Rising demand, positive investors and technology brighten prospects for online education companies

In October last year, Shanghai resident Song Yujiao, 34, a procurement manager at a pharmaceutical company and mother of You Zhenyu, 4, decided to do what millions of others like her have been doing of late: She booked an expensive cross-border online education course for her child.

Initially, she was skeptical about whether the English-language program would be effective. The teacher, Matthew Privette, 27, was based thousands of miles away in the US state of South Carolina. The online course, offered by VIPkid, is received on Song's laptop.

Would a mix of livestreaming 25 minutes a day, and offline videos on her 15-inch screen, keep her son engrossed even for five minutes? When she was away for work, would he learn without supervision? She used to wonder, but not anymore. Her son no longer acts up, either.

He can't wait to flaunt his Halloween costume to his English teacher on-screen. He wants to learn the language even on holidays.

"I travel often. Unlike other parents, I hardly have the time to pick up my son from classes. So the online class saves a lot of trouble. I can also check the quality of the class using the replay feature of the video format," Song says.

For young Chinese parents such as Song, technology in the form of cross-border online educational services is proving to be a blessing.