With the widespread adoption of the Internet, the education industry is experiencing a surge in online transformation. An increasing number of entrepreneurs are venturing into China’’s online education market. In an environment characterized by limited educational resources and intense competition among various educational models and institutions, it becomes imperative for start-up teams to ascertain market positioning, introduce products, and devise business models. This study employs a multiple linear regression model to examine the factors influencing the size of China’’s online education market. It considers residents’’ income, the number of college entrance examination participants, and the presence of epidemics as independent variables. Furthermore, the study delves into the products and business models of educational start-ups. Findings indicate a positive correlation between China’s’ online education market size and residents’’ income, as well as the number of college entrance examination participants. Moreover, the advent of epidemics has further propelled the expansion of online education. Based on these findings, the study proposes strategic recommendations for educational start-up companies, including collaboration with schools to establish comprehensive education platforms, integration of fragmented knowledge domains, and granting user permissions to create personalized learning assistants, thereby catering to the needs of the education industry. Digital transformation offers novel insights and opportunities for innovation in this sector.