Guest of this issue: Squirrel Ai 1 to 1 partner Liang Jing

Produced | Sohu School of Business

Editor | Zheng Qingchun, Liu Shijiao

Chief Editor | Wang Demin

According to the iResearch Consulting report, the market size of the online education industry in 2020 is 257.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.5%. Among them, the speeding up of the online process of the junior and quality education track and the K12 subject training track are the most important contributors to the rapid growth of the online education market.

At present, there are more than 1 million counseling organizations in China, and 80% of the market share is sinking into the market, while the overall market share of the top 5 organizations in the country is less than 10%. Online education competition is fierce, the industry burns money and the cost of acquiring customers is high. New Oriental founder Yu Minhong also questioned this track.

How will online education develop in the future? Which models will be successful? Sohu Business School’s “Future Business Power” talked to representative online education companies and explained their methodology and logic.

This issue of Squirrel Ai partner Liang Jing will share their entrepreneurial experience, challenges and layout.

Squirrel Ai is the first company to apply artificial intelligence technology to the education industry. It has now covered more than 1200 counties and cities across the country and more than 4000 campuses. Squirrel Ai has also sunk from the first-tier cities to the eighteenth-tier towns.

According to Squirrel Ai’s official website, using Ai big data to accurately locate knowledge weaknesses, intelligently adapt teachers, and accurately improve learning efficiency. This is the main logic of Squirrel Ai. According to reports, this online and offline OMO model is the fastest growing model in the online education industry.

Liang Jing defined Squirrel Ai as “an artificial intelligence company with technology and scientific research at its core. No technology means nothing.” Squirrel Ai’s entrepreneurship lies in the founding team’s clear goal of “algorithm engine + teaching and research content + c-side services”. And looking for top scientists around the world. “In 2020, Squirrel AI’s revenue will be 2 billion, and scientific research investment will account for 30% of total revenue, but the marginal cost will fall.”

Why is an artificial intelligence education company sinking into the market?

“ Educational resources in the sinking market are currently the most scarce. High-quality teacher resources are urgently needed in the sinking market. Smart adaptation to personalized teaching helps sink the market, and achieving fairness in education is the core reason. “Liang Jing said.

Prior to this, Liang Jing was also a serial entrepreneur. He founded several chain catering brands and fast-moving consumer goods brands, and served as a director and executive in his mother’s company, Huaqi Foods. Regarding what preparations should be made for starting a business, Liang Jing said that entrepreneurs should assess clearly which track they are on, assess the resources, channels, and funds they have, and whether this period is the best time to start a business.

The world’s most highly valued adaptive education company currently has a value of 15 billion US dollars. Obviously, the Chinese company in this track has a long way to go.

Sohu Finance Dialogue Liang Jing

The following is a record of the dialogue:

Sohu Finance: For those who are preparing to start a business, what preparations should be made before starting a business so that it is not blindly starting a business?

Liang Jing: Entrepreneurship may be a path of no return. You must have enough faith. In addition to personal aspects, you must also conduct in-depth research on the industry. If the selected industry is a brand new track, it may be very challenging, because people have not really adapted to such a consumption model or environment.

As an entrepreneur, you must evaluate clearly which track you are walking in the early stage, evaluate the resources, channels, and funds you have, and whether this period is the best time to start a business.

This can be referred to as the research phase. Only when the research is feasible, the preparations are actually started. You can do it when you are ready. Of course, you can choose to give up when you are ready.

As an entrepreneur, in the early stage of research, you must do in-depth thinking, centering on the ultimate goal, and infer the work that needs to be done at each stage, whether you have enough genes, resources or courage, courage, and ability Wait for the integration ability, and do it step by step.

Sohu Finance: What is the biggest challenge Squirrel Ai encountered during its entrepreneurial process?

Liang Jing: The biggest challenges we have encountered are two. One is the scientists who dig the top artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence education in the early stage. For an artificial intelligence company, technology and scientific research are the core. No technology means nothing. At that time, we were a very small company, not yet at the level of a unicorn. It was very difficult to find scientists working in companies with hundreds of billions of dollars globally.

In addition, when our products are launched on the market, how do consumers really understand artificial intelligence education? We need to transform high-tech terms into terms that consumers can understand.

Sohu Finance: How does Squirrel Ai find top talents?

