The number of postgraduate entrance exams hit a record high: behind the 10 billion training market, there are institutions that "enroll first and then recruit teachers"
On April 6, the 2022 National Postgraduate Admissions and Adjustment Service System was opened.
"I didn't know about other schools before, so I could only apply for classes to learn about the specific process and information of institutions." Cheng Xiaoli told the Shell Finance reporter that she was 3 points away from the target institution. Spend 3,000 yuan to sign up for postgraduate adjustment counseling.
On April 1, Shell Finance reporters consulted a number of postgraduate postgraduate training institutions. In addition to the research and adjustment business, the postgraduate postgraduate training in 2023 has already started.
"The preparation for postgraduate entrance examination should be as early as possible, and many students start to prepare from the sophomore year."
A reporter from Shell Finance found that for most candidates, training classes are their biggest expense for postgraduate entrance examinations. Coupled with course materials, round-trip transportation, food and accommodation, the cost of postgraduate entrance examinations continues to increase.
Among the training institutions, the postgraduate entrance examination institutions such as Zhonggong Education, New Oriental, Wendu, and Haitian Education started early. Coupled with the IP of star teachers, they have a certain right to speak in the postgraduate entrance examination market.
"The postgraduate entrance examination market is actually bigger than the public examination market, but it is difficult to do." A person working in a listed company in education and training told the Shell Finance reporter that before the postgraduate entrance examination institutions were mostly franchise-based, now most of them have changed to direct sales, and online training has also exceeded offline part.
However, because the interview is difficult to standardize, the training of the institution is mainly aimed at public courses, so the volume is not large.
The financial report also reflects the above statement. Judging from the annual reports of the top institutions that have a postgraduate entrance examination section that have been listed, most of the postgraduate entrance examination sections have not reached an annual revenue of 1 billion yuan.
Zhang Xuefeng, a tutor for postgraduate entrance examination, told Shell Finance reporter that due to the scattered locations and long time lines of postgraduate entrance examination students, the profit of postgraduate entrance examination institutions is not as high as imagined. The formation of famous teachers is a common phenomenon in the postgraduate entrance examination training industry, but it is difficult to copy famous teachers and the cost is high.
At the same time, the development of postgraduate entrance examination training institutions is mixed, and the training chaos such as false propaganda, promises to guarantee, and illegal operation has also intensified.
After the double reduction, New Oriental returned to the college student business and upgraded the postgraduate entrance examination business sector; Onli Education launched "Only Postgraduate Postgraduate Examination"; TAL launched "Qingzhou Postgraduate Postgraduate Examination Help", and Chalk Technology, which was split from Yuanfudao, was more focused on postgraduate entrance examination and public examination. training.
Has the postgraduate training track changed?
Can the tens of billions of postgraduate entrance examination market usher in new opportunities?
4.57 million candidates have spawned a market of 10 billion for postgraduate entrance examinations, candidates: training courses have become the biggest expense
4.57 million, compared with 3.77 million candidates last year, the number of postgraduate applicants this year has hit a record high again.
When she was in her sophomore year, Wang Qi included Beijing University for Nationalities as the target of postgraduate entrance examination.
On the day of the score, in order to get a good deal, Wang Qi deliberately calculated the time for the score check.
383 points, only 4 points higher than last year's school line. The senior told Wang Qi that this score may be stuck in the retest line.
Watching other students in the WeChat group announce their good results, Wang Qi blocked the group chat.
The unstoppable scores disrupted her pace. In order to successfully adjust the postgraduate entrance examination, Wang Qi finally decided to apply for another re-examination training class.
After adding up, she has spent more than 20,000 yuan on postgraduate training.
After working for three years, Chen Xiao also decided to take the postgraduate entrance examination.
She has always had the idea of going to graduate school. Coupled with the bottleneck period in the workplace, Chen Xiao decided to improve her education and change jobs.
In July 2021, she resigned and went home. In order to prepare for the exam with peace of mind, Chen Xiao signed up for a closed training class, and studied, ate and lived with three other girls who also left the workplace every day.
On the day of the score, she roughly calculated the cost of the postgraduate entrance examination.
"I only had one chance, so I chose the boarding postgraduate entrance examination, which costs more than 80,000 yuan for three months of tuition and accommodation." Chen Xiao said that the boarding postgraduate entrance examination is a closed college entrance examination management model. .
Like Chen Xiao, Ma Xiaotian also shifted from the workplace to the examination room.
Since it was World War II, Ma Xiaotian did not choose to apply for classes. She followed many public accounts that regularly distributed free postgraduate entrance examination resources, and bought second-hand video courses and materials from Xianyu.
A reporter from Shell Finance reviewed the application data of the past years and found that from 2017 to 2022, the number of postgraduate applicants was 2.01 million, 2.38 million, 2.9 million, 3.41 million, 3.77 million and 4.57 million respectively.
