Another adult online education platform is in trouble. A series of issues such as layoffs, wage arrears, suspension of social security, and suspension of rebates will bring Beijing Kaikeba Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Kaikeba ) to the "front of the storm".
In order to improve your education, to a side job, and to find a better job... Many adults are very fond of this platform, known as the "unicorn" of online vocational education, and purchased various "protocol class" courses. While studying, they waited for the rebate. They did not expect, but waited for help and rights protection.
53 courses in a year have become "check-in machine"
"For the past year, I often wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if I have checked in that class."
At the end of July last year, Lin Xingqi bought courses at the Kaikao Bar for the first time. At that time, he was in his second year of doctoral degree, and his major changed from computer to Artificial Intelligence design. In order to assist in the scientific research project at hand, he purchased the basic artificial intelligence course worth 15,800 yuan on the platform.
In the following year, he described himself as "as if he was addicted" and "can't control himself and buy more and more".
The course purchase statistics table provided by Lin Xingqi shows that as of June this year, he has purchased 53 courses of various types at Kaike Bar. The prices of single subject courses range from dozens of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, with a total cost of nearly 250,000 yuan, most of which are "protocol classes".
Lin Xingqi recalled that at the beginning, he learned that the class was started through a few dollars of traffic diversion classes online. "I didn't buy it at that time, so I waited and watched for a while. Later, they did activities and organized agreement classes." This was the first time he heard about the "protocol class" model.
The so-called "protocol class" is also called "scholarship class". Lin Xingqi said that applying for a class means that students can receive a refund of all tuition fees after they meet certain standards in class or exams. The courses enrolled by Lin Xingqi are based on the return standard for the check-in, that is, the live courses and recorded courses reach 60% and 80% of the viewing time respectively. The return method is divided into monthly return or return after class.
After buying the artificial intelligence course, Lin Xingqi quickly purchased two major-related courses, totaling nearly 20,000 yuan. He has a good foundation and checks in on time every day to attend classes. The rebates for the first three courses are as promised.
During this period, sales and "class teacher" continued to sell him various courses. Before the class starts, Liu Yiqiang, an employee, told reporters that front-end sales are responsible for recruiting students, and the "class teacher" is responsible for delivering courses to students and answering various course-related questions, such as how to use software, and secondly, it also undertakes the task of "secondary sales".
Under various sales, Lin Xingqi purchased non-professional related courses such as film and television editing, life study, image aesthetics, etc., all of which are "protocol classes" and are mostly thousands of yuan. This means that in order to get a rebate, he needs to spend a lot of time in class to check in. Lin Xingqi admitted that when he couldn't take care of his energy, he would complete the clock in by placing an account to swipe the duration of his recording and broadcasting classes.
Some course statistics tables purchased by Lin Xingqi. Photo provided by the interviewee
, and a "small class" that he accidentally bought for 79 yuan made him fall into the clock in cycle again. Lin Xingqi said that this type of course requires you to check in every day and get tuition refunds after attending all the time. For example, the 79 yuan "Xiaobai Financial Management Class" mentioned above requires 70 consecutive days of clocking in. Once it is over for one day, the student needs to find another user to purchase the course within 10 days before he can make up for it. Therefore, in order to attend all the time, students in the check-in group often seek other students who also forgot to check in and buy each other's courses.
In Lin Xingqi's record, he purchased more than 10 similar small classes, including "Celebrity Wisdom Class", "Learn some legal knowledge every day", "100 sections, and play with English roots and affixes". Most of these courses are priced at around 100 yuan, and the most expensive one is 599 yuan. They require continuous check-in to 70 days, 90 days, 100 days, and 120 days respectively. The longest "meditation plan" requires 365 days, and the course duration is about 6 minutes and the length is more than 10 minutes.
The initial learning purpose gradually lost its direction.Lin Xingqi said that sometimes in order to speed up, he would turn on his mobile phone and computer at the same time, "This will save half of the time, and the time (check-in every day) is still very long."
However, an "accident" in June this year caused him to fail to check in in time. In order to make up for the task that day, he had to use his family's account to buy more than a dozen small classes. Before that, he only had one day left.
"Check-in" just invades Lin Xingqi's life little by little. He felt that he was like a "check-in machine", becoming more and more anxious, and even becoming a little "demonic".
Some people are still paying back their loans, and some are being ticked for debts
In Lin Xingqi's memory, the delay in the rebate probably began at the end of last year. The class teacher notified the situation alone or in the class group, "It will be delayed for a few days or more than ten days, but it will still come." In his account record, the last fee was received on April 13 this year.
