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NetDragon Partners with RYB Education to Develop Online Early Childhood Education

NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (“NetDragon” or “the Company”, Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a strategic agreement with RYB Education, Inc (“RYB Education”), joining forces to explore online early childhood education in China. This collaboration broadens NetDragon’s online education product offerings and services in early childhood education and at-home education, as well as opening up such markets in China.

Leveraging the achievements and advantages of NetDragon’s education technologies and products, while integrating with the platform resources from RYB Education, this strategic cooperation aims to provide early childhood education platforms and products, and also to explore the online-to-offline (“O2O”) model of early childhood English education. In addition, NetDragon plans to exploit its know how and experience in gamification of education products to offer upgraded and enhanced versions of RYB Education’s family and parenting course contents, in order to increase competitiveness. Moreover, this cooperation in early childhood education will carry out at both ToB and ToC levels.

RYB Education is a leading early childhood education service provider in China, focusing on early childhood education for children from infancy to 6 years old. Through direct operation and franchising, RYB Education currently covers approximately 500 kindergartens and 1,300 play-and-learn centres across more than 300 cities nationwide, providing early childhood education guidance and services to cumulatively millions of families. With its high-quality early education platform and products, RYB Education’s number of students and registered users has continued to rise. Furthermore, the integration of online and offline education contents and resources by making use of RYB Education’s diverse set of education services and products, and NetDragon’s technical and professional expertise in online education, will result in more possibilities for early childhood education in China.

Dr. Simon Leung, Vice Chairman of NetDragon and CEO of NetDragon Huayu Education, commented, “We are delighted to enter into this strategic cooperative partnership with RYB Education. We believe this partnership aids the Company in establishing a solid foundation in the early childhood education market. The Company will leverage its advantages of content resources and its expertise in fields such as informatization of education as well as the integration of education and technology, to collaborate with RYB Education. We firmly believe that we can share strong synergies through NetDragon’s powerful digital curriculum and online course solutions, as well as RYB Education’s strong resource base of students, teachers and parents. We also hope that our collaboration will lead to innovation and equality in education.”

“We are excited about this strategic relationship with NetDragon, a strong advocate for education innovation in the internet industry. By leveraging NetDragon’s pool of established online learning platforms and digital learning technologies, such as VR and AR, we are well-positioned to develop competitive early childhood education products and platforms suitable for online education,” said Ms. Yanlai Shi, CEO of RYB Education. “There will be strong synergy between our extensive student and parent network and NetDragon’s digital curriculum, tools and solutions. We look forward to working closely with the NetDragon team and believe we will bring about more educational innovations and make early childhood education services and contents more flexible and accessible, better serving the needs of parents and children.”

About NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) is a global leader in building internet communities with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users. These include China’s number one online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China’s most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless, which was sold to Baidu for US$1.9 billion in 2013 as the largest Internet M&A transaction in China.

Established in 1999, NetDragon is one of the most reputable and well-known online game developers in China with a history of successful game titles including Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. In recent years, NetDragon has also started to scale its online education business on the back of management’s vision to create the largest global online learning community, and to bring the “classroom of the future” to every school around the world. For more information, please visit www.netdragon.com.

About RYB Education, Inc
Founded in 1998, RYB Education, Inc focuses on the quality early childhood consultations and services of children from infancy to 6 years old and families, covering approximately 1300 play-and-learn centres and 500 prestige kindergartens across China. On 27 September 2017, RYB Education (NYSE:RYB) was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For investor enquiries, please contact:
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
Ms. Maggie Zhou
Senior Director of Investor Relations
Tel.: +852 2850 7266 / +86 591 8390 2825
Email: maggie@nd.com.cn
Website: ir.netdragon.com

NetDragon’s Multiple Online Education Products Support Continuous Online Learning amid No-School Period

NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (“NetDragon” or “the Company”, Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, acknowledges that the novel coronavirus has recently been a major concern for many. In order to support the call of China’s Ministry of Education (“MoE”) to “build online cloud classes to ensure students can study at home when face-to-face classes are not allowed”, NetDragon announces that, as a part of upholding corporate social responsibility, the Company’s online education platform One Stop Learning is introducing a new service plan to provide live-streaming of courses for over 10 million users free of charge. Meanwhile, NetDragon also offers online interactive education platform and resources to teachers and students in Hong Kong and Macau to continue virtual schooling for free.

On 1 February, the Fuzhou Bureau of Education published the “Guidelines on proper management of education for primary, secondary, and vocational schools amidst postponement of school semesters”. The guidelines state that NetDragon’s One Stop Learning is chosen as the official platform in support of Fuzhou’s “Continuous Learning amid School Suspension” mandate. NetDragon’s One Stop Learning platform will facilitate online learning of over one million teachers and students as well as several million parents, showcasing technical capabilities of NetDragon and its One Stop Learning platform in sustaining quality service.

