NY-listed China online education firm to tap 100,000 English teachers from Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — New York listed 51Talk, an online education platform, plans to grow its portfolio of Filipino teachers to 100,000 in the next five years.

“English competency of Filipinos is high. Filipinos speak very good English and accent is neutral like American accent. The Chinese prefer American accent and Filipino teachers are very friendly,” 51Talk founder and CEO Jack Huang told The STAR in a recent interview.

51Talk is an online English education platform with at least 16,000 Filipino English teachers at present.

It was established in China seven years ago and was launched in the Philippines in 2012. It currently provides lessons to more than 10 million students in China.

Huang said there is a strong demand for online English lessons for children in China, noting that household investment in education and English requirements for students have been on the rise.

The English training market in China is estimated to be a $72 billion market with  the number of online English learners reaching 20 million.

Huang said 51Talk plans to grow its  home-based online teachers in the Philippines to 100,000 in the next five years.

The teachers undergo training and can then be assessed for various levels or rankings. They then teach students in China through an online platform. This means they can do the work from the comfort of their own homes.

In a recent press conference in the Philippines, 51Talk officials discussed plans to support the development of the ESL (English as a Second Language) industry in the Philippines through cooperation with various stakeholders such as the government and the academe.

51Talk has established training centers in key provinces which include Bacolod, Baguio, Cavite, Cebu, Davao, Pampanga and Pasig.

Headquartered in Beijing, 51Talk is currently the leading brand for online English education in China and is the first Chinese online education company listed in the United States.

Outside Beijing, it has branches in several other cities  such as Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Jinan, and Suzhou in China, and has presence in major cities in the Philippines.