After that, due to academic issues, Lin Xingqi had no time to take into account the rebate issue. He once believed in the delayed rhetoric of starting class, believing that "there is no big problem." Some salespersons also suggested that he participate in the "Excellent Student Selection Plan" that was being carried out at the time, that is, select a certain number of courses from the purchased courses to register. After that, there will be no need to check in for relevant courses, and he will receive a full rebate at the end of August.
"As soon as I was excited, I registered 6 courses." Lin Xingqi said that at that time, he wanted to relieve some pressure of check-in, and always trust Kaikaba. "I checked it online and the company is quite big, so I feel more at ease."
What Lin Xingqi didn't know was that Kaikaba, one of the "unicorns" companies in online vocational education, was already in financial difficulties at this time and began to owe employees' wages. Therefore, he was fined 10,000 yuan by the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Tianhe District, Guangzhou in July. The reasons for the punishment show that on June 2, many people complained that Kaikeba did not pay employees' wages during their employment in a timely manner. The Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Tianhe District, Guangzhou requires it to resolve the related wage arrears before June 20. However, the company failed to make rectifications in accordance with relevant requirements and did not pay employees' wages in March, April and May 2022.
Even so, the salesmen are still selling courses, and even suggest that Lin Xingqi upgrade the course, that is, pay an extra amount of money to turn non-refund classes into refund classes.
"At that time, I felt that I had learned nothing in this course, and I was not applying for an agreement class, which was a bit of a loss." On May 31, Lin Xingqi paid 8,260 yuan to upgrade the film and television editing class to an agreement class, and the agreement to rebate the fee at the end of July has become a bubble. "I took several classes in June, and there are no classes scheduled in July."
Lin Xingqi compared the registration for the "protocol class" to "fleece". Because there were too many classes, he once felt "sorry" and specially purchased two non-refunded courses. Lin Xingqi said that for students who do not have a fixed source of income, its attractiveness lies in not only learning what they want to learn, but also receiving rebates to reduce the financial burden.
In addition, for high-priced courses, sales will also propose installment payments when promoting. Li Xianglin, who spent 25,800 yuan to purchase the public exam course, told reporters that when registering, the salesperson said that the rebate will be received on time on a monthly basis, and the tuition can be paid in installments by credit card installments, or through the loan platform Beijing Cheese Future Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chice Future"), a partner of his company. Li Xianglin chose credit card installment payment , and later received only two rebates, totaling 8,600 yuan. Now, he has already stopped attending classes, but he still has to pay back his credit card every month.
Liu Yiqiang told reporters that when faced with students who need to pay in installments, they generally recommend credit cards, Huabei and JD.com Baibao and other platforms. If the credit limit is not enough, they will recommend using "Chisie Future". "Other platforms have quotas for everyone. You can't borrow 25,800 from Huabei, but it's easy to borrow from 'Chesy Future'." The situation of
was confirmed by many students.A student who paid in installments through "Chicago Future" told reporters that he was still a college student when he purchased civil servant courses at the beginning of the year. The Huabei credit limit was not enough, so the salesperson recommended "Chicago Future" in 12 periods, with a repayment of 2,040.5 yuan per period. The recipient was Shenzhen Fengxin Commercial Factoring Priority Company (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhen Fengxin"). Qichacha shows that "Chicago Future" and Shenzhen Fengxin are the same person, both of which are Hu Chao. The legal representative of Kaikeba Fang Yechang once served as the director of "Chicago Future" in September 2019, and then withdrew in August 2021.
The installment registration information provided by the above-mentioned students shows that the education level is "high school", the work information is "none", and it has also passed the review successfully. But when the repayment reached the third month, the other party delayed the refund, and he had no money, so he stopped repaying the payment and had been overdue for 3 months. "No one collects debts."
However, several other students who paid in installments through "Chisie Future" received debt collection information from "Rongyi Installment", and some students received lawyer letters from the relevant creditor transfer company. The reporter called the customer service hotline of "Rongyi Installment". The staff said that its platform had a cooperative relationship with Kaikeba before, but it has now been terminated. After the students chose to pay in installments, they have paid the full amount to Kaikeba in one lump sum. "The students need to repay them in installments to us. Overdue fees will be incurred. If the overdue is too long, it will affect the credit report."
Overdue text messages received by the student. Photo provided by the interviewee
In response to the cancellation of installment loan proposed by the students, the reporter consulted the Kaika Bar. The other party said that at present, only the collector's installment can be cancelled through its company, and those involving multiple other third-party investors cannot be cancelled. As for the refund issue, students need to continue waiting.