On top of Fuzhou, One Stop Learning platform has also been aiding the Department of Education of Hubei Province. In collaboration with Hubei Province, NetDragon established the “Hubei Education Cloud Platform”, which has gradually rolled out free education services, including online lectures, online teaching videos and micro lessons, to over a million teachers and students in Hubei Province. The construction and testing of the platform were completed in merely three days and live trials were conducted in three cities, including Macheng, Xiantao and Yangxin on 30 January. The platform received enthusiastic support from the Center for Educational Technology of Xiantao City. One Stop Learning platform will extend its services to support online live stream schooling for nearly 30 cities, counties and districts in Hubei Province and ensure “Continuous Learning amid School Suspension” is well-implemented.

The service of One Stop Learning platform’s “Continuous Learning amid School Suspension” not only provides the latest information of the novel coronavirus and public health measures, but also supports features including teachers’ class preparation and teaching, online assignments and exams, live-communication between schools and parents, academic research, and operational management that allows users to efficiently accomplish their daily work.

In addition to One Stop Learning, NetDragon is offering its integrated software for lesson preparation and delivery, 101 Education PPT, to all teachers in China free of charge, to facilitate easy online lesson preparation and delivery. Supported on multiple platforms including PC, iOS and Android, 101 Education PPT is an integrated teaching software which comes with millions of readily-available teaching materials. Besides, Kami English, an oral English teaching and learning assistant system for K-12 students introduced by NetDragon’s subsidiary Chivox, is opening all online VIP-exclusive services free of charge to all students and teachers in primary and secondary schools across the country, as well as extending VIPs’ subscription period, to ensure students can carry on with their English learning during this school suspension period.

In Hong Kong and Macau, classes are also tentatively suspended until March or later. As such, Edmodo, a subsidiary of NetDragon, will continue to support online interactive learning during the period. On the Edmodo platform, teachers can share reading materials and educational videos with the class, along with online discussions to encourage independent learning among students, such that they can keep up with their learning progress. On the other hand, the Company also uses Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) to provide a free “cloud-based learning platform” to serve as a short-term solution for schools in Hong Kong with cross-border students who may encounter issues when commuting between Hong Kong and mainland China. This cloud can be utilised as a platform for teachers to share their lecture recordings and for students to retrieve learning materials; and coupled with the support of assignment delivery function on Edmodo, students can make use of these tools to facilitate their daily learning at home.

In the face of the novel coronavirus, we will continue our full support towards both students and teachers by rolling out more online education services. Knowledge is the key to a brighter future, and at NetDragon, we uphold this especially during such tough times.

About NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) is a global leader in building internet communities with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users. These include China’s number one online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China’s most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless, which was sold to Baidu for US$1.9 billion in 2013 as the largest Internet M&A transaction in China.

Established in 1999, NetDragon is one of the most reputable and well-known online game developers in China with a history of successful game titles including Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. In recent years, NetDragon has also started to scale its online education business on the back of management’s vision to create the largest global online learning community, and to bring the “classroom of the future” to every school around the world. For more information, please visit www.netdragon.com.

For investor enquiries, please contact:
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
Ms. Maggie Zhou
Senior Director of Investor Relations
Tel.: +852 2850 7266 / +86 591 8390 2825
Email: maggie@nd.com.cn
Website: ir.netdragon.com

NetDragon Showcased Intelligent Classroom Solution at “Africa 2019” Forum

Mr. Liu Dejian (first from front left), Founder and Chairman of NetDragon introduced Intelligent Classroom Solution developed by NetDragon, to His Excellency Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt (third from front left)

*Egyptian leaders met with NetDragon management team*

NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (“NetDragon” or “the Company”, Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is pleased to announce that, the Company participated in the “Africa 2019” forum held in Cairo, Egypt on November 22-23, 2019. The theme of the forum was “Investment for Africa”.

NetDragon showcased its digital education products including Intelligent Classroom Solution, Virtual Laboratory and Promethean ActivPanel at the forum. His Excellency Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt, visited and experienced Intelligent Classrooms and Promethean ActivPanel, products that are well suited for education in Africa.

During the event, Egyptian leaders including President Sisi, Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, and Minister of Education Dr. Tarek Shawki met with NetDragon’s management team which included Founder and Chairman Mr. Liu Dejian, Vice Chairman Dr. Simon Leung, CEO Dr. Xiong Li, and Senior Vice President Mr. Chen Hong. Based on the experience of past cooperation, the two sides furthered their discussion about the future implementation of digital education in Egypt. Mr. Liu Dejian introduced NetDragon’s innovations in digital education to President Sisi, and expressed his gratitude to be part of Egypt’s education reform with achievements seen in 2019. NetDragon will uphold its vision in education, so that all teachers and students in Egypt can enjoy the knowledge dividends brought by cutting-edge educational technologies. In 2020, NetDragon will be providing the Intelligent Classroom Solution for Egypt, which can ease the problem of insufficient classroom capacity currently faced by many African countries.

