欢聚时代：YY 课堂

On March 8, 2013, YY Inc., a China-based, NASDAQ-listed Internet company, unveiled its financial data for 2012: its net revenue was 820 million yuan, up 156% year on year, with a net profit of 89.2 million yuan. As the world’s largest online group-voice-communication platform, YY Client was described as being two years ahead of the industry average, giving YY an edge in entering other industries like music, education and teleconferencing. YY Music achieved initial success with revenues of 286 million yuan in 2012. Mr. LI Xueling, founder and CEO of YY, turned his attention to the education industry, whose market was worth 670 billion yuan, by launching YY Education. It aimed to help students lower learning costs through online lectures and change the existing revenue allocation structure between teachers and schools. YY Education will likely revolutionize the traditional education industry and create a “blue ocean” market space. But YY, originally an E-games company, lacks experience in the education business. Mr. LI is confronted with multiple challenges. YY’s business in the education industry is dragging along under the platform-based business model, and its partners (e.g., training institutions) are not familiar with online tools. It will also be hard for YY Education to change into a content provider by hiring teachers and developing its own lectures due to its lack of experience in faculty and curriculum management. Moreover, as the YY Education platform is offered for free and students pay course instructors directly, how will YY create a new business model to generate revenue as the business grows?