1
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3
Overview of edtech market in the world and Vietnam ........................................................... 3
1.
Vietnamese consumers ..........................................................................................................3
2.
Edtech market .......................................................................................................................4
3.
Some recent trends of Edtech industry in the world ...............................................................5
About Lean ............................................................................................................................ 6
1.
Product information...............................................................................................................6
2.
Target customers ...................................................................................................................7
3.
Our business model: ..............................................................................................................7
Some challenges for market penetration: ............................................................................... 8
Questions .............................................................................................................................. 9
Submission guideline and marking rubric ............................................................................. 11
2
Introduction
This is a project started by students from Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China, which is
inspired by the lack of purpose in learning to create an incentivization learning platform that empower
students to develop intrinsic motivation via fun rewards, growth experiences, and community learning.
LEAN’s team members are building a testable prototype in the next 3 months and preparing for market
launch in early 2023.
Overview of edtech market in the world and Vietnam
1. Vietnamese consumers
Firstly, there exists a rise in demands for multimedia content, low-cost-and time-efficient learning
options Concerning the demographic and economic factors, a large proportion of young population,
high device ownership, high internet penetration and well-maintained economic growth greatly
contribute to Edtech blooming in Vietnam.
Vietnam has great potential for Edtech market development and hence offers opportunities for
Edtech businesses and startups. Key drivers of sector growth include: The education sector plays an
important part in realizing the digital transformation agenda of the Government of Vietnam. Moreover,
the broader Vietnamese population continues to place a strong emphasis on the importance of
education and life- long learning. In concrete terms, Vietnam annually spent around 17%-18% of its
total budget on education during 2011-2020, according to the newly released Vietnam Education
Industry Analysis Report in 2011- 2020 (Table 1). Ultimately, Vietnam has a high rate of internet users
and a very tech-savvy population. With high internet and smartphone penetration (Table 2), the
improvement of internet infrastructure had built the road for the successful launch of E-learning and
operation of Edtech platforms in Vietnam.
Table 1 - Vietnam Government Expenditures in Education and Training (Thousand USD):
Year
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Expenditures
7,795.00 7,824.30 8,988.30 9,688.00 10,777.60 11,320.70
(in thousand USD)
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Table 2 - Internet Users (% of the population) from 2011 to 2020:
Year
2011
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
2017
Percentage
35.07
36.8
58.14 69.85 68.66 70.29
38.5
41
45
53
2018
2019
2020
The Edtech market in Vietnam receives positive responses as well as changing perspectives from
consumers, especially parents. The enhanced trust also results from improved infrastructure whose
foundation of the technology system is slightly better than others in the region. Given the bold
emphasis on education and, undeniably, COVID-19 pandemic, parents and students have a strong need
for effective and independent education along with foreign language learning services. Also, due to the
prolific and competitive human resources in Vietnam, enterprises need to train their employees more
conveniently and effectively, strengthening Edtech’s demand.
There are two sectors in the Edtech market:
Higher Education (HE) Sector: Vietnamese public universities have been developing and delivering elearning courses and programs since 2007. There are about 237 universities in Vietnam of which 22 are
currently delivering distance learning programs, with e-learning as one of the delivery modes.
Nevertheless, not all institutions have their own, in-house-developed platform for e-learning programs.
School sector: Current Edtech companies in Vietnam focus on three key products and services: digital
content provision targeting learners of various age groups; Learning Management System (LMS); and
integrating advanced technology such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and AI. In terms of digital
content, the market is crowded with service providers offering low quality content
2. Edtech market
According to HolonIQ, Southeast Asia EdTech has seen nearly US$480 million of venture capital in
over 200 individual investments over the last five years and it’s just getting started. Rapid urbanization
accompanied by high smartphones/internet penetration would profoundly influence the EdTech market.
In Vietnam, the EdTech market is estimated to exceed US$3 billion by 2023. It ranks in the top 10
in the world in terms of growth, with 35% of household spending on private educational services, with 35%
of household spending on private educational services. According to Tracxn Technologies, there are about
260 edtech businesses in Vietnam, most are start-ups and business to consumer (B2C) businesses.