As a country along the “Belt and Road”, Egypt has actively pursued partners on a global scale since the implementation of its five-year education reform program in 2018. Strengths of NetDragon’s such as global coverage, strong technical capabilities and innovative design proficiency provide a solid foundation for Egypt’s education reform. Although the infrastructure of African countries like Egypt is constantly improving, quality educational resources are yet to be ubiquitous, and education equality still faces challenges. The Intelligent Classroom Solution was designed and created precisely against this backdrop. Intelligent Classrooms are equipped with high-tech software and hardware such as Promethean ActivPanel, Mobile Device Management, and Edmodo Classroom. Featured with modular construction and design flexibility, Intelligent Classroom Solution enables easy transportation, quick deployment and high scalability, such that developing countries and regions can easily materialize and popularize quality education at low cost.

Earlier this year, the Egyptian Government and NetDragon signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation. Egypt plans to complete the construction of 265,000 Intelligent Classrooms nationwide within three years and deploy NetDragon’s education technologies and equipment at the heart of the Intelligent Classrooms. In early 2020, the Company expects 100 Intelligent Classroom Solutions to be deployed in Egypt, and that it will cover more African countries in future. So far, 11,000 classrooms in Egypt are equipped with Promethean’s interactive panels, and 26,000 units will be deployed in the country next year.

In addition, NetDragon has launched in recent years “The Institute of Development and Education for Africa” (IDEA) under the “Belt and Road” initiative, and has received positive response from an increasing number of African countries. NetDragon is assisting Nigeria in building the “N-Power Project”. The Nigerian Government plans to purchase Intelligent Classroom Solution products from NetDragon, which are expected to cover 500,000 K-12 students in the country, and ultimately ease the problem of uneven distribution of educational resources in a fast, efficient and cost saving way, particular in remote areas. Meanwhile, NetDragon also assisted Kenya in developing digital education by building a public service platform for national education resources, a community network platform for national teaching, a training platform for national digital talent, and an experience center for national future education. In May of this year, NetDragon also signed a memorandum of understanding on digital education with the Government of Ghana, such that NetDragon will provide technical support for the development of future education in Ghana.

The “Belt and Road” initiative is unleashing enormous potential for China-Africa cooperation. Mr. Liu Dejian comments that NetDragon is willing to use “digital education” as the foundation to support Africa countries in achieving education innovation and upgrade. The Company will continue to seize market opportunities and deliver Chinese education technologies, products and services to more countries along the “Belt and Road”, in order to achieve its mission of “Building the World’s Largest Online Learning Community”.

NetDragon Wins Another “Smart Campus” Tender in Fuzhou, Bringing Cumulative Win Amount to nearly RMB60 million

*Promethean’s ActivPanel Elements series interactive panel*

NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (“NetDragon” or “the Company”, Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is pleased to announce that the Company recently won the tender of interactive multimedia equipment project for primary schools in Changle District, Fuzhou. Promethean’s new series of interactive flat panels, ActivePanel Elements series, which are equipped with NetDragon’s flagship education products including 101 Education PPT and AcitvInspire, will be entering nearly 70 schools in Changle District to cover approximately 430 classrooms. Since the beginning of the year, the amount of NetDragon’s cumulative winning bids from the Fuzhou “Smart Campus” project has totalled nearly RMB60 million, and the delivery and revenue recognition are expected in the first quarter of 2020.

ActivPanel Elements series was created by Promethean, a NetDragon subsidiary and the world’s leading educational technology company. Continued with Promethean’s 20+ years tradition of developing purpose-built interactive displays for education, the new ActivPanel Elements series are flat panels designed for classrooms. It does not only offer users with a natural and smooth touch experience with unique VellumTM writing technology, but also offers wider and clearer visual sensation, resulting in a better foundation for the transformation of teaching approaches.

Since joining NetDragon’s global family in 2015, Promethean’s products have accomplished three major upgrades. Owing to this, it has won the “Best of Show” awards at the ISTE EdTech Conference in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Besides, thanks to its smooth interactive experience, outstanding performance and user-oriented design, the new ActivPanel Elements series was a winner of the prestigious Red Dot Design Award in 2019. Currently, more than a million classrooms worldwide are equipped with Promethean ActivPanel series panels.

