According to Wang Zhanglong, iFLYTEK vice-president, and He Hongzhi, president of CLIRI — both are co-directors of the editorial board of the report — it is iFLYTEK's technological strengths in personalized language education and the institute's research strengths in the studies of language that have prompted their cooperation in the research project. And they say the collaborative project will extend into the future with more reports of the series to be published in the coming years.

"The Chinese language learning has every reason to be regarded as a part of the international trade in services," said He Hongzhi urging the industrial practitioners to run it as not only a traditional education cause but also a business of the cultural industry, which he believes is necessary to keep its healthy and sustainable development in the long run.

Both CLIRI and iFLYTEK hope the research can help form a reliable source of references for the market players and policymakers and inspire them to make joint efforts to take advantage of the new technology revolution to form a sustainable global Chinese language learning sector, which is expected to be conducive to promoting not only Chinese language but also the spread of Chinese culture and mutual learning between civilizations across the world.