Liang Jing: The ultimate goal and values ​​of our founding team’s partners in adaptive education is a very important point that impresses scientists.

By 2017 and 2018, dreams and ideas alone will not work. You have to talk about real money figures, learning results and learning reports.

No one of these top scientists in the world lacks money, and no one joins us for this salary or expense. They hope to create greater value because scientists have their own dreams. In terms of educational philosophy, we have deep resonance with scientists. This is the core element that we have dug into the world’s top scientists.

Sohu Finance: How to make more people receive artificial intelligence education products?

Liang Jing: Any new things have a resistance stage, a bubble stage, and a subsequent stable stage. In the early days of entrepreneurship, our products had just hit the market and encountered many difficulties. Consumers were at a loss as to the very advanced algorithms and architecture of artificial intelligence. Later, we discovered that since it is a product used by one person, it should be understood by people, and it is necessary to tap the potential and feelings of users.

The core point for our consumers to accept artificial intelligence is to make them like the interest and self-confidence brought by artificial intelligence teaching. In the learning scene, whether it is taught by a human teacher or the MOOC mode of the Internet, the most important thing is to enable children to learn, to learn happily, and to learn confidently. This is fundamentally unchanged.

Sohu Finance: Why adhere to the OMO model?

Liang Jing: India BYJU’S is the world’s largest AI intelligent adaptive education company, with a valuation of more than 15 billion US dollars. It used to be pure online. After acquiring India’s largest offline education and training, it became an online plus offline OMO. This is enough to illustrate the importance of the coexistence of online and offline scenarios.

Sohu Finance: Why do you invest in the sinking market, and how much room for growth in the future?

Liang Jing: Squirrel Ai now covers more than 1,200 counties and cities and more than 4,000 campuses. We have two core reasons for sinking the market:

First, compared to Beijing and Shanghai, the sinking market has very scarce educational resources, and it is not realistic for high-quality teachers to flow from the big cities to the sinking market. Therefore, the market urgently needs a tool and system to solve the equalization and individualization of education, so the sinking market has huge potential. Squirrel Ai also hopes to really help sink the market through personalized teaching. This is the core reason.

Secondly, from the perspective of the overall market share, there are more than 1 million counseling organizations in China. In fact, 80% of the market share is sinking into the market, and only 20% of the market share is in first- and second-tier cities. The overall market share of the top five institutions in the country is less than 10%, and 90% are scattered among various brands. This market is huge. Many giants are already making arrangements. From a strategic point of view, we are definitely going to sink the market.

Sohu Finance: Squirrel Ai has received an investment of more than 1 billion yuan, with a valuation of more than 1.1 billion US dollars. How did it do it?

Liang Jing: Our Shareholders New Oriental and Mr. Yu Minhong, and there is a good future. They all firmly believe in the future development direction of artificial intelligence education, especially in the intelligent adaptive education technology. As educators, they all know very well that the core technology in global personalized teaching is intelligent adaptive teaching. They invested in us because of their firm belief.

Sohu Finance: How should a startup company build its own brand?

Liang Jing: Brands can be divided into two, one is product brand or corporate brand, and the other is the brand of the founding team.

In the early days, there was not much money, and it was impossible to have money for brand promotion. At this time, the founder or founding team should be used to build the corporate brand. The founder’s personal brand is equal to the company’s brand, which can achieve a four-to-two effect. As a company’s brand, people are emotional and have real energy transmission. This is the founder’s brand building.

With the gradual expansion of the scale of the company and the steady introduction of product models to the market, we will turn to a real product brand. There are several key points in the product brand. First, if it is a To C product, it must be closely related to consumers. The brand name must be spiritual and easy to remember, just like an Apple mobile phone, it must be grounded. Second, a little deeper, the brand name of the product and the characteristics of the product must be essentially the same.

I think that any entrepreneurial brand has these stages in principle. To be the founder’s brand IP, it must also be the brand IP of corporate products. The brand of corporate products must first be grounded and connected more closely with the public. , And more consistent with the product characteristics, showing the company’s core competitiveness, so it is more perfect.

Sohu Finance: Looking forward to 10 years, what is your most personal goal?

Liang Jing: First of all, I hope to be able to assist Squirrel Ai to a very stable stage. At that stage, I believe that new talents and new teams also need to enter. I may have to step back and do auxiliary work. At that time, I hope to use my past experience, resources, and abilities to help China and the world on more issues concerning education equality, so my next goal will be to join UNESCO. This is also my ultimate life goal in this life.

