Shenzhen Business Daily · Chief Reporter of Reading and Creating Client Yuan Jingxian
July 15 is a memorable day for Liu Jingjing (pseudonym).
That day, she posted a circle of friends: "Today, I also graduated from college. "One with a picture is a graduation certificate, and the other is a screenshot of the academic certification of the academic information network.
What fulfilled Liu Jingjing's college dream was
National Open University
In 2022, Liu Jingjing, who is waiting to give birth at home
I swiped one on Xiaohongshu
Push about the National Open University
This is a feature of "Internet +".
Open education for the whole country
New High School
According to the intermediary, the key information extracted by Liu Jingjing is: mainly for people who are busy with work, have less time to study, or have a weak foundation, and want to study again to obtain a junior college/undergraduate degree, the school adopts online teaching on the whole network, and students cooperate with the school to participate in online or offline academic examinations. This is just right for Liu Jingjing's personal "attributes": high school graduation (weak foundation), pregnancy (online teaching/exams).
Looking back on the two and a half years of study, Liu Jingjing described it as "handy": "When I encounter a problem that I don't know how to do in my homework, I take a photo and search it on the question search software." ”
In fact
Liu Jingjing's "homework experience"
It is also the experience of many students who are receiving adult education
Recently
Locate and solve students' homework problems
There are more and more service products
It has become a lot of contemporary college students
Mobile phone essential software/official account
△ On social platforms, there are not a lot of searches for photo searches (source: screenshot of Xiaohongshu)
Aiming at adult education, the photo search track is rising again
When it comes to photo searches, the first thing that comes to many people's minds is K12 education. Aiming at the question of a shot and a search, in a very short time can be found and the analysis of the "search" mode, the earliest can be traced back to around 2013, homework help, little ape search questions and other software were born at this time, positioned to solve the "problem" of parental tutoring homework.
With the development of online education and the upgrading of online large-class competitions, the photo search industry has also been constantly updated.
In July 2021, the "double reduction" policy was implemented, which clearly mentioned that online training institutions must not provide and disseminate bad learning methods such as "taking photos and searching questions" that inertize students' thinking ability, affect students' independent thinking, and violate the laws of education and teaching. Under the policy, some photo search apps have been removed from the shelves or tried to change the target users, and the photo search market for primary and secondary schools has gradually calmed down.
At the same time, the relatively stable adult education has become a breakthrough for Paisou software. According to the 2023 National Statistical Communiqué on the Development of Education, the total number of students enrolled in higher education in mainland China has reached 46.55 million, ranking first in the world. Behind the huge numbers, what brings its own traffic pool to the photo search is its own.
At present, the participants who provide search services for adult education can be roughly divided into three categories: first, the "professional players" represented by Chalk Vocational Education and Gaotu have launched apps such as "Mars Search Questions" and "Gaotu"; The second is the "cross-border players" with the addition of head enterprises, such as the "quark search" function launched by ByteDance's affiliated company in the Xuexiaoyi APP, and Quark, a search engine under Alibaba; The third is the "new players" of their own school, mostly start-ups, such as the "Yuyue Search Question" official account launched by Shenzhen Yuyue Education Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yuyue Education"). Compared with the third model, the first two operation models are more mature and have a wider user base, while the latter is like "mushrooms after a rain", and it has gradually become more and more popular in the past two years.
Taking the core product of Yuyue search as an example, this is a search system developed based on WeChat public account, which supports text, picture and voice search, including the Open University of China, Guangdong Open University, Yunnan, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Chaoxing, Qingshu, Aopeng and other platform question banks, mainly serving adult education and full-time college students, which can help users quickly find answers in their usual homework and exams and improve learning efficiency.
△ Yuyue question bank (source: screenshot of WeChat public account)
In terms of usage, the "white" style of use is convenient for more users to adapt quickly: just take a photo or type in the question, and wait for a few seconds to get the answer pushed. Guo Yong, founder of Yuyue Education, told reporters that since the Yuyue question search system was launched in May 2021, it has accumulated nearly 9 million users.
