An announcement by Doushen Education on October 25 attracted great attention in the artificial intelligence and education industries. Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhipu Huazhang"), known as the "closest to OpenAI", and Shenzhen Plowing Line Doushen Education, which has been educated for many years, announced the establishment of a joint venture in the context of the overall explosion of AI in various industries. What kind of sparks can the two create?
Why is Zhipu Huazhang + Bean God?
On October 25, Doushen Education announced that the company will sign a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd. and Hainan Hezun Network Technology Co., Ltd. to establish a joint venture company focusing on the technology research and development of AI education products and Sale. The joint venture company has subscribed registered capital of 500 million yuan, of which Doushen Education holds 70%, Zhipu Huazhang holds 25%, and Hezun Network Technology holds 5%.
Who is Zhipu Huazhang?
Zhipu Huazhang was established in 2019, and its core members are all from Tsinghua University, the Huangpu Military Academy in the AI large model industry. In just a few years, Zhipu Huazhang has successively received investment from major Internet companies (Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Xiaomi, etc.) and leading PEs (Sequoia, Hillhouse, Legend, Shunwei, etc.), and is praised by the industry as "The Four New AI Tigers" and "The Chinese Company Closest to OpenAI".
Why did Zhipu Huazhang choose Bean God?
Although various AI large models are currently blooming everywhere, the consensus in the industry is that for large model products to achieve ultimate commercial success, in addition to technical reasons such as computing power, the accumulation of big data and in-depth training in related vertical industries is also one of the necessary conditions.
The combination of Zhipu Huazhang and Dou Shen is precisely to solve the above-mentioned industry problems. Industry insiders pointed out that the cooperation between the two is naturally complementary. Zhipu Huazhang has excellent large model development and training capabilities, while Dou Shen has a long-term Seventeen years of accumulation in the education industry, coupled with the previous good cooperation foundation, can be said to be a natural progression.
According to public information, Doushen Education previously relied on Zhipu Huazhang’s AI technology to apply large model technology to areas such as knowledge graph construction and accurate teaching target identification, and independently developed and completed a large AI vertical model for language and literature - Doushen AI. It has won unanimous praise from the industry and users.
The above-mentioned industry insiders said that the further cooperation between Doushen Education and Zhipu Huazhang is to launch terminal-model integrated education products through a joint venture, comprehensively improve product functions and user experience, and ultimately realize the commercialization of related products.
"The Baidu Carrot Run driverless taxi that became popular on the Internet some time ago is the most typical case. Baidu relied on the big data of its own Baidu Map product in the field of driverless driving, plus more than 20 years of training to create a carrot. Run quickly, so an excellent AI large model technical team must be combined with a professional product team to be successful, so the end-model integrated education product that Zhipu Huazhang cooperates with Doushen is worth looking forward to," said the industry insider.
Global capital pays close attention to AI education, and China ranks among the top three in the world in terms of financing scale
In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT. This breakthrough technology marked a new era for the rapidly developing generative AI technology and sparked heated discussions in various industries. Among them, the education community is particularly concerned about the application prospects of this technology, and is actively exploring the new possibilities and long-term impact this technology brings to education.
AI-empowered education has become an inevitable trend, and global capital is actively deploying AI education projects. According to relevant data from iResearch's "2024 Artificial Intelligence + Education Industry Development Research Report", the global AI education financing scale in 2020 reached US$6.59 billion, of which approximately US$5.99 billion in financing came from target financing events in China. Although the "double reduction" policy and the cooling of global investment and financing have cooled down the enthusiasm for domestic AI education financing to a certain extent, the AI large model boom in 2023 will once again boost the digital education boom, and the software and hardware product service models will be further innovated and iterated. Judging from H1 data, China’s AI education financing scale still ranks among the top three in the world.
In fact, my country has already had relevant policy arrangements in the field of AI education.
The 2024 "Government Work Report" also mentioned deepening the research and development applications of big data, artificial intelligence, etc., and launching the "artificial intelligence +" action; and required strengthening the construction of a high-quality education system, including the requirement to vigorously develop digital education.
In terms of market development, also according to iiMedia Consulting's "2024 Artificial Intelligence + Education Industry Development Research Report", the B-end market size of AI + education in 2023 will be approximately 21.3 billion yuan, and is expected to reach approximately 47.6 billion yuan in 2027.
With the development of AI technology, its application in the field of education should not be limited to imparting knowledge, but should pay more attention to quality education, while making education more flexible, getting rid of the coldness brought by technology, and becoming more warm and humane .
On the eve of the explosion of AI education, education and training companies may usher in a revaluation
From the perspective of capital market performance, the education sector was one of the few consumer sectors that did not provide performance valuation after the epidemic during the epidemic. With the recent stabilization of national policies, the release of market demand shifts, and the AI boom, K12 leading companies have recently ushered in a new wave of revenue peaks, which has been widely interpreted by the outside world as a signal of the industry's official recovery. Perhaps now is the eve of the explosion of AI education.
Recently, the "Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Service Consumption" mentioned promoting education and training consumption, which is the first time after the "double reduction".
The recent financial reports of several leading K12 companies can be said to have verified the recovery of the industry from the market and demand levels, and the transformation effects of various institutions in the past three years have begun to show.
In the first half of this year, the revenue of companies such as TAL, NetEase Youdao, and Gaotu all achieved double-digit growth. Doushen Education also delivered excellent results in the third quarter of 2024. In the third quarter, Doushen Education achieved operating income of 227 million yuan, an increase of 28.93% over the same period last year, showing strong growth momentum. Although the operating income from the beginning of the year to the end of the reporting period was 557 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.93%, the overall operating trend showed a positive trend. In terms of net profit, in the third quarter, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 41.7797 million yuan, a significant year-on-year increase of 191.98%.