Indian Online Education Market Worth INR 360 Billion by 2024

With the increasing adoption of the Internet and rise in awareness about e-learning, the online education industry is expected to witness promising growth during the forecast period.

The online education market in India was valued at INR 39 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 360.3 billion by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~43.85% during the 2019-2024 period. Ease of learning, flexibility, and a wide range of study materials have influenced the overall growth of the industry.

However, the lack of formal recognition and accreditation, and abundance of freely available content presents a critical threat to the growth of the sector. The industry is moving towards the adoption of innovative technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), Big Data Analytics, Blockchain and others to improve the learning experience.

Segment Insights

The online education market is segmented into primary and secondary supplemental education, test preparation, reskilling and certification, higher education language, and casual learning. The online primary and secondary supplemental education segment was valued at INR 11.99 Bn in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 123.65 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~46.48% during the 2019-2024 period. The change in consumer behavior towards detailed learning and surge in demand from tier II and tier III cities are driving the growth of this segment.

The online test preparation market is expected to reach INR 94.75 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~50.84% during the 2019-2024 period. This segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the online education market, owing to growth in career-focused population, enhanced Internet infrastructure and increased penetration of digital payment methods.

The online reskilling and certification market is expected to reach INR 93.81 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~36.95% during the 2019-2024 period. The growing business landscape has widened the skill gap among employees, which is why the demand for reskilling courses is picking up.

The online higher education market was valued at INR 5.01 Bn in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 40.63 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~40.74% during the 2019-2024 period. The conventional education system is insufficient for the growing population, and therefore students are switching to online higher education courses.

Key Market Trends

Gamification is one of the most prevalent trends among online education providers to encourage learning through immersive experiences. Simulation of concepts, level advancement badges and incentive-based learning are driving user engagement on online education platforms. Online learning players, nowadays, are continuously competing to offer differentiated products to the target audience, mostly by offering value-added services with regular courses. Value-added services like internships, live projects, group discussions, and career counselling sessions, offered along with regular courses enhance users' experiences.

Competition Analysis
The Indian online education market is highly fragmented with around 3,500 edtech start-ups operating in the country. Many foreign players are entering the Indian online education industry. BYJU's, Udemy, Coursera and Duolingo are a few prominent players in the industry, catering to the requirements of different target audiences.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200417005258/en/Online-Education-Market-India-Worth-INR-360

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Indian Educational institutions are introducing online courses and some education technology startups

Schools around the world have closed their doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving more than 1.5 billion children stuck at home. While it's a great inconvenience for many, it has created a spike in demand for online learning.

Educational institutions are introducing online courses and some education technology startups are temporarily offering free classes to help offset the impact of school closures.

Take Byju's, an India-based education startup named after its founder, Byju Raveendran. In early March, it announced it would give children free access to its learning app, which it says had more than 40 million users at the end of last year. Around 3 million of those paid between $150 and $200 for an annual subscription.

Since the announcement, the company says it has experienced a 60% surge in students using its products, which range from interactive video lessons and live classes, to quizzes and exam preparation.
A nationwide lockdown, ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in late March, means that India's school-age population of around 300 million is suddenly having to home educate.

"The outbreak is clearly increasing the appreciation of online education," Raveendran tells CNN Business. "This could be a turning point for the industry, ushering in an increased usage of this format and changing habits in terms of how kids learn and how teachers teach," he adds.

Other Indian platforms, including Unacademy, Vedantu and Toppr are also offering free classes and content to students.

Google (GOOGL) and KPMG estimated in a 2017 report that India's online education market would be worth around $2 billion in 2021, up from $250 million in 2016, with the number of paying users rising to 9.6 million.
Those numbers may need significant revision. Raveendran thinks that the current school closures will not only boost online learning but will help to reset India's education system, with less emphasis on preparing for exams.
"Students just memorize, replicate and then forget when the exam is over," he says. Online learning would enable personalized lesson formats as well as a more engaging, interactive learning process.

Anantha Duraiappah is director of UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, which has a vision of "transforming education for humanity."
"It [online learning] allows the potential of individualized learning and offers the prospect of radically changing a system that frankly has not changed or evolved over the past 300-odd years," he tells CNN Business.

A tool to democratize education?

Byju's was founded in 2011 and is now reportedly worth $8 billion. When its learning app launched in 2015, only around a quarter of India's population had access to the internet, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Today, more than half does.

That means education apps are no longer restricted to major urban centers or the wealthier members of society. Byju's says that more than 60% of its students are from outside the 10 largest cities in India.
The app is currently only available in Hindi and English, but Raveendran says Byju's is in the process of adding more regional languages.

Still, millions of children are unable to access online learning through a laptop or cell phone.
Raveendran accepts there is a long way to go. "If you look at the total number of school students in India, our penetration is still a very small percentage," he says.

Byju's originally offered the free service until the end of April, but is likely to extend it, says Raveendran. He also hopes to create a free model for disadvantaged students in India for when schools reopen.

Although the free service will mean a short-term hit to revenue, Raveendran expects that in the long run it will be beneficial to the business.

"Once [pupils] start experiencing the advantages of learning online, we expect a lot of them to continue learning that way," he says.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/tech/online-education-india-coronavirus-spc/index.html

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