"Protocol Class" has caused controversy, and the supervision of prepayment funds is urgent
Many students have doubts about this approach that is close to "free" learning. Li Xianglin told reporters that he had asked the "teacher" who promoted the salesperson, if the company made money like this, the other party said, "On this day, there are only dozens of places for the promotion of the reputation and the promotion of the product."
Liu Yiqiang said that during the few months he worked, the company's rebate model would be changed from time to time. "For example, during this period, it was 25,800 yuan to buy classes, and it was rebate for 6 months. If this model is not sold well, just change it and give one, 2,980 yuan to get three months to get one."
Several employees told reporters that in order to promote, many institutions on the market will adopt the "protocol class" model to recruit students. They also believed in the company's rebate policy at the beginning, so they vigorously promoted it, and even their relatives and friends came to apply for classes. What they didn't expect was that not only are the students' rebates hopeless, but their salary will not be paid when they will be paid.
In fact, the controversy over high-priced "protocol class" has long existed. An executive of public education service agency Zhonggong Education once said at the 2019 online performance briefing that "protocol class" is an innovative form of training course product. After long-term market inspection and product iteration, it has become a training course product form commonly used by most institutions in the vocational training industry. Currently, the company's agreement class accounts for more than 70%.
"Agreement Class" on the one hand brings revenue to Zhonggong Education, and on the other hand, there are also large refunds. Last year, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued letters of concern to Zhonggong Education twice, asking it to respond to issues such as performance reduction, acceptance details of agreement class income, and refund rates. According to media reports, Zhonggong Education quickly removed all products for public service examinations. Recently, regarding the relevant agreement class issue, the reporter consulted a salesperson of Zhonggong Education. The other party said that the previous removal of the shelves was "full withdrawal", and the current agreement class requires a certain tuition fee. However, in the relevant enrollment posters released by him, the reporter found that there are still courses that have not been fully withdrawn.
Zhonggong Education’s course admission poster for all withdrawals.Screenshot
The reporter then called the official hotline of Zhonggong Education. The staff said that there are indeed some courses that are completely refunded at present, but it depends on the specific settings of the course. "For public offices, some cities like us have refunded them all, but there is an additional 1,000 yuan in tuition and miscellaneous fees. The tuition and miscellaneous fees are not refundable. Some courses do not even have to be charged tuition and miscellaneous fees, or some courses require some fees to be deducted. The written test does not deduct part, and the interview does not deduct part."
On a third-party complaint platform, there have been more than 6,000 complaints about the refund of agreed classes, involving many educational institutions such as Kaike Bar, Xuehui.com, and Huatu Education .
"China Comprehensive Lifelong Education Platform Big Data Report" shows that the market size of comprehensive lifelong education is expected to reach nearly 300 billion yuan in 2021. New occupations drive category innovation, onlineization accelerates the market sinking, and online comprehensive lifelong education accounts for 40%.
There is a huge market on one side, and chaos arises on the other side. Li Xiang, partner and director of the Compliance Center of Shanghai Zhengce Law Firm, believes that compared with traditional offline education institutions, online education itself is more difficult to supervise, and puts forward relatively high requirements for technical and institutional supervision.
In July 2021, the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Adult Education and Training in Social Sciences" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), encouraging the adoption of the " Internet + " hybrid learning model, building an online learning platform and a mobile learning platform, strengthening resource construction, and improving service and management levels.
For funding management, the "Notice" requires urging social adult education and training institutions to establish financial, accounting, asset management and third-party audit systems in accordance with the law to standardize charging and refund behaviors. Local education administrative departments should work with relevant departments to improve the fund supervision mechanism of social adult education and training institutions to further reduce the risk of prepayment of funds.
"This shows that the official level supports and encourages the construction of adult education platforms through Internet technology, and also puts forward strict requirements on the financial funding management of institutions." Li Xiang said that analyzing the recent problems that have arisen online adult education institutions, the platform obviously invests its main investment in marketing rather than the course itself.
"Unlike traditional commodity transactions, once one party cannot cash out the transaction of virtual products and there is no supervision or guarantee from a third-party platform, most of these risks and losses will be borne by the students." Li Xiang said that in response to the risks that have occurred, students can safeguard their rights and interests through laws and require the platform to fulfill their signed contractual obligations. But it is difficult to protect rights. Once there is a problem with the platform, the cycle for students to finally realize their legal rights is longer. If they have financial consumption such as " training loan ", the pressure will be greater. He said that in-depth supervision of prepayment funds is urgent.
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