Going by investments, Asian market is definitely experiencing the world’s fastest growth in the education sector.
And, it is the education technology market which has dramatically changed the entire landscape of modern education market. Today, there is a growing realization that edtech is having on the way skills are acquired and developed for the 21st Century workforce.
There is no second thought to the fact that, US is the world’s education technology leader but is Asia too far in the league?
Asia with all its potential has fast become a critical testing ground for the leading countries in the world as far as Edtech market is concerned. Reasons for such are very clear. Asia is the world’s largest pool of K-12 and college enrollments with huge demands for further educational access; deep internet and social media penetration; hypercompetitive examination systems and a wide dispersion of household affordability.
In a report by EdSurge, there is a clear mention of the fact that, ‘Asia’s education markets dwarf American levels by a magnitude of 10 times the number of K-12 enrollments at over 600 million.’ Also one cannot but miss out the fact that Asia is the fastest growing elearning market in the world. It has an outright leadership in a number of key areas such like the game-based, mobile and social based learning.
With steady growth pacing up in the Asian edtech market, predictions are that Asia is going to be the largest regional market. And reading about all these potential factors which determine Asia’s growing edtech market, one can better get an idea of why are there so many edtech companies mushrooming in Asia or why many international big players are concentrating on the Asia edtech market. Reports suggests, even the EU ventures are also in the making of steps to expand their reach to this market. However, before venturing directly in the market, they need to know some valuable factors of Asia edtech market that makes it distinct from the market of the West.
And, if you are interested to know, Why Asia is a Great Market for EdTech Companies and Accelerators, click here.
Distinctness of Asia Edtech Market
Western market and in specific the US market is heavily backing different edtech firms in the East. The reason why they do so is plain and simple; they want to expand their dominion and here lies the further growth potential as compared to the already matured market of the West. Venture capitalist bigwigs are investing and showing greater interest in the Asian market more than ever. So let’s now see some of the interesting facets of the edtech market in the East that makes it unique.
1. Edtech in Asia has a Formal & Informal Market Segment
Parents in Asia send their children for additional studying and tutoring and that the practice forms a “shadow education system currently worth around $50 billion in Asia.”
This therefore makes the edtech firms operating in Asia potentially having an additional source of revenue in the form of a well-developed informal sector that operates parallel with the formal education system.
2. Asia’s Edtech market is larger than the West
One of the biggest difference between the edtech market of West and that of Asia is the market size. Take for example the Edtech market India and China, both the countries have a greater population that exceeds the mark of 1 billion in each of the countries.
Also, because the region has a lower economic development, therefore the prices for edtech services are lower and there is a huge expectation of higher search costs. Tallying this point, one can pretty well understand that the countries having a larger market does not imply that the revenue garnered by the newly set edtech firms will also be high all at once. Client wise, firms will witness that, it takes about a year or so to trust the firm for their solution and again another year for them to buy from them.
However there is nothing to get disheartened as the Asian market are newer in nature and therefore it is more open to new technologies and approaches in comparison to the matured Western market.
3. Edtech in Asia Cannot be a Replica of the West
Considering the marketing aspects of the products, the product marketing must be adapted to Eastern tastes as brand awareness in Asia tends to be more relational as compared to the West. In Asia, a marketer has to work hard to cultivate trust and this is essential to creating a client base in Asia.
The other aspect of products is that, based on the taste and psyche of the people of east, even the product feature such like UX/UI and customer service vary from what it generally is in the West. Because there is low development in most of the places of Asia, therefore product developers and marketers need to consider this aspect before proposing for a solution that works wonderfully in the West.
The advantage of Asian market is that one may well jump on to team based collaboration before considering traditional learning 1.0 lecture model or the current Learning 2.0 digital lecture models.
Thus, edtech can definitely make the learning journey in Asia much more enjoyable and because there is a growing potential in the new market of Asia, scope for diversity and experimentation of creative solutions are greater in this area. So firms need to tap all the potential segments of Asia through which learning can be made more assessable and affordable. Technology can definitely help in doing so. The only need is to understand the Asia education market and blend in with its culture and understanding.
Also if you are interested to know what’s big in edtech in Asia, you could do so by clicking here.
