The Spectacular Revival of a Chinese Education Startup on the Verge of Bankruptcy... Us Alliance Grows Amidst Competitors' Slump

A startup that operated the Chinese education service 'China Tan' is drawing the market's attention by recording an all-time high performance in 2025 despite the overall earnings decline of its competitors, after pivoting (business transition) to an economy and investment YouTube platform. Turning crisis into opportunity, Us Alliance's dramatic revival story and solid performance trend are delivering a fresh shock to the startup industry.

Pivoting from the Crisis of Total Capital Impairment to the Cradle of Financial Creators

Us Alliance was originally founded in 2011 and operated a Chinese education business under the name 'Chinada'. Although it once grew with venture capital investments, it was driven to the brink of bankruptcy, facing total capital impairment.

However, fully utilizing their existing know-how in video production and educational content, they executed a bold pivot to a new business model called 'Economy YouTuber Solution'. By recruiting dozens of famous financial creators such as Kim Young-ik, Seo Jae-hyung, Park Se-ik, Jeon In-gu, Kim Jak-ga, Lee Hyun-chul, Hong Chun-wook, and Han Moon-do, they were reborn as a financial media platform and achieved the remarkable feat of turning a profit just one year after the business transition.

[Source: Us Alliance Homepage]

Looking at Us Alliance's past summarized income statements clearly reveals their pivoting performance in numbers. In 2019 and 2020, when the crisis in their education business reached its peak, they struggled, recording operating losses of about 2.3 billion won and 1.2 billion won, respectively. In 2021, the early stage of the pivot, sales were about 1.9 billion won and the operating loss was about 19 million won, significantly reducing the deficit. In 2022, when it fully gained momentum, it successfully turned a profit, recording about 7.1 billion won in sales and about 1 billion won in operating profit.

Since then, the growth rate has steepened. In 2023, sales grew explosively to about 22.2 billion won and operating profit to about 4.9 billion won, and in 2024, sales surpassed 30.6 billion won (operating profit of about 500 million won). Furthermore, according to the recently released 2025 audit report, it demonstrated its underlying strength by recording about 36.7 billion won in sales and about 3.7 billion won in operating profit, with both sales and profit jumping significantly compared to the previous year. Driven by this growth, the company has perfectly settled on a stable track, achieving a surplus for 12 consecutive quarters.

Simultaneous Slump of Major Competitors such as 'Weolbu' and 'HBLab'

Us Alliance's explosive growth stands out even more as it coincides with the sluggish performance of major competitors.

Once known as a powerhouse in real estate and financial tech education platforms, 'Weolbu' suffered an earnings decline in 2025. According to Weolbu's 2025 audit report, operating revenue (sales), which amounted to about 50.8 billion won in 2024, shrank significantly to about 34.8 billion won in 2025. Operating profit also plummeted by more than half, from about 28.3 billion won in 2024 to about 12.6 billion won in 2025, recording a painful negative growth.

The situation for another finance and investment education competitor, 'HBLab', is even more serious. Looking at HBLab's 2025 audit report, sales, which were about 21.3 billion won in 2024, plummeted by more than half to about 9.1 billion won in 2025. Operating profit also fell sharply from about 6.2 billion won in 2024 to about 2.6 billion won in 2025, forcing them to face the cold reality of the market.

The Underlying Strength of Us Alliance That Changed the Market Landscape

While major competitors are struggling with significant declines in both sales and profit, Us Alliance alone generated 36.7 billion won in sales and 3.7 billion won in operating profit, successfully consolidating its external expansion and internal stability at the same time.

This signifies that the decisiveness of the management, who accurately read the trend and pivoted to an economic MCN from the worst-case scenario of capital impairment, has shined. The fact that Us Alliance continues to grow even as competitors' earnings plummet can also be evaluated as a victory for the creator network and content planning capabilities they have built. The financial and content industries are paying close attention to the future moves of Us Alliance, which has established itself as an industry-leading platform from a company that once worried about bankruptcy.