Dive Brief:
- Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng says China is the MOOC provider's fastest-growing foreign market.
- Mobile is key to that growth: Coursera's Android app is downloaded in China more than any other country, and the Asian nation is No. 2 in terms of iOS downloads of the app.
- China has a localized version of Coursera, dubbed Coursera Zone, that was created about a year ago via a partnership with Chinese online media giant Netease.
Dive Insight:
Thanks to smartphone technology, online learning companies like Coursera have been able to reach lower income people worldwide — even more so given the increasing affordability of such phones. Still, its presence in these nations doesn't exist in a vacuum. Aside from its stateside competition, it also has Chinese MOOC providers like Kaikeba and XuetangX, the latter of which uses edX's open-source platform.