VIPKid, also known as VIPKID, is an

online teaching Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

and education company.

History

Founded in 2013 and formally launched in 2014 by Cindy Mi, the VIPKid platform connects paying students with teachers in the United States and Canada. Its online-classroom portal enables students to receive 25-minute English language lessons from fluent English-speaking teachers. Students and teachers communicate via its

video chat Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Ency ...

platform. In 2017, VIPKid launched a new service, Lingo Bus, to teach

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

to students of 5 to 12 years old. In 2017, VIPKid reported that it had raised $200 million in initial series funding, and in April 2018 raised an additional $500 million in series D+ funding. Combined, this amount equated VIPKID's valuation to $3 billion. As of November 2018, the company reported having 60,000 contracted teachers to teach 500,000 students. In May 2020, VIPKID announced that all current teachers would gradually transition to a new service fee structure and the base rate adjustment policy will be phased out. This will effectively result in a pay reduction for the vast majority of their teachers. In 2021 the company stopped providing services in China involving teachers based abroad. China-based customers will use Chinese citizen teachers in China and/or teachers residing in China who have teaching licenses.

Censorship of teachers

In March 2019, VIPKid fired two American teachers for discussing the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

with their students in China. Teachers have also reported witnessing child abuse when teaching lessons, but they found little recourse to report such issues.

COVID-19 pandemic

In February 2020, VIPKid donated 1.5 million English and math classes to affected students from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Students in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, and children of medical workers were given priority for free classes.

References

{{Reflist Chinese companies established in 2013 Language education in China

History

Censorship of teachers

COVID-19 pandemic

See also

References