VIPKid

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.[1][2] VIPKid’s online-classroom portal enables students to receive 25-minute English language lessons from fluent English-speaking teachers.[3] Students and teachers communicate via a video chat platform.[4]

In 2017, VIPKid launched a new service to teach Mandarin to students 5 to 12 years-old, called Lingo Bus.[5][6]

In 2017, the company reported that it had raised $200 million in initial series funding,[7] and in April 2018 raised an additional $500 million in series D+ funding.[8][9] Combined, this amount equated VIPKID's valuation to $3 billion.[9] As of November 2018, the company reported having 60,000 teachers contracted to teach 500,000 students.

In March 2019, VIPKid fired two American teachers for discussing the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and Taiwan with their students in China.[10] Teachers have also reported witnessing child abuse when teaching lessons, but they found little recourse to report such issues.[11]

In July 2019, VIPKid hosted the Journey Conference in Las Vegas where educators and students conferred on the topic of distance education.[12]

In May 2020, VIPKID announced that all current teachers will 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.[13]

In February 2020, VIPKid donated 1.5 million English and math classes to affected students from the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, and children of medical workers were given priority for free classes.[14]

• English education in China
• New Oriental Education & Technology Group