The fast boat to China
The best way for UK e-learning companies to crack China is to pal up with an old hand.
It all started on Tuesday 19 January 2010. I’d planned to attend two separate events, not realising their significance nor how connected they were to become. The first, the Nations and Regions TV conference, has been hosted locally for the past 19 years by the University of Salford. This year the ‘TV’ in the title was replaced by ‘media’. Two years ago I’d been a little disappointed with the event, as the discussions seemed more about industry politics than its creativity. This year I decided to risk it again. Among other things, I wanted to see if changing the title had made a difference.
Have you ever been to a conference when you know nobody and very little about their industry? Talk about Billy No-mates! The coffee breaks were awkward. I’d wander around trying to look purposeful, approaching people who also looked a little lost and starting a conversation with lame questions like, “So what do you do, then?” not always understanding their answer but at least it stopped them looking at my badge and asking, “So what is e-learning, then?”
At lunchtime, to avoid the awkward wanderings, I went back to one of the stands where they were demonstrating a cross-platform application that I thought could be used as an induction course. One of the guys said: “I didn’t expect to see anyone from the e-learning industry here.” Marcus Potter, founder of Excite Creativity, is working with Moodle founder Martin Dougiamas to develop a library of Moodle 2.0 APIs to allow communication with any screen (desktop, TV, mobile, tablet). He was there helping a sister organisation with a cross-platform application for the event organisers. After lunch, when I returned to my seat in the conference I remember tweeting: “I’ve just met the guy that made attending this conference worthwhile.” At that time I did not realise how significant that meeting would become.
The second event on that strategic day was an evening networking event where Mike Taylor from Liverpool Vision showed us a promotional video of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. I watched with interest and a certain amount of longing, but I knew that however much I wanted to go to Shanghai I had no contacts there and without a partnership or joint venture I’d be dead in the water. So when Mike asked if there was anyone who was interested in sponsoring the Liverpool pavilion between May and October 2010 I kept my hand firmly down!
The following week on the train home from Learning Technologies I was pondering Marcus’s suggestion to help source partnerships from UK companies to launch content using Excite Creativity’s platform in China. Finally the penny dropped: could this be the excuse I needed to visit the World Expo?
Fast-forward a few months and as my company Feenix e-Learning is now a proud sponsor we have the opportunity to hold events in the Liverpool Pavilion in Shanghai. So on 10 August 2010 in partnership with Excite Creativity we are launching its mobile application: ecTalk (a working title), which provides English language learning to the Chinese. There will be 100 VIP guests – some educationalists, some mobile phone company representatives.
My reason for partnering with Excite Creativity was not just an excuse to visit China. When I looked into its technology, the way it is developing this learning product, and the people who are backing the company (Adobe, Nokia, HTC and Moodle HQ, among others), I was impressed.
This particular product, ecTalk, is a language learning environment that connects people with the tools to communicate, educate, learn and play. It uses Moodle 2.0 VLE and an extension API developed by Excite Creativity to create new, rich and ubiquitous learning experiences across the internet, desktops, mobiles, tablet devices and internet TV sets, using the Flash player or HTML 5.
Richard Harrison, ecTalk’s co-creator, says: “Apps that allow users to participate rather than just consume media are few and far between, more so in a learning context. Let’s give people the opportunity to learn from experts and from each other in an environment that engages and rewards, and let them do this by speaking English, which after all is the end goal for our users. Breaking the barrier of nerves and fear of failure is a real challenge in any test or exam. We believe we are on the way to solving this problem and in doing so will raise the bar in e-learning technology and content production, with a genuine user experience as a priority not an afterthought.”
During a Skype call from Hong Kong, Marcus explained: “After five years of growing pains in understanding this part of the world, in 2008 we launched a bilingual [Chinese-English] adventure travel TV show. This linked to additional language packages on connected devices and was the start of our quest for multiplatform English language learning.”
After talking to experts from UKTI and the China Britain Business Council, I’d say the timing of ecTalk hits the mark in China on so many levels:
- Learning in China is culturally different from the UK.
- The multi-platform technology is ready and China is eager for new applications.
- The Chinese want to learn English.