Both me and the West like it There is no specific statistic from the authorities or the local authorities of the western provinces that each year, from the resources … the hamster, how much money people make. In fact, passing through many western provinces and cities, especially areas with large areas of rice, sugarcane, pineapple (fragrant), cajuput, … large like Can Tho, An Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap. , Hau Giang, Long An, wherever we go, we also see the shop’s label selling “specialty” processed from hamsters. And, in daily life, the dish is processed from hamsters (Ben Tre, Tra Vinh also has coconut mouse, hamster), for a long time it has been a familiar dish in the meal, even at home. There were parties, guests, this specialty was brought to the top of the party. Grilled hamster is a favorite dish not only for us but also for Western guests. Photo: ĐSA. Not long ago, I returned to the Red Flag (Can Tho) and met Mr. Huynh Van Hoang (known as Hoang “the army”). His house is next to the People’s Committee of Co Do town. Unlike a few times before, with his forte dish he cooked the best (salt-fried lemongrass mouse), this time, he treated me to … dried rat. Seeing the rats that had been cleaned, seasoned, and dried for 2-3 consecutive days by him, we found it intriguing. When he put it on the hot charcoal stove, and then the scent of the rat’s flesh spread across the neighborhood, we just looked quickly until we were seated at the table. The landlord directly chops the raw mango, picks the herb leaves, then rips the mouse meat by himself, … In fact, for many people in the West, hamsters can be processed into many delicious dishes that cannot compare to anything else. When we returned to the Hong Ngu border area (Dong Thap) in the fourth lunar month, we learned that it was the time of the most delicious rat meat. Local people explain that due to the preparation for the rainy season, the weather is warm, fresh, the plants are green and sprouted many young shoots … Enjoy the “lucky” so the hamsters are fat this season, freshly baked, the fat flows down the sizzling coal, fragrant. At that time, we also went to the back of the water gantry, directly participating in the rat-making process. Unlike dry food, freshly baked rats do not need to be seasoned with any spices other than a little garlic and a little fish sauce. The rats were clamped on fresh bamboo branches, split in half and then put on a charcoal fire. We have eaten many times of the grilled coconut mouse and hamster, but that time, we still had to blurt out because of the sweet and fragrant taste in each mouse meat … The special thing is when I asked the dipping sauce for this rustic delicacy, the owner, a farmer over 80 years old, ran to the back of the kitchen, and later brought up a plate of pure copper fish sauce. As I ate, the host couple enthusiastically showed me how to prepare a variety of delicious dishes from hamsters, which are store of laksa leaves, boiled wort (with wine), boiled batch, sautéed leaves, stir-fried onions, stir-fried vegetables. , beware of coconut water, roast, roast, roast satay and steamed rice dishes … When I got back to Cao Lanh city, my colleague also let me enjoy the “pearl pearl” (part of the genitals of male mice) sautéed the palanquin and said that it belonged to “he ate, she praised”. Because it can be processed into so many delicious dishes, for a long time, people have … “honored” rat meat with squirrel meat. Many people call this fun “squirrel copper” also because of that. In Phung Hiep (Hau Giang) and Thanh Hoa (Long An), every day, tons of hamsters are loaded into trucks and transported to Ho Chi Minh City. There is a very special thing is that Western guests also love rat meat. Many times I endlessly witness “foreign visitors” tearing roasted hamsters, eating deliciously is like tearing grilled chicken. An Giang Provincial People’s Committee leader said, when he came to An Giang for a survey early last year, Mr. Jan Zahradil, Vice Chairman of the European Parliament’s International Trade Commission (INTA), Chairman of the Friendship Parliamentary Group European Institutes (EP) and Vietnam, surprised him and many of the members of the delegation with the grace of having lunch with a meat dish “squirrel”. Proposal was met immediately. That day, in addition to specialties such as sesame fish sauce, cotton fish cooked sour soup – braised fish, deep fried fish, … the table also added 3 dishes from the hamster, which is a dish. Rats roast, fresh grilled mice and sauteed rats. And that day, this Western guest was only eating mouse dishes. He said many times to Vietnam, eating many delicious dishes but did not have the conditions to enjoy the hamster dish. Many of his friends, including the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly XIII Nguyen Van Giau said “if you go to the West, you must try once to tell”. Finished dinner that day, Mr. Jan Zahradil kept whining and said “very gossipy”. The plan achieves two goals Returning to the story of spending billions of money to fight mice, after the press reports, the leaders of