According to research by international organizations, the online education and training (e-learning) market in Vietnam has great potential with a large scale and a revenue growth rate of more than 40% per year. The market size is estimated be worth no less than 2 billion USD. Therefore, not only domestic enterprises but foreign investors from Japan, Korea or Singapore have also been attracted to this market. Statistics shows that by the end of 2016, there had been 309 investment projects in education and training with a total registered capital of more than 767 million USD in Vietnam.
A study by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the educational activities of several E-Learning courses related to online business training also noted that over the past time, universities, colleges, high schools, primary schools, and preschools have applied technology elements to teaching, making lessons more effective, lively, and increasing the interaction between teachers and learners.
Also producing similar results, a survey by the Vietnam Market Research Group Q&Me during the period from March 10 to 18, 2016 on 500 students from universities in Vietnam indicated that universities all had an electronic portal to convey operational information and lecturers used computers and projectors in the teaching process; Most university students used electronic devices such as smartphones, laptops or both. In particular, about 40% of students had contact with their teachers through social networks, especially through Facebook. The increasing use of e-books also helped students reduce both time and cost in the learning process.
Vietnam is believed to be a potential market for E-Learning development because more than 60% of the population uses the Internet. Most of Internet users are young people who have high needs for learning. In addition, spending on education accounts for 5.8% of GDP and 20% of total budget expenditure (data from the Ministry of Education and Training). Therefore, E-Learning is no longer a “playground” for the pioneers, but also start-ups and foreign investors.
The year 2018 witnessed many huge fundraising deals in the field of E-learning in Vietnam, including the Northstar Singapore Group's capital injection into Topica Edtech Group with an investment worth 50 million USD. This is the largest funding for an online education company in Southeast Asia. In addition to the above hit deal, in April 2018, the online course booking and educational evaluation platform Edu2Review also received a capital injection from Singapore's Nest Tech Fund.
In 2019, E-Learning still proved to be an attractive market as it continued to receive investment flows from India and China. Specifically, at the beginning of August 2019, an investment fund specializing in education based in Singapore and India - Kaizen Private Equity announced to pour 10 million USD into Yola, a start-up providing online English teaching services in Vietnam. Soon after, at the end of August 2019, Everest Education, a Vietnamese startup in the field of education, successfully raised 4 million USD (Series B) from the Hong Kong-based Hendale Capital Private Investment Fund.
The presence of domestic companies and foreign investors has boosted the E-learning market in Vietnam and put Vietnam in the list of top 10 fastest growing Asian countries in this field (University World News statistics, 2017).
In 2010, when E-Learning started to become a global phenomenon and spread to many countries around the world, many e-learning companies in Vietnam also took the first steps to launch several online learning platforms including Violet.vn, Hocmai.vn, Topica, Onluyen.vn, Speakup.vn, Mathplay, etc. To date, E-Learning has become a learning model that attracts a large number of users, especially in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh with a fairly wide audience coverage, from students at all levels to workers.
An e-learning platform which has become a household name for Vietnamese students is hocmai.vn, a product of Education Services and Investment Joint Stock Company. After more than 10 years of operation, the website has attracted up to 3.5 million members with over 10,000 visits and simultaneous learning. It provides more than 1,000 courses, 30,000 lectures per year by more than 200 teachers on computers, laptops, phones... According to the data of the last 3 years of this system, the rate of new registered users on the platform increased by nearly 20% per year.
Along with hocmai.vn, Topica Edtech Group is also a popular e-learning platfrom among Vietnamese learners. It provides the following services: Online Bachelor Program (Topica Uni); Learn English online (Topica Native); Technology platform for open online courses in many fields (Edumall).
Compiled by VietnamCredit