaGuaLong mainly share posters for friends to view, but if it involves conversion, you still need to scan the QR code to enter the link. In addition, GuaGuaLong’s video reading session can also be shared, allowing new users to see other children’s learning situation through videos, which is more intuitive overall.

5.5.2 Activity fission

Activity fission can derive dozens of gameplays based on different reward forms and activation methods. Currently, the most common ones in enlightenment education are group buying fission, distribution fission and referral fission.

1) Group buying fission

Group buying is a social communication based on acquaintances. Users can get rewards and discounts after inviting a certain number of friends to join the group. The following are the group buying activities launched by the three companies in different channels:

Zebra AI:

• APP: 49 yuan for a trial class (2-person group), ancient poetry cards (5-person group)
• Official account: Zebra theme class - 1 yuan gift package class, 0.1 yuan odd and even math class (group of 3 people), 0.1 yuan Chinese enlightenment small class (group of 5 people), 1 yuan animal vocabulary class (group of 3 people);
• Information flow advertising: 78 yuan for a two-subject experience class (group of 2), 89 yuan for a three-subject experience class (group of 2).

Jiliguala: None at the moment.

GuaGuaLong:

• Official account: GuaGuaLong English - 19 yuan experience class (4-person group); GuaGuaLong Light Class - 1 yuan a wonderful trip to the aquarium (4-person group)

• Information flow advertising: 19 yuan experience class (4 people group)

Judging from the number of activities, Zebra AI’s group buying methods are diverse and widely distributed, while GuaGuaLong’s are relatively simple; judging from the difficulty of participation, Zebra AI usually only needs to invite 2 to 3 people to participate in the group buying, while GuaGuaLong requires 4 people, which is more difficult to complete.

However, from the perspective of the group buying mechanism, after the user purchases, the system will automatically match the user with friends, and there are fewer cases where the group buying fails and refunds are required.

Judging from the rewards for group buying, Zebra AI offers more low-priced classes and physical rewards, and is more attractive to users. In comparison, Jiliwulala did not launch any group buying activities, but changed the group buying discounts to the issuance of coupons.

2) Distribution fission

The essence of distribution is to allow a third party or third platform with industry resources to sell their products through a multi-level agency model (up to three levels), and then provide commissions to the agents in the form of CPA and CPS.

Third Party:

• KOL: Key opinion leader, generally a high-traffic anchor on each platform, such as Luo Yonghao found by Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong.
• KOC: Key consumers, generally vertical field bloggers on platforms such as Tik Tok, Weibo, and Zhihu. They have relatively less traffic but are closer to users, and advertisements can be inserted in videos and articles to sell courses.
• Promotion Ambassador: Promotion Ambassadors are usually old users of the platform itself, who need to be parents who understand the product, have sales capabilities, and are willing to spread the word. Taking Zebra AI as an example, old users are first required to invite more than 5 users to purchase trial classes or full-priced classes. Then, the user’s intention will be confirmed by phone. Once approved, the user can become an officially certified promotion ambassador. The threshold for becoming a promotion ambassador of Jiliwulala is relatively high, but the process is relatively simple. First, users who have purchased Guagua English courses can participate, and then they can invite any friend to purchase English courses to activate it. GuaGuaLong currently does not have a promotion ambassador position.

Third-party platforms:

Professional distribution platforms: e-commerce platforms such as Custom Bear, Sunflower Mom, Mom’s Choice, Youzan, etc. As the second party, the distribution platform will promote and sell Party A’s products within its own traffic.

In addition, there are also professional distribution personnel on the platform. They will open stores on platforms such as Taobao and Xianyu to attract traffic, convert new users to WeChat communities through free benefits, and then sell courses.

Official Accounts: Online tutoring for primary and secondary schools, etc., mainly promotes and sells courses through soft articles on official accounts.

3) Referral fission

Referral fission is based on the user's personal network to acquire new users by old users bringing in new users or new users bringing in new users. It can be roughly divided into two forms of fission: invitation with rewards and sharing with rewards.

The difference between it and distribution is that referral fission is mainly aimed at one's own users. Users generally do not have professional sales capabilities, and rewards are generally virtual goods and physical objects rather than cash.

Users who participate in referral fission generally need to meet certain requirements, such as being new users, trial/full-price course users, etc. Seed users are screened by setting thresholds, and users are encouraged to become seed users through purchases and other behaviors.

The setting of thresholds can also more accurately acquire users of different values ​​and users who better match the business North Star indicators.

