Teaching world what smart learning is
"Currently, overseas revenue accounts for the education subsidiary's 70 percent of total revenue. In the overseas market, the payment willingness is much higher than that in the domestic market and there are merely restrictions on how long students can use electronic products," Xiong said.
"We are different from other education companies that focus on a single business. We offer a package, which has become NetDragon's advantage overseas."
Xiong said offering a comprehensive package of learning solutions is part of the company's order-based, low-cost go-global strategy.
"To a certain extent, we take our menu of various products when we go to meet different governments abroad. That helps in tapping their demand. Usually, they tend to buy a package of products."
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at market consultancy Pangoal, said, "Online education companies have a great advantage in going global as they can leverage their abundant experience and technologies in the huge domestic market to shine further overseas."
Jiang also said Chinese online education firms have been facing a slew of challenges in overseas markets due to operational uncertainties.
In India, for instance, U-Dictionary was banned on grounds of security risks last year.
Liu from Youdao nevertheless attributed the company's success to the Indian market where it has surpassed Google Translate to be the top language app.
"Such success was due to the fact that a considerable number of people in India are desperately motivated (to upgrade themselves and succeed in life). They want to take a leap forward through the acquisition of knowledge. For them, English is one of the quickest ways," Liu said.
"Also, India is currently one of the emerging markets with the most demographic dividend. The market is in a period of rapid growth, and many industries have not yet formed a stable competitive landscape. This is another important opportunity for U-Dictionary."
However, if the ban continues, Liu said the company may have to shift part of its focus to other markets.
Jiang from Pangoal said the overseas momentum of Youdao will boost the go-global plans of parent company NetEase and further consolidate its growth in the online education sector.
As China's second-largest gaming publisher, NetEase merged its online education business unit into Youdao in 2019.
The unit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, used to cover business segments like online career education, online software courses and massive open online educational programs.
The move aims to integrate Net-Ease's educational resources for maximize strength. It also shows the parent company's determination to excel as an education firm, said Zhou Feng, CEO of Youdao, in a rare media interview.
According to Zhou, after the merger, Youdao was able to leverage high-quality content and intelligent hardware to beef up its presence in the K12, or kindergarten to 12th grade, sector.
Youdao also launched its latest dictionary pen recently. With an average accuracy of 98.3 percent, the gadget is able to offer a "click and check" experience wherein users can search for a translation instantly with a simple click.
Zhou said the firm aims to leverage technologies including artificial intelligence to step up the commercialization of advanced technologies in the education industry.
"In the long run, Youdao will position itself as an intelligent learning company, where users learn partly through online courses and partly through hardware. Intelligent hardware and online products are important and can supplement each other," he said.
According to the company's earnings report for the fourth quarter of last year, Youdao reported a net income of 1.1 billion yuan ($169 million), up a staggering 170 percent year-on-year.
