In line with the changes in the education industry, education companies must also “educate themselves” to continuously expand and enhance the boundaries of their corporate capabilities.
Beijing Haidian, there is such a “small company” in education. In the difficult 2020, profits have achieved 80% growth, and its annual revenue has been Continue to maintain an average growth of 40%, which is rare in the “slow money” science and technology education industry.
As of the end of December 2020, this company has completed a new strategic layout and has received a PRE-D round of investment from New Oriental, Oriental Jiaying and other institutions.
The founder of the company, Liu Binli, believes that there is nothing worthy of publicity. “The ability to obtain financing is everyone’s affirmation of us, but the need for financing shows that we are still on the road to maturity-that means that we are not mature yet, right? “When he said this, Liu Binli had a slight smile on his face.
Liu Binli, founder of Yule World
This is the world of entertainment, a science and technology enterprise that was previously unknown outside the education circle.
Education needs to be humane
Elegance World was established in 2013, and it received strategic incubation investment from New Oriental Online at the beginning of its establishment.
At that time, under the background of the official promotion of quality education, “Makers” became popular in the Chinese education circle: based on their own creativity, they realized their creativity into specific objects through software and hardware, such as using 3D modeling and then using a 3D printer. What you think is what you get; use programming + laser engraving and micro machine tool production to create various electronic objects. It integrates maker culture and quality education, advocates creation, encourages sharing, and cultivates interdisciplinary problem-solving capabilities, teamwork capabilities and innovation capabilities.
At that time, Liu Binli had been in the field of education for more than ten years, and was responsible for the entire digital business from primary and secondary schools to university related education at New Oriental Online, including K12 and college digital learning, library digital reading and other businesses.
After noticing the rise of “maker culture”, Liu Binli believes that this is a very “human nature” learning method, and is very interested in it. Through research, it was discovered that there is a big vacancy in the maker education market. Although the requirements of public schools for quality education continue to increase, it involves the part of “maker education”, whether it is venues, teaching aids or tools, related courses or teachers. Did not follow up in time.
The first “work” after the establishment of Yule World Company is the youth maker education brand “Yule Bay”. Different from general products that focus on “selling lessons” and focus on content, Yule Bay provides a complete set of “hard-core” product matrix with a sense of technology: such as all-metal micro-machine tools, 3D printers, etc. Laser cutting machines, programming platforms, intelligent hardware, robots and other products, as well as the design of school science and innovation classrooms, classroom tools and assembly services. In addition, it has also developed a supporting video course of science and innovation, as well as teacher training.
“Students who want to complete science and innovation courses or experiments usually need some kits, consumables, and related parts. Then we package them into teaching aids corresponding to the course. These two types are the main parts of Yule Bay products. The third category of products is online video courses, which serve as cloud-based video resources and become supplementary materials for maker education and STEAM education, including the development of offline courses for science and technology and the corresponding digitalization.” Liu Binli told.
Today, Yule Bay has provided science and innovation education and product services in and out of the classroom to more than 7,600 public schools and more than 3 million primary and secondary school students across the country; the K12 science and innovation education section, which includes its offline store business, accounts for More than 50% of Yule World’s revenue.
“In the current field of STEAM education, we may have the largest number of courses, and the repurchase rate is very high.” Liu Binli told. At present, Yule Bay has thousands of science and technology education courses and hundreds of published textbooks; more than 3,000 schools have adopted the video course platform services, and more than half of them have also adopted its video courses simultaneously. These video courses alone can bring tens of millions of income to Yule Bay every year.
Although it started with “Maker Education”, every time a new educational concept emerged, such as STEM education, STEAM education, artificial intelligence education, etc., Yulewan was closely following the market trend.
Upgrading from K12 to vocational education
Later, Liu Binli gradually felt that under China’s college entrance examination system, K12 science and innovation education is facing a certain embarrassment: either it will move towards utilitarianism, for competition Exist with extra points; either must become a mainstream examination subject, otherwise it will be marginalized.