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In Vietnam, edtech companies focus on three main areas such as digital content, learning
management systems (LMS), and integrating advanced technologies such as augmented reality (AR),
virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI). The digital content market is crowded with service
providers offering various products, such as English language subjects and game-based learning content
for early childhood education, test preparation, self-study options, e-books, and tutoring service searches
for general education, including Snapask, Elsa, Duolingo. Apart from digital content provision, edtech
businesses also provide LMS platforms ranging from school administration, teaching and learning
innovation, to tutoring and assessment services, and so on. Notable companies providing this solution in
Vietnam are Wewiin, Ai Vietnam, and Topica Group. Local start-up and domestic tech companies also
offer solutions incorporating AR/VR or AI technologies, including FPT, Geniebook, CO-WELL Asia, Hiverlab.
3. Some recent trends of Edtech industry in the world
•
Gamification increases its role
The increase in demand for high quality education utilizing technology has resulted in an increase
in the adoption of game-based and gamified education strategies by education organizations. According
to 2021 research developed by Technavio, the K12 game-based learning market is set to grow by over $9B
USD from 2020 to 2025 worldwide, progressing at a compound annual growth rate of 20.63 percent.
•
EdTechs are now Learner-centric
The overall learner personalisation would improve along with the reorientation of education on a
personalized level to facilitate better learning outcomes. Learning personalization gives better learning
outcomes as learners consume relevant information, stay focused on their learning plans and develop
practical skill sets for their careers. Technology such as AI and ML helps design personal learning paths
and deliver personalized experiences, so students enjoy the learning process.
•
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) enables the growth
According to HolonIQ, spend on AI and ML is expected to grow to $6B by 2025. AI and ML enable
EdTechs to develop attractive solutions like personalized learning experiences and more. But early stage
EdTech startups are not always ready to incorporate these technologies. To address this, EdTechs
interested in ML should consider building a strategy for how to incorporate this technology into their
solutions and create a plan to develop an initial ML model training framework.
•
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are top of mind
According to HolonIQ, by 2025 applications of advanced technology in education and learning will
become increasingly integrated into core education and delivery learning processes, and spend on AR and
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VR tools are projected to increase to $12.6B, double the expected spend of AI and ML. As educators,
students, and caregivers continue to learn the benefits of gamification and student engagement, AR and
VR have emerged as new tools to support curriculums across K12, higher education, and lifelong learning.
About Lean
LEAN application is an online study ecosystem which enables students to live stream their learning
activities solo or with others and earn tokens for their study time. Based on the lack of intrinsic learning
motivation from teenagers and university students, this learn-to-earn platform poses a huge positive
influence on the entire learning journey of a student. It addresses the missing connection between
students' hobbies and their learning process. Hence, students can live broadcast their learning sessions
alone or with others on the LEAN Platform and receive tokens in exchange for their study time. These
tokens can be redeemed for gifts from amusement companies or youth education organizations (growth).
1. Product information
Using AI and Machine Learning power, the LEAN Platform has 2 main features:
Learn (time) to Earn Detection: a camera records the students’ learning behaviors and rewards
them with tokens for their study time. Students also benefit from peer accountability when having others
observe their study session
Community Learning Feature: students can join communities within the app to have a group
study session to set study goals and earn rewards by achieving these goals. Furthermore, students can
post whatever academic questions they struggle with on the relevant forums. Students who provide
correct answers and are upvoted by other students will also earn tokens for their contribution.
The LEAN app will serve as a study-to-earn platform where it focuses on incentivizing students
using a rewards system. Students are awarded rewards for studying. Rewards are broken down into fun
rewards (discount vouchers) and growth (scholarships/interviews) rewards and can be redeemed with the
rewarded tokens. Besides the main feature of studying to earn, LEAN plans to stick to the concept of
community learning. Hence, there will be a feature for group studying. This feature will allow students to
start a study session together and earn rewards together. To amplify the concept of community learning,
there will be features where students can set study goals and earn rewards by achieving these goals.
