Alibaba invests in online education service

Alibaba Group announced Monday that it has invested nearly $100 million in online education service TutorGroup, with two partners, Singapore investment company Temasek and Shanghai-based Qiming Venture Partners.

According to a statement sent to the Global Times, TutorGroup plans to use the funding to further growth across the Asian market, and also expand its market share in the America.

TutorGroup won a $15 million investment from Qiming Venture and CyberAgent in April 2012.

Founded in 2004, Shanghai-based TutorGroup, with more than 2,000 teachers in 60 cities across 30 countries and regions, provides real-time interactive language learning.

The company estimates the adult English language-learning market in the Chinese mainland is growing fast at 25 percent annually, and the market size will reach over $21 billion by 2016.

In the mainland alone, TutorGroup expects sales to see a triple-digit annual growth rate in the coming few years.

Last year, Alibaba launched online education platform Taobao Classmate, and this investment is regarded as another step for the e-commerce firm to explore the online education market.

Chinese private and online education has been growing in recent years with a wave of startups receiving significant financing.

In December 2012, online English training service 51Talk raised $12 million in financing from funds backed by a domestic Internet company Xiaomi.