In this week’s edition of Comscore Snapshots, we look at the state of online education across the Asia-Pacific region. Our analysis includes statistics for Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Scope: We include websites and mobile apps that provide tutorials, education and training content, and services that help people to advance their careers and formal education. We also include websites and mobile apps that offer information on education institutions, degrees and scholarships.
Top line observations:
Table 1: Compared with other categories such as e-commerce and gaming, the reach of online education sites is somewhat lower – although it still amounts to a little over half of all internet users in India - it’s down to 1 in 12 in Vietnam; In most of the remaining Asia-Pacific countries, it ranges between 1 in 5 and 1 in 6. Surprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t seem to have translated into a sharp increase in traffic to education sites. Given the competitiveness of education within the region, it is likely that the popularity of online education predates the pandemic.
Table 2: Very few companies achieved more than 1% reach in any given country or region, except in India. Two factors explain this pattern: India has long had a penchant for online education and tutorials on just about anything can be found online on YouTube and other social media platforms. Also, India has the lowest median age of all countries included in this report.
Table 3: Education in Asia is extremely competitive, and the composition of the online education sector reflects this. Among the fastest rising education entities are a variety of institutions that aim to improve the chances to access universities – or “cram schools” (such as Toshin in Japan), massive open online courses (called MOOCs) such as Coursera and Udemy, but also modern innovations such as Brainly – a community-driven knowledge sharing platform.
Table 1. Reach of online education websites and apps
% reach of total digital population
Percentage points variation July 2020 vs June 2020
Percentage points variation July 2020 vs July 2019
Australia
19.8
-1.9
2.3
China
16.6
-0.1
-9.7
Hong Kong
18.0
0.7
2.2
India
57.3
1.7
-1.7
Indonesia
29.2
3.4
2.9
Japan
1.2
1.3
Malaysia
18.5
-1.5
Singapore
18.1
-3.2
0.4
Taiwan
17.1
-1.6
-4.7
Vietnam
8.0
-2.5
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, July 2020, Asia-Pacific Region.
Table 2. Market competitiveness and consumer adoption of online education sites and apps
Number of online education websites or mobile apps who reach more than 1% of the total digital population
Median age
3
37.9
38.4
4
44.8
46
28.4
9
29.7
2
48.4
11
30.3
42.2
42.5
1
32.5
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, July 2020, Asia-Pacific Region. Median age data from the United Nations Population Division.
Table 3. Online education movers and shakers
Education sites or apps which increased their reach (in percentage points) the most between July 2020 and July 2019.
nsw.edu.au
New South Wales department of education.
520z-2.com
Provides support on essay writing to pupils in elementary and secondary schools.
cambridge.org
Cambridge university press - the publishing business of the University of Cambridge.
byjus.com
Provides learning material and services to pupils in elementary and secondary schools.
brainly.co.id
Peer-to-peer learning community for students, parents and teachers.
toshin.com
Cram school.
quizizz.com
Online tools to teach and learn.
coursera.org
MOOC offering courses, and degrees across a variety of topics.
public.com.tw
Tutoring school.
tuyensinhso.vn
University and college admission portal.