Analysts said there are three factors that determine the success of English centers: coverage, curriculum, and location. 

If English centers are located in advantageous positions near residential quarters, they can easily approach clients.

However, the advantageous positions turned out to be a disadvantage in the epidemic, because people tried to stay at home as much as possible to avoid the spread of coronavirus, while centers had to pay high rents.

When the epidemic broke out, when other English centers were fumbling for solutions, Yola and Apax Leaders decided that they needed to go online, considering digital transformation a vital strategy.

Ngo Thuy Ngoc Vu, the co-founder of Yola, said when the Hanoi Education and Training Department asked students to stay off school, Yola began organizing online classes.

Within 24 hours, Yola received more than 3,000 registrations from parents and positive feedback. To date, more than 10,000 students have registered for the classes.

Within 24 hours, Yola received more than 3,000 registrations from parents and positive feedback. To date, more than 10,000 students have registered for the classes.

Apax Leaders also quickly switched the offline education network with 60,000 students to online classes within one week and committed to online classes with the same quality as offline ones.

Eighty percent of students at Yola and Apax Leaders’ online classes are from offline classes. The tuition of online classes is high and the interface is not that special. Analysts believe that these hinder Yola and Apax Leaders to expand the online English training market share.

ELSA Speak, the English speaking and communication practicing app utilizing AI, has been used in 101 countries and territories in the last five years. It has 7 million students throughout the world with representative offices in Portugal, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Japan.

ELSA has joined forces with the Ministry of Science and Technology to offer online courses to the Vietnamese community. Through the program on teaching English at home during the epidemic, ELSA offers 100 percent funding for ELSA Pro 3 package.

One month after the announcement of the program, over 100,000 registrations were made. In order to ensure the quality of the app when the number of learners increases rapidly within a short time, ELSA’s staff has to work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, according to ELSA founder Van Dinh Hong Vu.

Nguyen Hong Nam, Yola’s managing director, commented that after Covid-19 ends, English centers will have to re-assess their technological capability and products.

“The businesses which have big revenue from traditional teaching will have to reconsider the way they provide services and products,” he said.

Chi Mai 

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