ByteDance weighs on scaling edtech business in the US - PingWest

ByteDance weighs on scaling edtech business in the US

ByteDance weighs on scaling edtech business in the US

3 hours ago

ByteDance, the TikTok owner, is weighing on raising its bets in the edtech sector in the US. Most recently, the company opened a strategy analyst role for Zero, its education business.

"ZERO, an independent brand of ByteDance, is committed to establishing a lifelong education service system, covering smart learning, adult education, intelligent hardware, campus business, and other fields," read the job description.

Job discription for the role

Responsibilities for the role include proactively leveraging internal and external resources to execute and scale the business, according to the job description, "previous experience in strategy and/or product manager role of edtech companies as a plus."

Zero belongs to Dali Education, ByteDance's standalone education technology brand in China. 

The Beijing-headquartered tech company is used to separating one business into domestic and international lines to better suit different market needs. For instance, when it comes to the short-form video business, there's Douyin for the mainland market and TikTok for the overseas market; the office collaboration business is split into Feishu serving the mainland and Lark targeting overseas.

While edtech now contributes a small portion of revenue to the emerging social giant, which is heavily reliant on advertising, its does hold a notable position within the company. In November 2021, ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo issued an internal letter, dividing the company's business into six BUs (business units) including Douyin, edtech Dali (Zero), work-collaboration tool Feishu (Lark), marketing service Volcano Engine, gaming business Nuverse, and TikTok.

Previously, in the mainland market, ByteDance had invested heavily in its plans for online education, acquiring multiple businesses and recruiting aggressively. 

But those efforts were undone by the government's tightening grip over K12 after-school education. Last year, China announced a ban on for-profit after-school tutoring, hammering the entire edtech industry, which counts K12 off-campus tutoring as a major source of income.

Following the regulatory shift, the online education business unit let the majority of its staff go, and pivoted its focus to adult education and educational tools.

The hiring move could indicate that the scrappy company is looking to dive deeper into the adult online education market in the US.

Due to its flexibility and ease of accessibility, the demand for adult e-learning is growing steadily across the globe. Revenue from online college education sector is expected to reach $57.38 billion by 2022 globally, with the majority of that coming from the US.

ByteDance has launched an edtech product in the US. Currently, the scan-for-answer app, called Gauthmath, ranks 29th in the Education category on the App Store.