Paid Knowledge Industry: Chinese market to be worth an estimated $3.4 bln by 2020

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Recently, more and more Chinese people have become convinced of the power of e-learning. A new report says the country's online education industry was worth seven-hundred-million US dollars last year. But that number is expected to quadruple in two years. Why is it suddenly taking off? Wang Qiwei explains.

How to achieve financial freedom? And how to manage time efficiently?

Student Zhang Lei often gets answers to these questions on her mobile applications.

As an active user of paid knowledge applications, she recently bought an English language course to improve her profile in the jobs market.

ZHANG LEI CONSUMER "I can use my spare time to learn new skills, and it saves me the trouble of going to an offline class, and it's also much cheaper. I have already spent up to two thousand yuan on paid knowledge content."

With Chinese people's increasing urge for self-improvement and the convenience of mobile payment, many online platforms have emerged to satisfy their needs.

These platforms feature lessons in podcasts and short videos, covering a wide range of subjects.

And the shifting mindset of Chinese people towards "paying for knowledge" is creating a lucrative online market for self-learning.

As a result, leading knowledge-sharing platforms have capitalized.

ZHANG BIN, MARKETING DIRECTOR YOUDAO ONLINE EDUCATION "According to our data, we had a 530-percent increase in revenue on our platform last year. About 20 teachers on our platform had a monthly income of more than a million yuan."

However, with the rapid development of the industry, issues such as copyright protection have emerged.

To counter these, the Chinese government introduced tough anti-piracy regulations and cracked down on illegal content.

And many believe this has now opened the door for the sustainable development of the industry.

LIU XINGLIANG, PRESIDENT DCCI DATA CENTER OF CHINA INTERNET "People have more and more spiritual pursuits nowadays, and in the future, the online paid knowledge industry will even use VR and AR technologies to present more diversified content. But I think the core still remains in the areas of information and knowledge."

So the potential is certainly there.

But it remains to be seen whether the industry will stand the test of time, and benefit an even larger number of knowledge-seekers.

WQW, CGTN.