The concept of community learning can be explored hugely and there are numerous ideas that
could be expanded on. For example, a mentor-student model where students can request another
student for a session to learn from one another and the student who provides it to other students will
gain achievements/awards/rewards. Another example could be a homework help platform similar to
StackOverflow for non-coding community discussions. These are features that are planned to be included
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in the further roadmap. The concept of incentivizing community learning could be very helpful for
students as well as companies who are looking for hardworking/outstanding individuals.
2. Target customers
LEAN targets their users as GEN-Z Students. With problems GEN-Z Students often encounter for
learning such as:
- Study motivation: Top studying motivations of Vietnamese students are parents and teachers'
recognition
- Leisure spending: More than 90% are heavy F&B consumers and about 80% spend their money on
shopping & entertainment.
- Homework help: About 90% genZ students get stuck working alone or going to extra classes with
homework
- Self-directedness: Short-term (monetary) incentives do not improve independent learning (evidenced
by empirical studies)
From the above, they identify and focus on solving 2 pain points:
•
•
No link between studying and what GenZ likes to do (boba tea, cafe, leisure).
Short-term & extrinsic factors (grade or parent pressure) can crowd out intrinsic motivations for
learning.
3. Our business model:
Our revenue mainly comes from two main areas:
- Adsense
- Subscription package for students that allow them to:
+ Earn more tokens per study time/question answered
+ More access to exclusive incentives
+ Access professional study help from tutors
+ Addons that help students elevate their desktop study space (notes, music, backgrounds, etc).
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Study booster subscription
Affiliate on reward marketplace
59.99$
1.58$
For annual subscription
Cost per click
~ $40k in 2023 and $15 million in 2030
~ $70k in 2024 and $26 million in 2030 projected
projected revenue
revenue
Perks for learners include
Touchpoints for brands/edu orgs include
• Earn more tokens & exclusive rewards
• Ranking display offers in reward marketplace
• Education consulting services
• Rewarded video ads
• Study with successful celebrity
• Streaming events/campaigns
Some challenges for market penetration:
Challenges:
Despite the strong growth in Vietnam, Lean will have to compete fiercely with traditional learning
which remains common and aligns with learning habits of Vietnamese learners. The vibrant edtech market
also means that there is a strong competition of many start-ups in this field and the possibility of “followup” start-ups is also significant, leading to price competition for foreign companies in both B2B (business
to business) and B2C (business to customer) models. Henceforth, Lean is facing intense competition from
other aggressive players serving the same category - alternative learning solutions with key players from
VietNam and others as bellow:
•
Topica (Vietnam): TOPICA EDTECH GROUP is Southeast Asia's leading online training company
and the first Vietnamese organization to "export" educational technology abroad. Established in
2007, the company focuses on three core areas: Topica Native, an online English-speech tutoring
service for adults; Edumall, a marketplace that features short courses; and Topica Uni, which
partners with universities to offer online bachelor’s degree programs. After more than 15 years
of establishment and development, TOPICA is proud to own a high-tech applied education
ecosystem with various products. TOPICA currently has more than 1,000,000+ students studying
every day, 6,800+ courses, 300+ full-time employees, and 1,000+ part-time lecturers with offices
in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi City, Singapore, and Bangkok.
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•
Study together: Study Together is the largest global social learning community worldwide that
offers senior high school pupils and university students the perfect environment to reach their
full potential while enjoying the best learning journey. More than a learning platform, students
are motivated by a 24x7 active study community and supported by a gamified environment,
experiencing studying with a sense of progress and accountability.
The Study together currently has more than 1 Million students from over 220 countries on Study
Together.
•
P2pu: Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is a nonprofit online open learning community which allows
users to organize and participate in courses and study groups to learn about specific topics. It was
established in 2009 offering some of the features of massive open online courses (MOOCs) yet it
mainly concentrates on people sharing their knowledge on a topic or learning about a topic
offered by another user. In detail, these learning circles are powered by a global community of
dozens of libraries, thousands of volunteers, and a small core team.
