Pencil Road reported on February 22 that the college student exam training company has recently been in trouble. Founder Li Haoyu said that the company is going through the liquidation process, the trainees will be refunded, the employees will have n+1 times the salary of the severance pay, and the partners will not be in arrears.
Founded in 2015, Kaoworm provides a variety of courses for college students, including CET-4 and CET-6, postgraduate entrance examination, public teacher qualifications, etc. In the first 3 years of its establishment, the company experienced a period of rapid growth. In 2017, 250,000 people were sold in the fourth and sixth level system classes of the test worm, and 100,000 people were also sold in the graduate school entrance examination system class.
In that year, the revenue of the test worm has exceeded 100 million yuan, the main product has more than 400,000 paid students, and the market share exceeds the sum of the second and third places. In the same year, Kaoworm completed a $55 million Series D financing round led by Hillhouse Capital and followed by Tencent and Jingwei China, with a post-investment valuation of 4.$500 million.
In 2018, the revenue of the test insect was 2500 million yuan, net profit of 20 million yuan, more than 200 employees.
Even in 2021, Li Haoyu, the founder of Kaoworm, still released "good news": the total order of the online full-price course of Kaoworm has ranked first in the industry, and 1.2 million postgraduate students registered for Kaoworm and used the postgraduate course last year.
In 2022, Kaoworm decided to enter the offline business, trying to reshape the offline postgraduate entrance examination market through in-depth scenarios and reconnection, which is another major strategic adjustment that requires a lot of capital and personnel investment.
It can be seen from the public information that after 2020, although Kaoworm did not announce specific performance information, it can be seen from the momentum that the company is trying to break through the growth bottleneck.
A realistic objective challenge is that in recent years, more and more universities have begun to weaken the English 4 and 6 exams. According to preliminary statistics, at least dozens of colleges and universities across the country have eliminated the direct association between the fourth and sixth grades and graduation. For example, Shanghai Normal University, Henan University of Technology, Southwest University for Nationalities and other institutions have delinked the grades of level 4 and 6 from graduation qualifications in the teaching reform in recent years.
The fourth and sixth level training accounts for a relatively large proportion of the test insect business. According to public information statistics, the fourth and sixth level training is the business of the test worm, and the proportion is decreasing year by year, and then the core position is replaced by the graduate school entrance examination business. As of October 2018, the revenue of CET-4 and CET-6 accounted for 35%, while the revenue of CEO-TE business accounted for more than CET-4 and CET-6, reaching 50%. Other businesses (including civil servants, international students, etc.) account for 5% each. It is expected that by 2020, the revenue proportion of the fourth and sixth level business will be less than 20%.
However, the postgraduate entrance examination market is highly competitive, especially in education. Combined with the fact that certain achievements have been made online in the past, many factors have made the examiners choose to enter the offline postgraduate examination business. In May 2021, Li Haoyu, founder and CEO of Kaoworm, will cover more than 600 college campuses across the country in the next 3 years. Unfortunately, there are still 3 months left before the "3-year plan", and the test worm enters the liquidation process.
In the track of postgraduate education, the following are the main competitors of the test worm:
Wendu Education: Wendu Education is a large-scale national education and training institution, providing comprehensive postgraduate courses and teaching materials, with high brand awareness and strong faculty.
Zhonggong Education: Zhonggong Education is a leading vocational education and training institution in China, providing training for civil servants, teachers, public institutions, etc., as well as postgraduate entrance examination training services.
New Oriental: New Oriental is a well-known education and training institution in China, providing a variety of examination training services including postgraduate entrance examinations, with a strong brand influence and an extensive offline teaching network.
Haitian Education: Haitian Education is an educational institution focusing on postgraduate entrance counseling, providing face-to-face and first-class courses, as well as related teaching materials and tutoring materials.
Hujiang Online School: Hujiang Online School is a platform that provides first-class education services, including a variety of first-class courses and learning resources, including postgraduate entrance examinations.
Chalbi Technology: Chalbi Technology provides first-class education services such as recruitment examinations and postgraduate examinations for public institutions, focusing on first-class education.
Learn from whom: Learn from whom is a first-class education platform that provides a variety of ** courses and tutoring services, including postgraduate entrance examinations.
Good Future: Good Future's brands such as Qingzhou Postgraduate Entrance Examination Gang provide postgraduate entrance examination training services, including first-class courses and offline tutoring.
Onlly Education: Onlly Education has launched the "Onlly Entrance Examination", which provides postgraduate entrance examination courses, accompanying learning services, 1-to-1 private classes, etc.
Among these competitors, a few companies are already in trouble. For example, Zhonggong Education is expected to have a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in 2023 with a loss of 17,5000000000-22500000,000 yuan. Although the loss has been reduced, it is still a serious loss.
Regarding the current situation of the test worm, a former lecturer posted that the decline of the test worm was "already foreseen", and mentioned "management decision-making mistakes, internal contradictions are highlighted, and the founding teacher has left" and other issues; There are also employees who recognize its business model and market positioning, believing that Kaoworm has made remarkable achievements in the field of level 4 and 6 and postgraduate training, and has had a positive impact on the education industry.