Side business to increase income, flexible "partner" under the "big cake"
Which one is stronger in photo search?
Search on online social platforms
The answers shown are varied
Able to provide question search services
There are not a few APP or official accounts
"Even if we only do college students and adult education, the 'cake' of taking pictures and searching questions is very big." Guo Yong said. There is often only one standard answer to a question, and when all photo search service providers can provide standard answers, as a start-up, how to attract more target users and open up popularity? Guo Yong adopts a "partner" system.
In layman's terms, based on the question bank system, Yuyue Education has developed an agency system, and users with a personal WeChat official account can apply for access to the question bank system and upgrade to "partner". As long as the user purchases the services of the question bank system through the official account of the "partner", part of the income generated will belong to the "partner".
Zhong Liang is one of the "partners". His main business is the operation of an AI software website, and after learning about taking photos and searching questions in 2022, he joined as a "partner" of the Yuyue question bank. In the promotion of search software services, content production and distribution are an important part. Zhong Liang, who is familiar with the Internet, the first thing he did after becoming a "partner" was to make an introduction video of the software. The video of "Which is better to use in college search software, an assessment tells you the necessary learning tools for the student party" was uploaded to Douyin, Station B and other platforms, and it gained attention at a speed he couldn't imagine.
"There are more than 10 million views on Douyin alone, and in just two weeks, more than 200,000 fans have followed the official account, and nearly 80% have used the photo search service, which completely exceeds our expectations and proves that the potential user base of the photo search function is very large." According to him, at present, the number of fans of the official account is still growing steadily every month, and it can bring him about 30,000 yuan per month. "Sometimes, the side hustle pays more than the main hustle." Zhong Liang said.
"In general, there are no restrictions on when and where 'partners' can work, and this flexible employment style gives them a new source of income." According to Guo Yong, today, there are more than 40 "partners" under Yuyue Education, including both Zhong Liang who takes Pai Sou as a sideline, and there are also college students who originally became "partners" because they think the search question bank is easy to use, and "Bao Ma" who are unemployed at home, and take the promotion of Pai Sou service as a way to increase family income.
Standardization, the business road of auction search service has a long way to go
"I was killed by the xx search sauce, I trust you so much, you bring me to the ditch." On social platforms, a netizen complained that in the just-concluded exam, he only got 40 points in the end because he believed in the search function too much. Many netizens in the comment area also shared similar experiences, "I used xx to search for questions, and I only scored 68 points out of 100." But many netizens said that they also used search software, and their scores were basically above 90 points. In addition, some netizens said: "Last year's question bank had a high accuracy rate, but this year it has become lower." ”
(Source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)
How to ensure the standard rate of question answers?
How can the question bank be expanded?
The reporter learned that at present, most of the search question banks are searched by special personnel, and then college students and front-line teachers of related majors are invited to answer the questions. In order to get a higher accuracy of the answer, some service providers will invite 2-3 people to answer the same question. However, this does not guarantee 100% accuracy.
On the one hand, the question bank is constantly updated and iterated every year and semester, and the needs of users are also constantly changing. If the question bank is not updated in time, and the system does not understand the new question in place, there is a possibility of "answering the wrong question" or "talking nonsense in a serious way". On the other hand, in college students and adult education, the question bank of Paisou products covers relatively loose content, and some answers only have results, without an explanation process, and it is difficult to meet the needs of users.
In Guo Yong's view, at the moment when the auction search track is surging, how to continuously deepen the model's mastery of the problem, explore the ideal state of man-machine combination, introduce online teachers to answer questions in real time to make up for shortcomings, improve the accuracy of the algorithm, and take into account human resources and costs, so as to improve the commercial monetization ability of the auction search product, which is not only a problem that users are concerned about, but also a problem and pain point that service providers that provide the auction search function are facing.