Online education: Which one has more opportunities, B2C or C2C?

Since 2014, Internet products in the field of online education have emerged in an endless stream and have been wildly sought after by capital. Recently, several large-scale online education investments have pushed this field to a new climax, such as the $100 million D round of financing for Yiqizuoye.com, the $60 million D round of financing for Yuantiku, and the $50 million A round of financing for GSX. In the "Internet+" of online education, products with content advantages and user scale advantages have already taken the lead. As for online education products that are more inclined to O2O types, which one has more opportunities, B2C or C2C?

In the service industry, especially in the education industry, C2C is the general trend.

C2C must be the general trend of the future. Although B2C obviously occupies more attention at present, C2C is about to see the dawn of victory.

From the perspective of industry logic, the essence of online education is that teachers guide students, which is a valuable exchange of information. The essence of service is that the C-end (teachers) provide services to the C-end (students). Therefore, the quality of product experience does not depend on whether the B-end (education institution) is big enough or focused enough, but on the ability and level of the teacher. Since the essence of service is C2C, Internet products should be C2C and win.

At the same time, C2C provides better efficiency and a longer tail to meet the needs of the demand side. As a traditional B-end, in the company's operating conditions, the bulk of the expenses are organizational costs and marketing costs such as venues, promotion, sales, etc. Service providers (teachers) generally only receive about 30% of the students' remuneration. C2C eliminates the middle link and optimizes resource allocation to give C-end (teachers) better returns; on the other hand, the B-end's coverage of business and region is limited, which is bound to cause uneven distribution of educational resources and overly uniform teaching content.

Why is B2C taking the lead today?

Since the future is C2C, why is B2C leading the way today?

The bottom line is the lack of a trust chain. In our research, we found that excellent Cs would break away from the B side (for example, excellent overseas study consultants would set up their own small studios), but they would lag behind large institutions in market competition. The reason is that users naturally do not trust the C side. When the cost of trial and error is very high (mainly time cost, for example, studying abroad only happens once a year, and there are not even two or three opportunities to try and fail in a lifetime), they trust institutions with strong brand endorsement capabilities. This makes it difficult to acquire users after excellent Cs come out.

However, the repurchase rate of excellent teachers in the C2C model is very high. Parents think that the teacher is good, so they will directly make an appointment with this teacher next time; after successfully applying to study abroad, students will recommend their younger classmates to find this study abroad consultant. They will not look for familiar institutions again because the users themselves know that the service provider is the teacher, not the institution; the results of the previous cooperation naturally eliminated the problem of the trust chain.

Product standardization? Online education products should be tailored to the needs of students

Most people who are pessimistic about C2C education believe that the difficulty lies in the unpredictability of standardized processes and services. In my opinion, the problem of unpredictable services can be solved, and standardized processes just don't need to be solved. Let's look at auntie help or special car software. They train service providers and let them provide standardized processes. The reason is that standardized processes can solve the problem of unpredictable services - the auntie wipes the floor twice, and the user's "clean floor" demand can be met. In the field of education, teachers are knowledge owners. When facing long-tail students (such as studying abroad, different students have different needs), they should teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and should not equate teachers with aunties and use processes to fit them.

Whether the service is predictable or not is not about the standardized process, but the management of the service providers (teachers) by the platform. How to introduce teachers, how to ensure the quality of teachers, from the time of introduction to the improvement of the review and rating mechanism; how to judge the professional ability and teaching ability of teachers, and provide sufficient information to support teachers, so that teachers' own knowledge and level can be continuously improved, these are what the platform should pay more attention to.

With the prevalence of sharing economy and decentralization, more and more C2C products are emerging under the leadership of Uber and Airbnb, and users are becoming more and more accepting of sharing economy and C2C services. The decline of many online education C2C products in the past does not mean that C2C will not work in the education field; when user psychology changes quietly, the dawn of victory for C2C is not far away.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.