Although the Ministry of Education has issued several articles, emphasizing the importance of “multi-innovative education” such as maker education and STEAM education, the current hundreds of thousands of public primary and secondary schools in China can truly implement science and innovation courses systematically Only about 1/3 of those who got up.
“Most of these schools are located in economically developed coastal and provincial capital cities. The level of systematic opening of classes in fourth- and fifth-tier cities is very low. It may only be used as an experience once or twice per semester—what I call systematic opening of classes It means that you can have two or three classes a week, and you can continue each semester.” Liu Binli revealed.
Teachers are also a problem. In the school’s science and technology classrooms, the instructors are often part-time, such as traditional physics teachers, chemistry teachers, and even physical education teachers. As long as teachers have a certain amount of free time, they may be required to concurrently teach maker courses.
Under such a current situation, the cultivation of youth science and innovation literacy is impossible, and it will be more difficult to continue to cultivate science and innovation talents in the future.
“This actually goes against the original intention of ourselves and the company’s positioning. We want to cultivate science and technology talents, not only to cultivate interest and accomplishments, or to get some competition results. More still, we hope that after students enter the society, they can truly enter the science Talents who create fields and create real value. Then the question arises: If we are just an organization selling products or courses, what are the attributes of educating talents?” Liu Binli said.
Liu Binli, who has accumulated experience in higher education and vocational education, intuitively feels that Yule World should expand its service population based on its advantageous business, and develop in the two directions of higher education and vocational education closer to the cultivation of social talents .
After taking stock of its development over the past few years, Yule World has found that it has three major advantages that can support its expansion attempts in higher education and vocational education.
One has already ownedThere are artificial intelligence chip modules and artificial intelligence cloud computing platforms that are increasing research and development efforts. Previously, Yule World’s artificial intelligence chip modules, chips based on the underlying algorithm, the entire functional modules and sensors were all independently developed by the company; in addition, Yule World also obtained more than 60 robots and creators. Patented technology for similar products; and has two domestic research and development bases.
The second is the development of big data-related courses.
“I once listened to some courses at the Rodman School of Business at the University of Toronto, and I have always had my own ideas about the field of big data,” Liu Binli told, “and I happened to see some mature courses in Canada. Model, under various efforts, the Toronto University of Big Data Science in Canada is willing to assist us in doing this. So we have developed a lot of big data courses.”
The third is the cognition of the Industrial Internet. During his EMBA study at Tsinghua University, Binli Liu systematically studied the courses of Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet. He “has special attention” to the development of this field in the next few years. Even his EMBA teachers and classmates are experienced in this field. expert.
In 2019, Yule World officially launched an education brand for higher education institutions and vocational education: “Neuro Ape Academy”.
Together with the Neuroape College established by the Toronto University of Big Data and Science in Canada, it provides laboratory construction, cloud computing platform construction, operation and maintenance, and professional co-construction in the fields of industrial Internet, artificial intelligence, and data science for vocational colleges across the country , One-stop services such as training and education, industrial talent training, and employment.
So far, Yule World has completed the layout of the K16 science and technology education series.
Nurturing scientific and innovative talents and empowering industrial upgrading
During the 2020 epidemic, the world of entertainment has also experienced the “darkest moment”. “At the most serious time, I came to the office by myself every day and sat down. At that time, I wondered what to do, can I just wait forever?” Liu Binli said.
Faced with reality, Liu Binli decided to appropriately reduce the business, closed some offline stores, freed up energy to cultivate the internal strength of the enterprise, while laying out the next growth point in advance .
This new growth point is the “Science and Innovation Education Talent Cultivation Ecology” that has broken through single-point businesses and products and relies on the science and innovation education business and resources throughout K16.
Preparing for strategic investment, setting up multiple scientific and technological innovation platform entities, and establishing a university artificial intelligence big data platform system…By the end of 2020, Yule World has obtained several important professional certification qualifications: education Ministry of Industry 1+X Industrial Internet Orientation Vocational Certification Certificate; Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s assessment unit for artificial intelligence data annotators; Microsoft Global Artificial Intelligence 900 Exam Series, the only examination and training center in China.
