Zheng Renqiang, an online English teacher, works at his office in Guangzhou. Zhang says he can make 10 million yuan ($1.61 million) every year. [Photo/China Daily]

"New Oriental is losing ground," Anyi Jiang, an analyst at JL Warren Capital LLC, says. "Its class size is too big and its study materials are no longer exclusive as people can get those for free online. They are pretty much in all the markets they can be in already."

High graduate employment from leading universities

More than 90 percent of graduates from 75 universities overseen by the Ministry of Education got jobs in 2014, the ministry said recently.

Seventy-four universities of the 75 had an employment rate of above 90 percent last year, with only one's employment rate standing at 88.62 percent, according to the ministry statistics.

Other than the 75 universities, most of which are leading ones in the country, the majority of China's universities are run by provincial governments.

Among the 75, China Pharmaceutical University had the highest employment rate of 99.59 percent, followed by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Northeast Normal University. Tsinghua University and Peking University were ranked 14 and 40 respectively.