Internet Firm YY Wants To Revolutionise Online Education

The Financial Times calls YY “one of the hottest tech companies you’ve never heard of” and Forbes says there’s “nothing quite like it” in the United States. Investors in YY probably agree. The live broadcasting platform’s stock has more than quadrupled since listing on Nasdaq in late 2012.

As WiC reported in issue 175, YY started out in 2005 as an online portal for China’s gamers. Three years later, it developed a voice-based service allowing gamers to chat over the internet as they slayed monsters or coordinated their Navy Seal missions. The company then added video streaming.

With more than 100 million active users, YY now provides voice and video sessions for a wide range of audiences in music, fashion, sports and personal finance. Tens of thousands of people participate concurrently in some of these online sessions.
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But one of the most popular uses of YY is for karaoke, where one person sings and others follow along or chat together as a group. The best of these amateur singers can actually make money. One of the site’s largest revenue streams is selling virtual roses. Fans can purchase the flowers (Rmb1, or 16 cents, per rose) for the performers they like the most. The roses can then be cashed in for real money, with YY taking a share of the flower fee.

Singers thus have even more incentive to deliver stirring performances. And it can be lucrative. After building up expansive fan bases, some singers have scheduled live concerts on the site. According to YY, the most popular musicians can make $20,000 a month (although admittedly, most people just earn pocket change).

Now YY has a new mission – to teach Chinese to speak better English.

Last month YY announced the launch of 100 Education (100.com), a dedicated portal that focuses on education. The company says it will spend as much as Rmb1 billion on the platform over the next two years. Part of the investment will go towards attracting instructors to take their lessons online, while some will fund video lectures (predominantly English language classes) which will be offered for free at beginner level. Please read more at Week in China.