Relying on these benchmarking professional certifications, Yule World initiated the establishment of an industry standard committee. Committee members include many research institutes of Tsinghua University and nearly 10 listed companies; in the second half of 2020, Yule World will become the UNESCO International Engineering Education Center, Tsinghua University, China University of Petroleum, Huawei, ZTE and other famous universities and The strategic cooperation unit of the enterprise even jointly established a research center.
“With the talent training system, many artificial intelligence and big data companies will directly give us pre-job training and employment needs. In addition, Yule World has also incubated an artificial intelligence big data industry platform ‘Keyenland’, and the main business of Keyenland is data processing business related to artificial intelligence and big data fields. Through Keyenland can solve many enterprise data processing-related needs. It is understood that this section has also served 100 nationwide. Many companies, including leading companies such as Ali and Tencent. Therefore, we have formed a virtuous circle by coordinating with universities and vocational schools on the one hand and the job requirements of enterprises on the other.” Liu Binli continued, “This actually fits the bill. My original intention for the company back then was that after training in school, (talents) must enter the society for employment. What is the real empowerment for China’s science and technology innovation? I think this is it.”
In addition to the aforementioned “Yule Bay,” “Neuro Ape Academy,” and “Science Paradise” mentioned earlier, the world of entertainment is now based on East China Normal University. Tech CreatorThe resource training brand “Teacher Returning” also solves the problems of shortage of scientific and technological innovation teachers and uneven quality.
Liu Binli’s “ambition” is not only here, but Yule World has recently paid attention to a new concept of the crowd: U9—that is, four years of undergraduate degree + three master degrees Years + two years after graduation.
The left hand is Tsinghua University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other college partners, which have built a number of science and technology training bases; the right hand is Huawei, ZTE, Pearson and other well-known company partners, forming a science and innovation talent training base and establishing a The transportation channel of science and innovation talents. A cultivating ecology of science and innovation talents driven by the entertainment world as a bridge is taking shape.
Zhang Xiao, Director of the Industrial Internet Research Center of Shanxi Clean Energy Research Institute, Tsinghua University, has deeply participated in the industrial Internet project cooperation process with Yule World.
“We chose to cooperate with Yule World. On the one hand, we were moved by the team’s hardworking spirit. On the other hand, it was also because Yule World was the one I had come into contact with. The most professional and serious one was doing interdisciplinary learning. And product service organizations. They are oriented to the cultivation of future talents in new technologies and new fields, and we are oriented to new technologies and industrial applications in new fields. It can be said that there is a natural basis for cooperation.” Zhang Xiao told.
Pearson, a world-renowned education group, is also one of the partners of Yule World. Pearson believes that one of the future development trends of the STEM education industry is the close integration of education and technology. “We have become a deep strategic partner with Yule World, which is based on the consensus and vision of both parties on this concept. Pearson is in education content With more than 170 years of profound accumulation in Shanghai, combined with Yule World’s leading advantages in educational technology strength, we have laid a solid foundation for our cooperation.”
In 2020, Yule World and Pearson jointly launched 8 new Pearson Artificial Intelligence STEM course themes. This course adopts the latest artificial intelligence main control board AIBIT developed by Yule World, which has rich functions such as AI object recognition, face detection, and gesture detection, and realizes the application of real artificial intelligence algorithms in daily teaching. Further enable students to gain a real sense of intelligent learning experience in the subject learning of STEM courses, and enhance their innovation ability and learning effectcan. The first three themes released have aroused great interest and attention in the industry.
Pearson told us that the next step will be to introduce high-quality resources from both parties, online and offline to work together to deliver the latest cooperation results to the classroom and into the classroom. At the same time, Pearson Plan and Yule World jointly plan to expand the Greater China and Southeast Asian markets, and lay out wider Asia-Pacific and North American markets, and work together to bring superior STEM education resources to more learners and help them in the future Success in the competition.
Self iteration in the world of entertainment
A science and technology education company must adhere to the laws of the education industry as well as the laws of the technology industry.
Looking at the subdivisions of science and innovation education, some companies have the highest single-year growth rate of 60~70%, but not many companies can achieve growth of more than 40% for many years. Liu Binli summed up a set of methodology for cross-industry enterprise development.
