After stopping the subject training business at the compulsory education stage, online education companies "rolled up" on other tracks.

  Yicai exclusively learned that NetEase Youdao will release a new intelligent hardware product, intelligent learning light, in the near future, which is expected to be launched within two months.

People familiar with the matter said that the hardware products of education companies usually need to be developed eight months to one year in advance, and the Youdao smart learning lamp project also takes more than one year.

From the function point of view, Youdao intelligent learning lamp may be different from the same category on the market, mainly based on AI technology to improve the learning experience.

In terms of pricing, the price has not yet been determined, but people familiar with the matter said that "Youdao never fights price wars on hardware products."

  This product may be benchmarked against the Dali intelligent learning lamp previously launched by Dali Education, a subsidiary of ByteDance.

According to Yicai, the target group of Youdao smart learning lights is similar to that of Dali smart learning lights.

The new-generation product T6 series of Dali Intelligent Education Lights mainly features functions such as eye protection, English reading, video calling, and error-prone report.

  From the perspective of transformation, intelligent hardware, quality courses and intelligent education services for To B have become new trends, and they are also the transformation direction of most online education companies.

  iResearch's "2021 China Education Intelligent Hardware Trend Insights" shows that with the entry of leading companies in the Internet and artificial intelligence fields, the market size is expected to further increase.

According to data from December last year, the cumulative sales of vigorously intelligent learning lights exceeded 1 million units.

NetEase Youdao’s financial report for the third quarter of last year showed that thanks to the increase in sales of Youdao dictionary pens, the net income of learning products reached 255 million, a year-on-year increase of 56.0%, a record high.

  NetEase Youdao is also planning to launch new smart hardware products.

In August last year, Zhou Feng, CEO of NetEase Youdao, said that the four major businesses of intelligent learning hardware, quality education, adult education and education informatization have become the pillars of Youdao's future growth.

NetEase Youdao expanded its intelligent learning hardware products in the third quarter of 2021, and also launched Youdao Tingbao, a new hardware product focused on solving students' listening and speaking problems in the third quarter.

Zhou Feng also said at the third quarter 2021 earnings conference call that there was little competition in intelligent learning hardware last year, but this year the competition is very fierce.

  On the other hand, other online education companies in the industry are also actively transforming into smart hardware, adult courses, quality courses, etc.

In January this year, Xiaolu Literacy, a brand of Homework Group, announced the launch of the intelligent hardware "Xiaolu Writing Pen", which is equipped with a smart comment function.

In November last year, Homework Gang also launched an educational intelligent hardware carbon-oxygen general subject learning pen.

In August last year, Zebra APP launched AI finger-reading machine, and Doushen launched Doushen language text, providing users with teaching content, materials, methods and tools developed by Doushen.

In September, Guagualong Enlightenment announced the launch of an intelligent writing pad to explore writing with intelligent hardware; Little Ape also launched the intelligent educational hardware "Little Ape Smart Exercise Book".

However, the sales of various products vary greatly. For example, the carbon and oxygen general study pen launched by Homework in November last year has accumulated 2,000 comments on JD. , the function is related to the usage scenario.