CEO of Hujiang Online Education: China will Become the World Leader in Innovation

SHANGHAI, April 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Last month, a Belgian newspaper De Standaard released an article about what drives the Chinese entrepreneurs from zero to hero. In the story, the founder and CEO of Hujiang, Arnold Fu was mentioned specifically. He set an example for the young Chinese entrepreneurs to show how to chase dreams in the Internet age, while trying to help more people solve the education issue.

Founded by Fu in Shanghai, China, Hujiang is an online education unicorn company offering internet-based education products and services. The company's main business is to focus on multi-lingual courses.

Now with thousands of staff and teachers, and off the back of the rapid growth in the online education industry in China in recent years, Hujiang completed a new round financing in 2015 that has seen the company valued at over $1 billion.

The chairman and CEO, Fu founded the company during his college years. "I started it as a non-profit online platform that could help people study from each other," he says. Through this platform, everyone was able to learn English more freely.

After graduation, he borrowed money from family and friends to continue optimizing the platform. "Unfortunately, most people were betting against online education at that time," he says, "but education still seems a big issue in many Chinese families. I want to build an education platform which is accessible to the poor."

Three years ago, there were only 100 companies involved in online education; now that number has expanded to more than 8,000. "It's fair to say the market is exploding," says Fu. "As China loosens the one-child policy, the pressure on the education system increasingly becomes a problem."

He also believes that online education and traditional teaching methods will be mutually complementary in the future, as young people are now part of the Internet age.

Fu maintains that what he has achieved so far was not for money, but for public good. He also believes that China is able to stand on the frontier in the digital age. "A long time ago, people thought that China merely copied from others. However, China's economic reform has lasted for just a few decades. China will eventually become the world leader in innovation. All we need is time."

SOURCE Hujiang