Learning
The culture in China is for people to progress as far up the education ladder as is intellectually possible. There are expectations and pressures to compete so that the family honour is upheld. If you don’t have an MBA in parts of Asia, it is the same as leaving school at 16 in the UK. There is a desire to learn and be educated. The certificate is a very important part of learning given that it translates to pay grades.
Even if China was the same size as the UK, its learning culture would make it more attractive for suppliers than the UK, but when you consider the country has a population of 1.3 billion people compared with 63 million in the UK it increases the attractiveness significantly. Then if you look at the economics of China, its GDP grew by 8.7% in 2009 and is expected to grow by 10% in 2010, while the UK was in recession in 2009 and we might just manage 0.3% growth in 2010. It all makes commercial sense for the UK to be looking to the East for new customers.
Technology
On top of the culture, size and economics of China, another area is now booming and it is one where the e-learning industry can take advantage.
Ralph Rogers’ article in the March edition of China Britain Business Review is about the online opportunities in China. He wrote: “China is a land where 348m people are now paying for internet access. Far from easing off, demand is growing at a rate that is phenomenal, even by Chinese standards.… The number of people using mobile phones to access the internet in 2009 more than doubled to 233m. They now represent 60% of China’s internet population. This increase was spurred on by the rollout of 3G services by China telecom operators.”
So even back in 2009 there were four times the number of people in China with a mobile phone as there are people in the UK. This too is expected to grow significantly. There is a thirst for new applications for these mobile devices.
English
“Learning is one of the ripest markets in China,” says Marcus. “Combine this with the opportunity to learn from any device in their pocket or bag on a staggering Chinese network which we have eagerly watched develop and this is a golden opportunity for UK companies to seize.”
English language learning is not just a key area for students wanting to study abroad. Chinese companies already employ customer-facing people who have English, ready for doing business with the West or foreign visitors.
However, there are enormous pitfalls in the Chinese market. Recently, I was at a breakfast meeting arranged by Liverpool Vision for all the sponsors of the Liverpool pavilion. Speakers came from companies who had already been to the World Expo in Shanghai.
For example, Peel Holdings, a big player in the north west of England, told us that building its guanxi or relationship with the Chinese has been going on for some years already. The big event it laid on in the pavilion was helping develop these relationships. This all takes time.
Other speakers were from Grant Thornton and DLA Piper, who were giving advice on how to do business in China. To be honest if I was not already partnering with Excite Creativity, whose people have the connections, experience and the all-important payment gateways, then I’d have left that meeting quite despondent.
One of the main messages that came through loud and clear was that people underestimate two things about doing business in the China:
- the amount of time and effort needed upfront to build guanxi
- the potential benefits that flow from staying for the long haul.
All the barriers mentioned at this event were cultural and financial minefields. The issues are well documented already but since working with Excite Creativity I’ve learnt there are others that are relevant from the ICT and e-learning perspective.
Internet regulation in China started in 1993 and has grown since then. Today there are over 60 different laws governing what can (and cannot) be viewed on the internet. There were many news items when China condemned Google’s decision to close down its Chinese search engine in March 2010 as a “totally wrong” attempt to get round China’s censorship laws that broke a promise the company made when it set up in the country.
Apparently any website not hosted in China is subject to about 28 checks by the ISPs that can take up to 30 seconds before a site will open once the URL has been selected. Therefore the user experience is not a pleasant one and the only real option is to host in China. However, that is not as straightforward as it seems.
Because of the geographic vastness of China, hosting would require multiple datacentres in every major city scattered across the country. But before you can get this far you will need a licence to put up a website and another if there is video and another for blogging. You may need up to four different licences, obtained (for the select few) through government channels.
From a standing start, given all these barriers, a small business at best would miss this potentially lucrative boat and at worst could be sold down the river. However, to quote a few Chinese proverbs: to know the road ahead, ask those coming back; he who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever; a single conversation with a wise man is better than 10 years of study.
There is a golden gateway of opportunity for the UK e-learning companies. Also, the technologies once proven in China will be available for use in the UK, free via the Moodle community. Watch this space: once I’ve been to China for the launch I’ll be reporting back in the October edition of ELA.
Fiona Leteney is an e-learning implementation consultant