Zebra AI:

Gifts for recommendations: Users who have purchased a trial class can participate. By inviting friends (who have not purchased any courses) to purchase a trial class, they can get 1 diamond. The diamond can be exchanged for 50 yuan in cash (limited to 1 time), charity donations, teaching aids and other gifts. A ranking mechanism has also been added to the event, and the top 100 users with the most invitations will receive large cash and diamond rewards.

In addition, the event also launched a "Monthly Sharing" activity for users of full-price courses. Users can share posters to their Moments for 2 hours as needed. After completion, they can take a screenshot and upload it for review. If the review is passed, they can receive Zebra Coin rewards.

At the same time, if a friend purchases a course through the link on this poster, he or she will also receive rewards from the "Recommendation Gift" activity.

1 Yuan Gift Package: An invitation and gift-giving activity launched for private traffic within the official account. By inviting a certain number of friends to purchase a 1 Yuan course, you can get a stationery gift package and a painting set as physical rewards.

Sharing rewards based on official accounts: First, users are directed to [Children's Enlightenment Small Classroom] through official accounts such as [Zebra AI Class] and [Zebra Theme Class], and then sharing rewards activities are pushed to users in the official accounts.

Users need to share the poster with their friends. After a certain number of friends scan the QR code and follow the official account, the task is completed and they can receive free shipping on teaching aids.

Sharing rewards based on corporate WeChat: Through activities pushed in the official account, users are guided to add the Zebra AI corporate WeChat account, and then corporate WeChat will send posters and tasks to users. Users forward the text and posters to their friends circle and mothers’ group as needed, and then send the forwarded screenshot to the corporate WeChat account. After the review is passed, teaching aids rewards can be issued.

Zebra AI manages users in layers by setting up multiple participation thresholds, which helps it obtain higher-value users and better conversion results to a certain extent. At the same time, the ranking mechanism and value discrimination method can also promote the continuous retention of users and motivate them to continue to participate in activities.

Zebra AI also has the most abundant activities, using official accounts and corporate WeChat to dig deep into current users and maximize the value of users' social circles.

In terms of rewards, Zebra AI is also the most generous among the three. Taking "recommendation gifts" as an example, you can redeem 50 yuan in cash by inviting a friend to purchase a trial class, which is equivalent to taking a 48 yuan trial class for free with one invitation, and getting an additional 2 yuan in cash.

Jiliguala:

Invite to exchange for gifts: The entrance to this activity is only available in the Jiliwulala official account. The activity is similar to Zebra AI's "Recommendation Gifts". You can get diamonds by inviting friends and sharing posters. Diamonds can be used to exchange for 5 yuan in cash (one time only), Guagua Reading VIP, iQiyi VIP, teaching aids and other rewards.

The difference is that only users of full-price courses (Guagua English courses) can participate. The higher the unit price of the course purchased by the invited user, the greater the reward the inviter will receive. At the same time, after the invitation to purchase courses is successful, the inviter can be upgraded to a promotion ambassador and then receive higher commissions in the form of distribution.

The gameplay of Jiliwulala’s activities is relatively simple, and no relevant activities are launched for users who take trial classes.

The advantage is that the unit price of its courses is low, so it is less difficult for users to complete the invitation and it is easier to redeem rewards. By inviting friends to purchase a trial class, they can redeem prizes such as 5 yuan in cash, iQiyi VIP, etc.

GuaGuaLong:

Recommend and get gifts: users who have purchased a trial class can participate.

This activity uses a task reward system to achieve dissemination and fission among users. Users can obtain diamonds by completing tasks such as inviting friends to purchase, sharing posters for the first time, and inviting friends to register. Diamonds can be exchanged for products such as iPads, small blackboards, dolls and teaching aids.

In addition, this activity is jointly carried out by GuaGuaLong’s three business lines: English, Thinking and Chinese, so it is also a way for GuaGuaLong to conduct internal traffic diversion.

Through the task reward system, GuaGuaLong can refine the user's operation steps and maximize the communication value of individual users. At the same time, the task system can achieve fission goals at different stages by deploying tasks, which is more operational and has more gameplay.

In comparison, GuaGuaLong’s rewards are less attractive and more difficult to redeem. A successful invitation can only redeem dolls and highlighters. Taking the most difficult iPad as an example, GuaGuaLong needs to invite 100 friends to purchase it before it can be redeemed, Jiliwulala needs to invite 60 friends, and Zebra AI needs to invite 59 friends.

summary:

Zebra AI's self-propagation system is the most comprehensive, covering the entire user life cycle from group buying to referrals. It drives users to complete self-propagation through rewards and increases the platform's exposure and profitability through distribution.