Liu Binli believes that, unlike simple educational institutions or Internet technology institutions, a science and technological innovation education institution must have a matrix structure, with the characteristics of the education industry and the technology industry at the same time.
The traditional education industry has three constant key points, namely teachers, courses, and teaching materials. The characteristics of the technology industry are small steps, fast iterations, upgrades in half a year, and major changes in three years.
“If the horizontal axis of the coordinate system is the law of the development of the technology industry, and the vertical axis is the law of the development of the education industry, then a healthy company must have more than one product curve in the upper right quadrant. Each curve has its life cycle. From growth to peaking to decline; what companies need to do is to find ways to extend the life cycle of existing products on the one hand, and to deploy new products in a timely manner, so as to be’loving the new and not tired of the old’. There must be more healthy companies The two product curves coexist at the same time, so that there is a rising curve in each time period, so as to offset the falling risks with each other, so that the company can continue to grow.”
Starting from the technology and products of maker education, Liu Binli calls this part T (technology). The corresponding business organization operation model is called O (operation). The ecology that has taken shape is called E (environment). These three aspects interact and influence each other. According to Liu Binli’s observation, T’s part actively adapts to market changes, and O must follow up at this time and cannot be delayed; and only when T and O are coordinated can E be born.
“From the earliest maker, to later STEM, STEAM, and even STREAM; from 2016 to 2018, interdisciplinary courses were being developed everywhere, and at the same time, we tried every means to improve teachers’ abilities and proceeded in a project-based way. Science and innovation education;” Liu Binli recalled. “Recently, from 2019 to this year, you will find that science and innovation education has a new pronoun in China: we almost regard artificial intelligence education as the core of science and innovation education, and enterprises must keep up in this process.”
And this kind of “loving the new and not getting tired of the old” approach, on the one hand, maintains the basic stability of the enterprise, on the other hand, it also increases the operation of the enterprise, and the requirements for people are relatively high.
“Enterprises must continue to adapt to new developments and continue to iterate on old things. Therefore, every year we will have some new technical teams and new education teams involved. It is inevitable that the company will have to change blood. “Liu Binli concluded. Yule World currently implements the “Last Elimination System”, and not only basic employees but also senior management are treated equally.
Huahe Capital led the investment in Yule World Series B in 2017, and continued to increase its holdings in Series C in 2018. The managing director of Huahe Capital, Lou Xia, said that after starting from the big cultural consumption track, Huahe Capital has made a comprehensive analysis of the field of science and technology innovation and education. The core reason for choosing Yule World as a key seed player is still optimistic about team ability.
“The team at Yule World has both software and hardware R&D capabilities. Not only did they develop a large number of teaching tools for science and innovation education by themselves, but more importantly, they have accumulated many years of teaching experience and have worked hard for many years. Educational content. At the same time, the comprehensive and innovative nature of science and innovation education places high demands on the team’s continuous teaching and research capabilities. Yule World is not so much an education company, but we now classify Yule World as technology. Innovative company, this is a very special team we saw on the science and technology education track.”
The entertainment world has always been well-reputed in the industry, and financing publicity has been relatively low-key these years. Liu Binli believes that achieving reasonable returns to investors is more important than pursuing high market value.
Liu Binli is equally pragmatic when it comes to the relationship between corporate development and the vision of leaders. “The person in charge of the businessEvery mistake will be reflected in the development of the enterprise exponentially. Therefore, entrepreneurs must constantly improve themselves and minimize errors. “
Liu Binli, who believes that “humanities are the cornerstone of talents, and that the humanities must be integrated with science”, chose the liberal arts for his undergraduate degree, and the two masters of science and engineering. As an entrepreneur, he is also a member of the Chinese Writers Association. He has published 6 collections of works. After Yule World gradually got on track, he and his entrepreneurial partners also began to incubate an independent project: Yuwen.com, whose main focus was the cultivation of creative writing skills. “In fact, I really hope to use scientific methods and tools to bring a great boost to the future revolution in the humanities.”
It seems that the development of science and technology innovation in Yule World is still very long.