English Learning Website Gains Investment From Chinese Firms

Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba announced plans to invest in online English learning website TutorGroup.

Along with investors Temasek and Qiming Venture Partners, the total investments made in this round with Alibaba are nearly USD100 million.

This is reportedly the second round financing for TutorGroup. The company said that with the new investments, TutorGroup plans to further enhance its leading position in the Asian market and expand into America.

TutorGroup provides real-time interactive language learning services. It has over 2,000 English-language tutors in 60 cities in 32 countries and regions worldwide. The TutorGroup platform hosts more than 10,000 hours of course contents, all made by teachers and rated by real students, and available for learning use at any time. These contents can be accessed via TutorABC and VIPABC, which are established for English language learners in mainland China, as well as TutorABC Jr., which is specially designed for students between the ages of eight and 18.

TutorGroup predicted that the annual growth rate of the adult English training industry in China will be 25% and by 2016 the worth of business opportunities in this marketplace will reach USD21 billion. In China alone, TutorGroup expects to achieve three-digit annual growth rate in the next few years.