CodeCombat Partners with NetEase to Bring its Coding Platform to China
On April 18th, CodeCombat formally announced their partnership with NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES), the leading internet company in China, to bring CodeCombat’s educational programming game to the Chinese market. Drawing on NetEase’s expertise in gaming and high-quality content localization, CodeCombat will look to add to its user base of 5 million by expanding into the largest country in the world.
As part of this partnership, CodeCombat and NetEase will be launching CodeCombat’s platform in 8 Chinese secondary schools: People’s University Xishan Middle School, Beijing Haidian Experimental Middle School, the Second Affiliated Middle School of East China Normal University, the First Affiliated Middle School of Huazhong Normal University, Hangzhou Jianlan Middle School, Guangzhou City Zhixin Middle School, Affiliated Middle School of Shaanxi Normal University, and Chengdu Jiaxiang Foreign Language School.
According to Zhou Suying, principal of Hangzhou Jianlan Middle School, the school has been using CodeCombat with 400 students for just over a month and enthusiasm for the program is very high. Zhou Suying reported that the attitude toward programming education has changed from "I'm required to learn it" to "I want to learn it".
“The percentage of US schools teaching programming has been increasing at a rate of 60% per year,” CodeCombat CEO Nick Winter said at the press conference. “In 2016, only 25% of schools in the United States had programming courses, and last year it is 40%. We believe that, in the near future, it will be 100%."
According to leaders in NetEase’s education division, while China recently introduced policies to incorporate computer science into college entrance examinations, the overall penetration rate of computer science education is still low. The partnership between CodeCombat and NetEase stemmed from the country’s need for high quality computer science education and the belief that programming in the future will be a must-have skill, similar to reading and writing. At the press conference, NetEase also spoke to the importance of CodeCombat being able to give learners the initiative to study without teachers needing expertise.
CodeCombat is the first foreign education product introduced by NetEase.
About CodeCombat:
CodeCombat is a platform for students to learn computer science while playing through a real game. It has been played in 200 countries around the world and has helped 5M users learn Python and JavaScript. Used by more than 31,000 teachers in more than 13,000 schools in North America. It is built for all learners and teachers, grades 4-12 and is recognized by the College Board as an endorsed provider of curriculum and professional development for AP® Computer Science Principles (AP CSP). Teachers, students, and individuals can sign up for CodeCombat (www.CodeCombat.com) and try the first level for free. You can sign up for the Chinese version at (https://CodeCombat.163.com/).
About NetEase
NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES) is a leading internet technology company in China. Dedicated to providing online services centered around content, community, communication and commerce, NetEase develops and operates some of China’s most popular PC-client and mobile games, advertising services, e-mail services and educational platforms. It has a global market capitalization of more than $40 billion and its education division has products that have accumulated over 100M users.
Learn more about NetEase: http://corp.netease.com