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Updated: 2007-06-14 16:56

How big is the value of China's English-learning market? It's hard to give an answer, as estimates vary from 10 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan and even bigger. A look at New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc, the largest provider of private educational services in the country, can quickly show how booming the market is.

Shares of NASDAQ-listed New Oriental hit $47.46 on June 1 compared to an IPO price of $15 last September, even outperforming most Chinese Internet companies, which have long been hot stocks.

So late last month when the firm joined handset maker Nokia to launch a mobile learning initiative, the message was clear - the mobile English-training market is also big.

The agreement is part of the Mobiledu service pioneered by Nokia to tap into the growing craze for English-language learning in the country.

Mobile phone users can download and install the Mobiledu software, developed by Nokia, into their handsets and then access English-language courses on the Web via mobile communications networks.

Under a one-year deal, New Oriental will provide specially designed English language and test preparation course content for download, ranging from language tips to short sound bites which users can listen to on the go. They can also browse courses on mobile phone screens just like they can surf on the computer-based Web.

The mobile learning tool allows New Oriental to "reach more students through more creative means", says Michael Yu, New Oriental's chairman and chief executive officer, adding the demand for education in China is increasing.

For its third fiscal quarter, ended on February 28, 2007, New Oriental posted a net revenue of 255.1 million yuan, up 53.1 percent year-on-year.

Total student enrollment in language training and test preparation courses in the nine months ended February 28, 2007 increased by 19 percent year-on-year to about 754,300 from approximately 633,600 in the nine months ended February 28, 2006.

Though New Oriental now has a network of 34 schools and 128 learning centers across China, a significant number of students in less-developed regions still have to travel to bigger cities like Beijing for English courses with better-qualified teachers and resources.

Mobile phones offer a flexible learning alternative, says Yu. And even in the big cities, many people are finding that they cannot afford much time to go to language schools.

"Our cities are expanding and we're spending more of our lives on the road, on subways, on planes and in traffic. The idea of mobile learning is that it will allow students of all ages to access course material through a mobile phone, maximizing time by providing learning on the go," Yu says.

For Nokia, the mobile learning tool could provide a bigger catalyst for the already-booming English-learning market in China as most of those studying the language are young people who usually have a fascination with the mobile technology.

"Education is a very good domain (for Nokia) in China," says Marko Vanska, director of Nokia's emerging business unit in China. Education is quite important in Chinese culture. It is estimated that the Chinese spend about 10 percent of their disposable income on their children's education, with the most on English learning.

"A lot of young professionals in China need to learn English (to stay competitive in their careers)," Vanska says. "The young generation is very adaptive to the new services such as Mobiledu."

According to the quasi-government China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), 17 million people in China accessed the Internet using their mobile phones by the end of 2006. Among them, 30.9 percent were students. And most are high-school students, CNNIC says in a report.

For the elderly, learning English on the tiny screen of a mobile phone could be a tough job. But for youngsters, the mobile phone is already an indispensable mate. And a craze for mobile value-added services such as ringtone downloads could easily help them adapt to the "learning on the go."

"Education in the future should be a combination of education and entertainment," says Vanska.

Mobiledu is a platform that provides both English courses and entertainment content such as a golf course and kitchen course which could help learners take a rest for a while.

New Oriental is not the only partner of Nokia in the mobile learning push. Others include Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, training institute Dellenglish International, Internet Portal Sina Corp, fashion magazine Cosmopolitan, as well as 21st Century, a publication of China Daily targeting young English-learners.

These partners provide English courses and other content to a mobile Internet site - wap.mobiledo.cn. Vanska says the services will first be a free trial, followed by a paid service that could provide a new revenue stream for Nokia's partners.

Nokia generates revenue from licensing the mobiledu software. Users would also need to pay for the mobile Internet traffic, which has become much more affordable. A user in Beijing can pay 20 yuan for a monthly traffic of 20 megabytes via a GPRS mobile phone service.

Chinese cellular operators are expected to upgrade their current telephone networks to 3G (third generation) telephony, which could offer faster download speeds and mobile Internet access. That would add fuel to applications such as Mobiledu.

"We hope we are early enough to develop next generation applications," says Vanska. Nokia's emerging business unit he is heading is in charge of identifying and developing new applications for mobile phones.

Nokia might also seek to expand the service to other countries. "We will start it first in China and will look what is next in the world. You know learning Chinese is also very hot in the United States," says Vanska.

The director says Mobiledu is part of Nokia's Mobile Internet Innovation, a vision to mobilize the Internet. The Mobildo application can also be installed in handset models manufactured by companies other than Nokia.

Nokia recently also launched its Widsets service in China, a mobile phone service billed as a mobile "Web 2.0". It enables people to create, publish, enjoy and share their favorite Internet content on their mobile phones. Globally the mobile interactive service has signed more than 1 million subscribers.

Nokia has also signed a framework research agreement with Tsinghua University, one of China's top universities. Nokia says the agreement is the first of its kind in Asia for the Nokia Research Center, which has established similar arrangements with several world-class universities in the US, UK and Finland in recent months.

The research will initially focus on mobile Internet and interactive solutions for Asia.