“Offline learning is not going away anytime soon. In fact, online complements offline really well, and together as a package, the omnichannel model is going to steer and be here for a long period of time,” Ravishankar said at the Unstoppable India, TiEcon Delhi-NCR 2022 event on Friday.
India’s top ed-tech platforms are eyeing the hybrid-retail model.
Unacademy earlier this month
launched experience stores – which focus on new users looking to take up courses with the ed-tech platform – across the country. Further, existing Unacademy users can meet their teachers at these stores
Byju’s also recently announced plans to double down on its offline play through the
launch of ‘Byju’s Tuition Centre’. Over the course of last year, the company has launched 80 offline centres across 23 cities and is looking to scale that up to 500 centres across 200 cities this year.
While the entry barrier is low for the online education industry, the scale continues to be a challenge since a player’s success lies largely on the trust it can create among its students, Ravishankar, who sits on the board of edtech unicorns Byju’s and Eruditus, said.
Discover the stories of your interest
“You can enter easily but scaling is a challenge because again, it’s a competitive market. You have many established players and education is a tough business,” he said.
Ravishankar said Byju’s had understood the industry well.
Getting people to use a particular ed-tech platform was easier but monetization was quite hard, he said.
“Today, we say that Byju’s is successful, however that business has been there in the market since 2013. New entrants and entrepreneurs need to be patient and understand the business deeply and well,” Ravishankar said.
To really build a profitable business, especially in ed-tech, brands should build trust by delivering outcomes, he said.