In comparison, Jiliwulala’s self-propagation is mainly aimed at old users, and no related activities are launched for new users or trial class users. GuaGuaLong is involved in all aspects, but the system is not yet perfect. It needs continuous new content and new gameplay to guide users to spread the word.

Chapter Summary:

The core of Zebra AI and GuaGuaLong is to acquire customers through the "heavy investment + light fission" approach, use welfare subsidies to encourage users to activate conversions, and then improve user retention and repurchase through refined community services.

From the perspective of the entire process, Zebra AI is superior to GuaGuaLong in terms of user stratification management, welfare subsidies, and activity gameplay, and is in a stage of rapid business growth. GuaGuaLong is in the transition stage of cold start-up, and its products and strategies are mainly based on imitation, without many innovative ideas.

Jiliwulala prefers to impress users with content, and its operation strategies are all centered around content, allowing users to access courses as quickly as possible and complete activation and conversion at the lowest cost. The core is low-cost self-growth based on existing users.

6. Conclusion

6.1 SWOT Analysis

Through the comparative analysis above, we can make the following summary of Zebra AI with the help of SWOT analysis method:

6.2 Iteration Direction and Suggestions

Based on this analysis and comparison, we know that Zebra AI has great advantages in many scenarios. On this basis, the author makes the following suggestions for Zebra AI:

6.2.1 Optimize course content to improve interest, interactivity and extensibility

• The English class is less interactive and more interactive elements can be added;
• Enrich the content of the extension courses and enhance their interest. When appropriate, they can also be sold as paid courses to increase profit points.

6.2.2 Optimize product architecture and interaction process to improve user experience

• Adjust the position and style of core functions such as [Mall] and [Recommendation Gift] under the [My] tab to increase exposure so that users can see and use them more intuitively. Functions such as [Message Notification] and [Course Weekly Report] can be made into icons and placed in the upper left or upper right corner of the page for easier viewing by users.
• Modify or delete the verification code that pops up after clicking on a course to reduce the interruption to users during key stages;
• When new users click keys such as [Courses] and [Mall], voice interaction is added to provide guidance, allowing new users to quickly become familiar with the product.

6.2.3 Optimize product closed loop, design more features to promote retention, and leave a mark on users

• Design functions such as [Sign in] and [Achievement Rewards] to encourage users to learn online and complete their studies;
• In combination with the child's learning path, more detailed and exquisite learning reports are output to users through the child's or teaching assistant's voice, video, etc., leaving users with a deep memory of the product.

6.2.4 Optimize user activation path, experience first and then conversion

• After new users log in, they will be guided to take a brief course experience to reduce their decision-making costs before purchase.

6.2.5 Developing WeChat for Business to Strengthen Brand and Improve Community Operation Efficiency

• The disadvantage of WeChat for Business is that it is difficult to create a personal profile and it requires high operational standards from teaching assistants, but the advantage is that it can greatly improve the management and operational efficiency of users, so users can be guided to add personal WeChat and WeChat for Business, and establish contact with users in a two-way manner.

6.2.6 Develop personalized learning plans, clarify children’s learning goals, and improve conversion efficiency

• In the preschool stage, we added a child ability test function and proposed specific learning plans to help users choose courses and levels;
• In the post-learning conversion stage, more professional roles such as "curriculum planner" and "senior famous teacher" are added to assist teaching assistants in completing single-point or multi-point conversions.

6.2.7 Try to cooperate with educational MCN organizations to increase GMV through live streaming and other methods

• Each platform has many small and beautiful MCN organizations in the vertical field of education. They have a large amount of high-quality educational traffic and can cooperate with them to increase profit channels.

7. Outlook

Looking back at 2019 and 2020, a large number of AI enlightenment education products appeared on the market in two years. Many Internet giants and capital also participated in this track. The homogeneity and involution problems of educational products have become more serious.

Although AI is promoted as intelligent learning, in reality, most of the current AI education only solves the problem of adaptive learning, and the interaction of recorded teaching has not been able to integrate real-life scenarios into it.

Therefore, whoever masters mature AI technology first in the future will have the opportunity to become the absolute industry unicorn first.

Looking back at Zebra AI, it has now become an industry benchmark in the field of enlightenment education. However, since it is difficult to form barriers in services, products and content, it is also difficult to avoid the suppression of plagiarism and price wars by many competitors.

Therefore, we also hope that Zebra AI will maintain its small-step, slow-paced and iterative model while exploring more new technologies and models to become an irreplaceable role in the industry.

Author: Wangzai9873

Source: Wangzai9873