Do you agree with the statement that 'A good education is the foundation for a better future'?
“A good education is the foundation for a better future” it is said and rightly so. We go to school and colleges to gain knowledge. But in recent years, the way we learn has changed. With the emergence of ed-tech companies like Byju’s and Physics Wallah,education has been more engaging, affordable and accessible. By leveraging technology they have made that boring history class into an interesting one.They have helped students from weak financial backgrounds to prepare for competitive exams such as JEE or NEET at an affordable price.
With the help of technology they have made education accessible for every student regardless of their geographical conditions.Byju's is valued at $5.1 billion and has over 150 million registered users. Physics Wallah is valued at $1 billion and has over 20 million registered users.
Are you interested in learning how this platform makes money and what their business model is?
In this blog, we will discuss how they are revolutionizing the way education is consumed and making money.
The Platform and Operations
Byju’s and Physics Wallah offer both paid and free services of their product. They provide the basic educational content for free to all the users and charge an amount for the premium educational content. The idea behind this is to attract a lot of new users by providing them free content and then transitioning them into paid users. Offering free educational content generates trust in the users and also helps them to understand the value that they are offering.
Do you use free educational content like this?
Do you currently subscribe to any educational services?
The users pay an amount for a specific period of time and in return they get access to Byju’s and Physics Wallah’s premium content. Those who have the subscription enjoy uninterrupted video lectures, interaction with teachers, mock tests and study resources. Students also have access to the recorded lectures so they can learn and revise at their own learning pace. This flexibility and interactive guidance from teachers attracts the users to pay for premium content.
Another key revenue stream for Byju’s and Physics Wallah is selling digital content. The digital content includes Ebooks, study materials, exam guides, previous year question papers and test papers to practice. Do you prefer digital content over physical textbooks?
Digital content helps not only users but businesses as well. Businesses get an extra source of income besides selling their video content via subscription based model. Digital content helps these companies find and serve a broader range of audiences including those who are not interested in spending money for subscriptions but want their digital content.
Students preparing for competitive exams have been benefited the most by these companies. Coaching institutes for JEE and NEET were charging 1 to 1.5 lakhs per year to teach. This fee range was unreasonable for students with weak financial backgrounds.
Do you believe education should be more accessible and affordable for everyone?
They leveraged technology and made education accessible for every student irrespective of their financial background. They were teaching for JEE and NEET courses for 25,000 to 30,000rs that cost around 1.5 lakh rupees in coaching institutes.
The Business Model
Byju's employs a freemium model, providing free basic educational content to attract users and gradually converting them into paid subscribers for premium content, offering services like video lectures, mock tests, and study resources. Physics Wallah, on the other hand, focuses on offering free high-quality physics education, monetizing through targeted ads and in-app advertising. These models reflect their commitment to making education engaging and accessible, catering to diverse learner needs.
Byju's and Physics Wallah are both using technology to evade the traditional education industry. By offering high-quality educational content at a fraction of the cost of traditional coaching institutes, they are making it possible for more students to achieve their academic goals.Both companies are also investing heavily in research and development to develop new and innovative ways to teach and learn.
Do you think these efforts are satisfied enough in making education more accessible to everyone, especially in developing countries like India, with a large young population eager to learn?
Byju's and Physics Wallah have helped to increase the number of students enrolled in competitive exams by 20% and reduce the cost of coaching for competitive exams by 50% in which the pass rate for competitive exams is improved by 10%.
Customer Acquisition and Revenue Generation
Many schools and institutes collaborate with Byju’s and Physics Wallah to integrate digital learning in their school curriculum.
Do you believe integrating technology into education benefits both students and businesses?
They provide the schools or institutes with content libraries and learning tools that help teachers to make education more engaging and interactive to their students. This fuels curiosity in students to learn different subjects without the feeling of boredom. Byju's also offers its Byju's Learning App, to schools and institutions. This app helps schools to integrate digital learning into their curriculum and provide a more personalized learning experience for their students which is their major revenue stream.
They often have virtual webinars to engage and to encourage the students. Platform asks their students who have studied from their app and scored well to motivate other students or they pay actors or some sportsmen to have a chat with students to encourage them.
Do you believe virtual webinars can be effective in retaining users?
The joy of talking to their favourite actor or sportsman increases their engagement that helps these platforms with user retention.
Advertisements are one of their other sources of revenue generation. They place ads on their website and get paid for it. They run ads in their free content to compensate for the money.
Do you think targeted ads are effective in engaging students?
Brands that have a target audience between the ages of 13-20 use this app to run their ads as the engagement of students is much higher on these platforms.
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