It’s been a tough year for ESL tutors. Coronavirus has closed academies around the world, robbing ESL teachers of opportunities overseas opportunities. Meanwhile in China, the new ban on companies that profit from teaching school curriculum subjects, has decimated its enormous online young-learner ESL market overnight.

The second factor has arguably had the biggest impact for ESL tutors. At its height VIPKID (it claimed) had 100,000 teachers on its books. The likes of GoGo Kid, DaDa English, ...