•
Snapask (Hong kong): Founded in 2015, the platform uses machine learning and mobile cloud
services to help students upload their homework questions and search for answers for their studyrelated problems. Snapask launched its flagship mobile application featuring its “Question &
Answer” (Q&A) service. It connects students in need with qualified tutors within seconds. The
release of "Learning Planner" feature in 2018 takes Snapask 1 step closer towards providing
personalized learning support to students. This feature supports personalized content
recommendation based on students' revision habits and learning progress. Snapask is currently
supporting 4.5 million students across 9 regions in APAC in their after school studies. Striving to
be the biggest and best online learning platform available to students.
Questions
Our mission is to develop a strategy to set Lean apart from the intense competition with clear
distinctiveness and differentiation. As the Marketing team of Lean, your team is assigned to suggest
solutions to help Lean achieve the stated goals:
a.
Suggest novel product features to increase the usage occasions and time spent on app. Product
features should solve a problem that students have or enhance student’s learning experience.
b.
Deliver a communication plan to increase number of active users in Vietnam to 300,000 by the
end of 2023, with the budget of $300,000. The plan should include analysis of competitors,
customers/audience, insight, communication message and execution tactics. Feel free to think outside
of the box. Identify other possible sources of user growth and respective strategy to approach.
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LEAN’s financial goals metric
Get inspired by this product demo video about LEAN application:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jZhTBke5PM
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Submission guideline and marking rubric
1. Submission guidelines
•
Slide requirements:
The slide deck must be submitted in the form of PDF
Slide in the ratio of 16:9, this length should be no more than 16 pages including executive
summary slide (except for the cover page, references, appendices).
File name
“[VHBC 2022]_Round 2 Part 1_TeamName_slide”
“[VHBC 2022]_Round 2 Part 1_TeamName_video”
All the slides and presentation should be submitted in English.
All appropriate citations and references must be included in the end of your slide.
It is not allowed to include any images/logo of your current high school in slides any submitted
video.
• Video requirements
The length of the video is 2 minutes (+/-30s). Do not exceed the limit. All the slides and
presentation should be submitted in English.
All appropriate citations and references must be included in the submitted video. Any
plagiarized videos will be disqualified
The video should be delivered with visually-engaging, clearly-scripted and well-constructed
contents. Be creative with content generation.
• The answer must be submitted through the provided link below by 11:59 PM, November
10 ,2022. (Team leader will be the one to submit the video). Any late submission will not
be considered.
th
Submission link
Only completed and appropriately formatted answers will be considered.
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2. Marking rubric
Research & analyze
•
•
•
•
15
User understanding
•
•
40
Where is the source of growth?
• Understand category &
consumers, competitors &
Lean
•
•
Deployment plan
Build a clear, specific work
plan
Use flexible research
methods for the target
market
Use reliable data source and
reasonable analysis
Identify critical findings to
help solve the problem
posed in the brief
The idea
20
Identify the unmet needs
Anallysis and selection
should be conducted in line
with research results
• Analyze the process of
selection in a clear and
coherent manner
• Describe the target
audiences logically
The insight
• Address the problem of the
defined target customer
group
• Demonstrate understanding
of brands, industries and
users
• Able to determine the
competitor’s advantage and
differentiate Lean from the
market
•
Should be aligned to the
findings of target user
insights
•
Demonstrate strong
consistency and persuation
with the brand and the job
to be done
•
As mentioned above, your
new product features
should be breakthrough
and powerful. Our goal is
to stand out of the market
with clear distinctiveness
and effectiveness
•
•
•
•
•
Clear and logical thinking
(Contestants are
encouraged to use mockups, references, etc. if
needed)
Designed to attract target
user group and leverages
advantages from them
Should be developed
based on strong
consideration of different
stakeholders that might be
involved
Organized into logical
stages regarding the user
journey
Reasonable integration of
channels and
assets/messages
Reasonable and effective
allocation of budgets and
KPIs
Presentation
•
20
5
The proposal is visually
decent
Contents are concise and
succinct
Video presentation
• Good time management
within 2 minutes (+/- 30s)
• Meeting the requirements
of consistent language and
proper subtitles with no
grammatical errors.
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