Compared with 2017, the number of applicants in 2022 has increased by 2.56 million in five years, an increase of 1.27 times. Thousands of troops are crowding into the single-plank bridge.
For candidates, the postgraduate entrance examination is an increasingly cruel competition.
However, at the same time, the postgraduate entrance examination fever has also lengthened the postgraduate entrance examination industry chain. The postgraduate postgraduate study room is full, reference materials are selling hot, and there are even postgraduate postgraduate KOLs, postgraduate supervisors, and spiritual encouragers.
For candidates Wang Qi and Chen Xiao who are eager to "go ashore", it seems that registering for classes has also become a must for postgraduate entrance examinations.
With the increasing number of postgraduate applicants, the postgraduate tutoring market is also growing.
According to the "White Paper on China Postgraduate Postgraduate Training Industry 2021" released by Analysys, the size of China's postgraduate postgraduate training market will reach 6.389 billion yuan in 2020, and it is expected to maintain a growth trend in the next three years.
Catalyzed by an annualized growth rate of about 12%, Analysys predicts that the postgraduate entrance examination training market will increase to 10.039 billion yuan in 2024.
The effect of famous teachers in postgraduate entrance examination is obvious, and institutions have repeatedly complained about changing teachers without permission
Since the establishment of the first postgraduate examination training brand "Haven Kaoyan" in 1993, the famous teacher strategy has been repeatedly disputed in the 29 years of development of the postgraduate training industry.
In the early stage of the development of postgraduate training institutions, institutions and famous teachers have been in a state of mutual achievement for a long time. Institutions rely on famous teachers to recruit students and establish reputation, and famous teachers rely on institutions to increase exposure and establish their own IP.
Among the top postgraduate research institutions, New Oriental has been using the creation of famous teachers to drive marketing.
Chen Wendeng, the founder of Wendeng School Kaoyan, is a famous teacher in the school.
Wendu Group has long pursued the strategy of famous teachers. He Kaiwen, Tang Jiafeng, Jiang Zhongting and Wan Lei were once the focus of Wendu Education's brand promotion.
"We will put the photos of famous teachers on the official website and offline enrollment brochures, and organize national tour lectures for the teachers, and achieve the purpose of enrollment through famous teachers' lectures." Wang Meng, the principal of the branch, told the Shell Finance reporter that the institution was mainly a franchise system in the early days.
Famous teachers belong to the headquarters, which is responsible for brand promotion, operation and maintenance, support for famous teachers, online teaching, and data compilation.
Local institutions recruit ordinary teachers, are responsible for daily offline teaching, and local publicity and enrollment.
Shell Finance reporters noticed that some large training institutions provide professional guidance for students by recruiting graduate students as part-time staff.
In addition, many experienced seniors and seniors began to set up their own portals and train independently after accumulating a certain "student source".
Usually, you will publish your own postgraduate entrance examination experience on the school post bar and WeChat public account to attract candidates who apply for the exam, and then conduct private domain operations.
In 2019, Ma Xiaotian was admitted to the School of Journalism and Communication of Heilongjiang University.
With the title of "Sister with High Scores in Professional Courses", Ma Xiaotian has become a part-time teacher of many New Oriental postgraduate training institutions.
"Some institutions make a commission per student, 3,000 yuan per student. Large institutions usually count the number of sessions, 100 yuan per class, and the overall course is about 45-50 sessions, and at most 20,000 yuan a year." Ma Xiaotian told Shell Finance reporter , for public courses such as English and politics, institutions have their own teachers. In professional courses, most of them adopt "enrollment first, then recruit teachers".
As of March 30, Black Cat had more than 4,000 complaints related to postgraduate entrance exams, and the complained businesses included many leading companies such as New Oriental Online, Wendu Postgraduate Postgraduate Examination, Haitian Postgraduate Postgraduate Examination, Yantu Postgraduate Postgraduate Education, and Qihang Postgraduate Postgraduate Education.
The complaints mainly focus on market chaos such as "false propaganda", "difficulty in refunding", "poor course quality" and "training loan".
Among them, there are many questions about "privately changing the teacher of the postgraduate entrance examination class" and "the publicity teacher does not match the actual teacher".
Four types of institutions Nuggets postgraduate entrance examination track, expansion encounters a ceiling of 1 billion
At present, there are four types of institutions in the whole field of postgraduate entrance examination, such as Zhonggong Education, Wendu Education and other online and offline training institutions with traditional face-to-face courses; Hujiang Internet School, Kaocho, etc. are mainly engaged in online training for postgraduate entrance examination online live broadcast and recorded and broadcast courses. Institutions; similar to Xinchuan Kaoyan and other small institutions that focus on a certain vertical professional field, as well as training courses offered by onshore students of Kaoyan.
