This paper analyzes three key characteristics of online education entrepreneurship: online, educational and entrepreneurial.
First of all, as an "online" educational company, there is a significant difference from offline educational institutions: there is no geographical division as a natural competition protection; This means that once the products of online education companies are listed, they will immediately face the competition and evaluation of the whole network; Head enterprises are the only ones, while non-head enterprises are caught in the fierce competition of price war and sky-high traffic acquisition; Therefore, compared with offline teaching and training institutions, the core advantages of online education startups in choosing this track almost determine the company's play style: if the core advantages are different in the teaching products themselves, don't publicize them before the products are polished, "quietly enter the village, don't shoot", so as not to attract the attention of competitors and be dragged into the battlefield prematurely; If the core advantage is only to find a new track without a head enterprise, and you want to compete for the "pig on the wind" with the first-Mover advantage and financing ability, the growth speed almost determines the company's future comfort.
Secondly, as an "education" company, educational products have three characteristics:
One is prepaid; Usually, customers will pay one or two years in advance and then participate in the research. Once participating in the study, as long as the effect gap is not too obvious and the service can be done properly, most students are still willing to give the company that paid the fee a chance to improve. Of course, if students have been listed in a competitive company, customers often leave this opportunity to competitors.
Second, the lag of externalization of actual effect; Students who take the exam are more concerned about the effect of grading, and this can be directly externalized, and the externalization cycle is relatively short; The effect of ability/quality education is not easy to be externalized and needs a long externalization cycle, so customers pay more attention to cost performance and process experience; That is, if the products of entrepreneurs are exam-oriented education products, they should be deeply polished before entering the market; If the products of entrepreneurs are competence/quality education products, they should quickly occupy the market at a low price after the products are formed, and then continue to iterate.
Third, education itself belongs to service products; Anyone who has done customer service knows that service satisfaction is a relative index, which has a high correlation with service perception and service expectation. Among them, service expectation has a very high positive correlation with product price. For ability/quality education products that pay more attention to cost performance and process experience, low-price strategy is not only conducive to rapid powder collection, but more importantly, it reduces customer expectations and makes customers more satisfied.
Third, as an "entrepreneurial" Internet company, it is usually inevitable to face the following problems:
There is not a large customer inventory to provide a continuous source of income.
Without brand equity and endorsement, the disadvantage is that it is difficult to start, and the advantage is that there is no word-of-mouth burden, and the product form and content can be more flexible and iterative;
There is not enough R&D and operation adjustment funds for long-distance U-turn;
It may have a first-Mover advantage, but there are usually no technical barriers; Easily copy and seize the market;
That is, if the funds are relatively sufficient, intensive cultivation can be carried out and the research and development cycle can be appropriately extended; If the funds are tight and need cash flow or data flow to fight for refinancing, then hurry into the market, run in small steps, and "learn from the war."