今日头条K12网校「大力课堂」上线，收购清北网校搭建团队 – 36Kr
What happened: Bytedance has officially launched its K-12 online education platform Dali Ketang, media outlet 36Kr reported. The platform is currently offering primary school mathematics courses and junior high Chinese classes for the upcoming summer vacation. The company says it only hires Peking University and Tsinghua University—the top two universities in China—graduates as teachers. Bytedance reportedly acquired another online education platform named Qingbei Wangxiao to facilitate the development of Dali Ketang.
Why it’s important: The relatively late market entry puts Dali Ketang at a severe disadvantage in the online education market, where there are several heavyweights such as Xueersi and Yuan Fudao. Following English tutoring platform Gogokid and foreign teacher live-streaming platform aiKID, Dali Ketang is Bytedance’s third major push into the online education market. Its performance could potentially decide whether Bytedance will keep experimenting in this segment, since its two predecessors have proved unsuccessful despite various promotion efforts.