Mr. Yu Biao, Senior Vice President of NetDragon, commented that NetDragon signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Fuzhou Bureau of Education in June, aiming to jointly construct a smart education model zone. And previously in August, the Company also won the tender of smart campus construction project of Fuzhou No.3 High School Binhai Campus and Fuzhou Experimental School Binhai Campus. This latest round of tender win of the project of Changle District Education Bureau in Fuzhou will cover nearly 70 primary schools, which will be used as a reference of “smart campus”. Looking ahead, NetDragon will continue to integrate global education resources and channels, aggressively rollout Promethean products in the China market, upgrade technology applications and classroom participation to a higher level, and ultimately contribute to digital education and smart campus construction in China.

NetDragon Published White Paper on Education Technology at BRICS Summit in Brazil

NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (“NetDragon” or “the Company”, Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is pleased to announce that, the Company participated in the 11th BRICS Summit on November 13-14, 2019. The Summit was held at Brasilia, capital of Brazil. The theme of the conference was “Economic Growth for an Innovative Future”. Digital economy and technological innovation were two focused topics. Participants included heads of state of the BRICS five member states, core multilateral partners, and well-known enterprises from various fields to jointly discuss the future innovative cooperation model. On the other hand, at the “BRICS Business Council Meeting 2019”, the “White Paper on Education Technology in BRICS 2019” (“White Paper”), mainly drafted by NetDragon, was officially published.

With the support of the BRICS cooperation mechanism and the “Belt and Road Initiative”, NetDragon’s overseas business development has been well recognized. NetDragon has participated in the BRICS Summit for three consecutive years, and this was its second year to be invited as a core member of the Digital Economy Working Group of the BRICS Business Council. Mr. Liu Dejian, Founder and Chairman of NetDragon, Dr. Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon, attended the Summit representing NetDragon.

In July 2018, NetDragon joined the Digital Economy Working Group of the BRICS Business Council and participated in the preparation of the White Paper, in order to discuss the exploration and practice of the BRICS countries in the field of digital education, which received broad attention from the event attendees. Regarding the intention of participating in the drafting and publishing of the White Paper, Mr. Liu Dejian commented: “Integration of cutting-edge technology and education is the key focus of the industry. We hope to share our achievements in digital education over the years and work together with the BRICS countries to promote digital education and improve the quality of education. Although the BRICS countries have made significant progress in education in recent years, there remains a huge gap compared with developed countries. Therefore, we must take a more proactive role in the application of information technology to foster education upgrades, which is also the fundamental reason of our devotion to developing digital education technology.”

Since NetDragon’s expansion into the education industry, the Company has acquired a series of digital education companies worldwide, becoming an owner and promoter of rich teaching resources, advanced digital technologies and advanced pedagogical concepts. To date, NetDragon’s educational products and solutions have been gradually promoted and applied in the BRICS countries and countries along the “Belt and Road”. In recent years, NetDragon has provided the latest interactive learning technology to more than 20,000 smart classrooms in Moscow, Russia. Meanwhile, NetDragon plans to build 265,000 pop-up classrooms in Egypt within three years. In addition, NetDragon products have entered the Indian market for many years, and more than 100,000 classrooms have adopted NetDragon’s digital education solutions. NetDragon has also signed cooperation memorandums of understanding or strategic cooperation agreements with government departments, educational institutions and enterprises in Canada, Singapore, Japan, Nigeria, Kenya, and Serbia. As at today, NetDragon’s digital education business covers more than 2 million classrooms in more than 190 countries, with over 100 million registered users.

At the summit, Dr. Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon, held discussion with Dr. Meng Shusen, Chairman and President of China Unicom Global Limited. As a key member of the Digital Economy Working Group of the BRICS Business Council, China Unicom is one of the earliest Chinese enterprises to expand overseas. NetDragon and China Unicom discussed the industry application of 5G technology, and planned the future collaboration direction of the two companies.

When asked about the cooperation with China Unicom, Dr. Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon, commented, “China Unicom and our company have cooperated in various fields and successfully applied 5G technology in classrooms. In the future, both parties will explore further collaboration in international markets.” With the development of information technology, integration of digital technology and education has become a global trend, including the BRICS countries. As a major player in the global online and mobile digital education industry, NetDragon builds an education service platform system covering hardware, software, platforms and resources. Its businesses covers pre-school education, basic education, higher education, vocational education, corporate training, non-degree education and lifelong education, in pursuit of creating a global lifelong learning community. In the future, NetDragon will continue to adhere to its education vision and strive to become an advocate of global education development and innovation.

About Netdragon Websoft Holdings Limited
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) is a global leader in building internet communities with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users. These include China’s number one online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China’s most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless, which was sold to Baidu for US$1.9 billion in 2013 as the largest Internet M&A transaction in China.