the People’s Committee of Can Tho city explained that it was a story related to the implementation of a directive of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Development. village. Based on the fact, Can Tho develops a plan to prevent and control plant infestation for the period 2021-2025. Specifically, in terms of rice crops from 2016 to 2020, 19,415 hectares of rice were damaged by rats. Can Tho’s plan is … if rats damage 5% of the production area, in the next 5 years, the total amount expected to be spent to support the people in coping with the epidemic is over 29.6 billion VND. And if the actual damage is like that, the proposed capital of the local budget is more than 22.5 billion dong, the remaining 7 billion dong, people “bear”. Traders come to Thanh Hoa district, Long An province, weigh the mouse to load them into a truck and transport them to Ho Chi Minh City. With this money, Can Tho is expected to organize more than 1,500 training courses, support 112,500 traps for farmers to control rats and 5,625 kg of bio-drugs. “The reality will depend on the situation each year. If this year, the prevention of rats is good, the following year will surely reduce the damage of rats. The detailed cost estimate plan was appraised and submitted to the authority to arrange the implementation in accordance with the regulations, but Can Tho was not available nearly 30 billion VND for prevention and control, ”said Vice Chairman of Can Tho City People’s Committee Nguyen Ngoc Summer, the person signed to issue the above plan. To make the public understand more about this plan, the Can Tho Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection explained that unlike pests and diseases, it only causes a decrease in yield, but if it is destroyed by rats, rice is often bitten off the base. , almost complete damage. “If based on the scenario of 11,200 ha of rice severely damaged by 50% of the area and 50% of the yield by the rat, it is estimated that 5,600 ha of rice would be damaged. With this area, if the rice yield is 7 tons / ha, there will be 39,200 tons of rice. And a loss of 50% in yield would result in a loss of 19,600 tons of rice. Calculated at the average selling price of 6,000 VND / kg, the number of damage is over 117 billion VND ”, this officer gave a calculation and also said that the weather factor was very favorable for mice to reproduce. A pair of parental mice after a year can produce 2,064 (?). Concerned about the fight against “copper squirrel”, many people, including agricultural experts, have different opinions. Professor Vo Tong Xuan, Rector of South Can Tho University, said the plan to spend nearly 30 billion dong to kill rats is too much money. “Using biological drugs to kill rats is not sure that this drug is not toxic and does not affect the environment. When sprayed, bio-drugs follow the water line, especially in the rainy season, it will spread to many places. As for the mouse trap, the State subsidizes it, whether the people will preserve it well, ”said Professor Vo Tong Xuan. The above plan to kill rats is budget-consuming but not likely to bring about high results, while farmers have many initiatives and tools to kill rats and take responsibility for their own fields. “These things, let the farmers take care of them. Every farmer is responsible, the rat bites his field so that the State takes care ”, Professor Vo Tong Xuan said and cited in the past time, pests and diseases in rice, farmers also actively sprayed. . Regarding community mousetrap (also known as plant traps), Professor Vo Tong Xuan concurred with the involvement of government officials. However, this method is only done when rats have high densities, potentially causing much harm. Professor Vo Tong Xuan also described the community mousetrap model, that is, on a rice field, functional departments rent about 500m² of paddy fields in the middle of the field, lure rats in, then catch and sell. With this approach, a commune in the key rice growing area of ​​the West can make 2-3 community mouse traps. The proceeds from the sale of rats can compensate for the rent of the paddy field. Professor Vo Tong Xuan said that in Son Kien commune, Hon Dat district, Kien Giang province, there was a farmer who worked as a community mouse trap model and brought about economic efficiency. On the sidelines of a recent conference held in Can Tho, Mr. Le Van Thiet, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department – Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that killing rats or any other object should use total measures. In addition, in addition to manual methods (using traps, baits), the most effective method is to trap community because this method can kill rats on an area of ​​up to 100 ha. According to Professor Vo Tong Xuan, in the first phase, the locality can experiment with the model of the Australian community mouse trap that has announced by the International Rice Research Institute. Since then, to see if luring mice into traps is effective or not, if seeing results, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should widely disseminate them.