Asian millionaire tutors

Imagine a young, well-dressed man who earns over $1 million a year, owns several exotic sports cars, dresses in the best suits money can buy, and is idolized by tens of thousands of teenagers. You might think that this person is a pop star, professional athlete, or famous actor, but you probably wouldn’t expect to find out that this person is actually a Hong Kong tutor. Asia is home to an interesting phenomenon where tutors can earn over a million dollars a year and are treated like celebrities.

In Hong Kong, big-name tutors are billionaires, and even the average celebrity tutor earns more than $120,000 a year. Government teachers take home less than half of that. In South Korea, celebrity tutors can earn more than $4 million per year. This phenomenon has been driven by a number of variables, but a major one is the strong desire students have to perform well on high-stakes entrance exams that can determine an individual’s future success. The following article looks at a number of tutors from countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore who have turned their tutoring careers into a source of wealth and celebrity.

rose reads English teacher, South Korea

Korea is home to many famous tutors who have grown rich in large part from the growth of online tutoring. Companies in South Korea like MegaStudy allow South Korean students to purchase access to video tutoring classes through their website. This has allowed the best tutors in the country to reach tens of thousands of tutors and earn a share of the revenue. One celebrity tutor who profits from online tutoring sales is South Korean English teacher Rose Lee. Rose Lee is one of the most successful and famous English teachers in Korea. She goes to buy the title of “Queen of English” and earns most of her money through online classes. In 2009, the “Queen of English” expected to earn about 7 million dollars.

Richard Eng English, Hong Kong

Richard Eng is one of Hong Kong’s first celebrity tutors and ultimately helped launch the trend in the Hong Kong tutoring market. Twenty years ago Eng started working as a teacher. He taught his school students during the day and worked as a tutor at night. Over time, he was able to increase his night classes through word of mouth and eventually opened his tutoring school. It was around this time that Eng stepped up his expansion efforts and began advertising in local newspapers and on television.

Richard Eng recognized many young people’s fascination and obsession with celebrities and began marketing his tutoring business with this in mind. Using billboards, glossy brochures, flashy TV commercials, and model photo shoots to promote his and his tutoring business, Eng was able to change the image of his tutoring company. Eng and his tutors wore designer clothes, had trendy hairstyles and began to resemble pop stars promoting his latest album rather than tutors looking for students.

Eng’s unorthodox strategy paid off, his company Beacon College now has 12 schools in Hong Kong and just opened one in Tokyo. It has a total of 50,000 students, employs 300 staff, and brings home about $1.5 million a year.

phang yu hon Physics, Singapore

Named one of Singapore’s most sought after “Super Tutors”, Phang Yu Hon is now also the highest earning private tutor in Singapore. Mr. Phang Yu Hon was previously a research engineer and began teaching in 1997. In his first year he had 8 students and earned less than $10,000, which was a huge pay cut from his previous work. Even though his friends thought he was wasting his education by pursuing this career, Phang Yu Hon persevered and it paid off. By 2010 he had 200 students and earned $520,000, expecting to earn $600,000-$700,000 the following year.

woo hyeon cheol Mathematics Teacher, South Korea

Another South Korean tutor who has benefited from the country’s obsession with education and online tutoring trend is Woo Hyeong-cheol, one of South Korea’s best-known and highest-paid math tutors. Woo is not affiliated with any institution that is part of the official school system, but he is considered one of the best cram school tutors and earns $4 million per year. Although he teaches in cram schools (South Korean test preparation schools), most of his income comes from his online tutorials, which are accessed by some 50,000 paying subscribers.

Karson Oten Fan Karno English, Hong Kong

Known as K. Oten and the “Tutor King”, this well-known Hong Kong tutor is a celebrity tutor and even has a side career rapping with local pop singers. He uses his stage name “K. Oten” both in the classroom and in the recording studio. At one point in his tutoring career, K. Oten earned as much as HK$2.65 million (US$340,000) for 40 days of work in 2006. Evidence of his loyal following was seen in 2006 when Fan was fired by King’s Glory (one of the biggest tutoring companies) and started teaching at Modern Education. He ran an extensive publicity campaign and invited his former employer’s students to transfer to Modern Education. As a result of Fan’s departure, King’s Glory claimed that the number of students dropped by about 7,000.