"The postgraduate entrance examination market is actually bigger than the public examination market, but it is difficult to do." An industry insider working in a listed company in education and training told Shell Finance reporter that before the postgraduate entrance examination institutions were mostly franchise-based, now most of them have changed to direct sales and online training. Also more than the offline part.
Because the interview is difficult to standardize, and the training of the institution is mainly for public courses, the volume of postgraduate entrance examination is not large.
According to the prospectus of Chalk Technology, Chalk education mainly relies on civil service examinations and public institution recruitment examinations to develop and grow, and the postgraduate entrance examination business accounts for a small proportion.
According to a number of people familiar with the matter, among the top listed companies, there has not yet been an institution with a revenue of more than 1 billion yuan in the postgraduate examination business.
The top vocational education company, Zhonggong Education, is the biggest driver of its annual revenue. According to the 2019 annual report of Zhonggong Education, Zhonggong’s postgraduate entrance examination training and IT training revenue totaled about 807 million yuan.
Wind data shows that Wendu Education is one of the largest institutions in the domestic postgraduate training market.
In 2017, Wendu Education was delisted from the New Third Board.
The reporter looked through its 2016 financial report and found that from 2014 to 2016, Wendu Education's operating income was 40.001 million, 117 million, and 391 million, respectively, and its net profit was 3.028 million, 1.551 million, and 11.429 million. According to the unaudited 2017 According to the financial report of Wendu Education in 2017, the revenue of Wendu Education was 590 million and the net profit was 48.219 million.
According to the statistics of the company, since 2019, there have been 21 financing events in postgraduate training, involving many well-known education companies such as GSX, Zhonggong Education, TAL, and Rhino Education.
After double reduction, the head mechanism increases the layout, and it is difficult to produce unicorns with professional dispersion
Although it is difficult for a single postgraduate entrance examination business to support a company's main revenue, as a sub-field of vocational education, after the "double reduction", major educational institutions have also continued to increase postgraduate entrance examination training.
In July 2021, TAL announced the launch of the Qingzhou brand, integrating the three sub-brands of Qingzhou Postgraduate Entrance Examination Help, Qingzhou Full Score, and Qingzhou Study Abroad; in September, New Oriental announced its return to the college student business and upgraded the postgraduate entrance examination business sector; in October, Only Education launched "Only Postgraduate Entrance Examination", the products include postgraduate entrance examination courses, accompanying study services, 1-to-1 private teaching classes, etc.
Earlier, in October 2020, GSX announced a business upgrade, merged its K12 business into Gaotu Classroom, and at the same time integrated brand resources, and will increase investment to fully focus on adult business such as postgraduate entrance examination, study abroad, accounting, and public examinations.
In addition, many vocational education and training institutions have also expanded their business related to the postgraduate entrance examination under the strong attraction of the tens of billions of postgraduate market.
In 2022, the star institutions "Xinghuo Art Test" and "Beijing Shinkansen", which have been deeply involved in art test training for many years, will cooperate to establish Cp postgraduate entrance examination, and carry out personalized training for art postgraduate entrance examination.
Deng Yu, the relevant person in charge of the Cp Art Center, told the Shell Finance reporter that the postgraduate entrance examination is exclusive, and the original postgraduate entrance examination training course has a low unit price, which can only be taken, and there will be a lack of practical training for art students.
"One million yuan has been invested, and the teacher's course fee is the largest, and the venue fee accounts for 1/3 of the total investment." Zeng Tuo, the relevant person in charge of the Cp Art Center, said, "At least this year, we must see hope of profit."
"The demand for postgraduate entrance examination is too scattered, so it is impossible to form a regional demand aggregation effect similar to K12." According to the analysis of many industry insiders, the reason why no industry unicorns have emerged at present is related to the dispersion of postgraduate entrance examination training.
Postgraduate subjects are divided into two categories: public courses and professional courses.
Among them, there are more than 100 professional courses in first-level disciplines, and there are nearly 1,000 admissions units nationwide. Some admissions units participate in the unified examination for their majors, and some do not participate in the unified examination. Therefore, "no institution can offer professional courses for all admissions units in the country." "It is equivalent to the demand for postgraduate entrance examinations that can only be scaled by half."
Zhang Xuefeng, a tutor for postgraduate entrance examination, told Shell Finance reporter that due to the scattered locations and long time lines of postgraduate entrance examination students, the profit of postgraduate entrance examination institutions is not as high as imagined. The formation of famous teachers is a common phenomenon in the postgraduate entrance examination training industry, but it is difficult to copy famous teachers and the cost is high.
"At present, the postgraduate entrance examination industry has just undergone a renewal of famous teachers. In addition to the current Internet age, the traffic of head teachers is very high. The bond between institutions and famous teachers is also very deep." Zhang Xuefeng said that the shaping of teachers' personal IP also It is not an easy task, and requires teachers to have deep professional accumulation. "The leading institutions have accumulated in this field for many years, and it is difficult for new institutions to catch up in the short term."
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Zhao Fangyuan