BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- China's online extracurricular education market is expected to have grown markedly by 2025, a report from UBS said. The market is forecast to expand from 29 billion yuan (about 4.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017 to 714 billion yuan in 2025, according to the report. Edwin Chen, UBS analyst, said the internet penetration rate of the education industry in China is much lower compared with other sectors such as e-commerce, news and wealth management, leaving it room to grow. The acceptance and experience of training sessions online will improve due to an increasing number of computer-savvy parents and the application of technology including data analysis, virtual reality and facial recognition. In China, education is always high on families' agendas. To make their children competitive enough to be admitted into universities, Chinese parents usually expect their children to take extra lessons after school. Online services are now competing with traditional lessons. Chen predicted that online courses would make up around 50 percent of the market in 2025, up from 13 percent last year. Zuoyebang, a popular online extracurricular training platform, completed series D round financing of 350 million dollars on July 18, led by Coatue hedge fund.
China's out-of-school edtech market is set to expand from CNY29bn ($4.3bn) in 2017 to CNY714bn in 2025, driven by wider interest in online courses, according to a report from UBS. It said education has lots of potential to grow as data analysis, virtual reality and facial recognition become more commonplace, and because Chinese parents often expect their children to do additional classes outside school. UBS analyst Edwin Chen said online courses would increase from a 13% share of the market last year to around half.