Robert Besser
15 Jan 2022, 03:06 GMT+10
BEIJING, China: In response to Beijing's sweeping overhaul of the private education industry, New Oriental Education, China's largest private education business, laid off 60,000 employees in 2021.
The company's billionaire founder, Yu Minhong, confirmed the shakeup in a post on his WeChat account over the weekend, adding that the company encountered "too many changes in 2021," and blamed the layoffs on "policies, the pandemic and international relations."
As Beijing is intensifying its efforts to curb what it considers unruly business practices, Yu's post highlights the difficulties facing private enterprises in China.
New York-listed Oriental was one of the most high-profile casualties of the widespread restrictions imposed on the country's $120 billion private tutoring sector.
In July, regulators imposed new rules that banned for-profit, after-school tutoring services and restricted such companies from making profits or raising capital, as they claimed too much tutoring overwhelmed children, placed excessive financial burdens on parents, and exacerbated social inequality.
Further, Chinese authorities ordered education businesses to suspend both online and offline tutoring classes.
After Yu's post drew attention, New Oriental said it did not "represent the views of the company." In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company said it was reviewing its latest financial results and would eventually update the market.
The private tutoring ban shocked parents and left many businesses struggling, as well as triggered a sharp selloff of Chinese education companies in New York and Hong Kong.
It was also a sudden reversal of fortune for those companies, which attracted billions of dollars of funding from major investors, such as Tiger Global Management and SoftBank Group.
In addition, life will be difficult for the few surviving companies. Yu acknowledged in his post that New Oriental emerged from the last six months "with great difficulty."
In November, TAL Education, another Chinese tutoring giant, announced that it will shift its focus from teaching school curricula for kindergarten to ninth grades and instead tutor other subjects, such as music and sports, as well as expand operations abroad.
Get a daily dose of New Zealand Star news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to New Zealand Star.
More InformationBRUSSELS, Belgium: European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said that the bloc would ensure Ukraine that it has ...
Former U.S. President George W. Bush has made an embarrassing mistake in criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin over his decision ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. State Department has announced the launch of a new program to capture and analyze evidence of ...
JAKARTA, Indonesia: A new poll released this week indicated that Indonesian President Joko Widodo's approval rating has hit a six-year ...
EAST JAVA, Indonesia: A tourist bus crashed into a billboard on a highway on Indonesia's main island of Java this ...
BELGRADE, Serbia: Belgrade was paralyzed this week by a series of bomb threats, including against schools, bridges, restaurants and a ...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stock markets reversed sharp losses in late trading to eke out minor gains in ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: U.S. retail sales rose strongly in April, as consumers bought more motor vehicles and spent more at restaurants, ...
LONDON, England: The UK's jobless rate fell to a 48-year low in the first three months of 2022, it was ...
SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - A reduction of the official lending criteria in China has boosted stocks on the mainland, and ...
ISTANBUL, Turkey: As state lenders reduced the amount of dollar sales to prop up the currency for the ninth consecutive ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Federal officials have announced that Eddy Alexandre, CEO of Valley Stream trading, is facing charges ...