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The Indian online education market will reach $2 billion by 2021, according to a report by Google and KPMG.
The report is based on a survey covering 3,600 respondents in the age group of 16-45 years across metros and non-metros. Google and YouTube search trends were also taken into account.
The report pointed out that over the last couple of years, there has been a two-fold growth in online searches for education and three-fold growth in searches from a mobile device. Also, 44 per cent of education searches are now coming from beyond the top 6 metros and there has been a four-fold growth in education content consumption on YouTube in the last one year.
This development needs to be seen in the backdrop of layoffs in the Indian IT services sector, which is one of the largest white-collar employers in the country. “Reskilling and online certification are the new norms at times like this,” said Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director, Google India.
Cost-effectiveSome of the reasons Bawankule cites for the increased adoption of online education is due to lower costs, flexibility in learning, interactiveness, rising internet users and high adoption of smartphones. “Online skill enhancement courses are 50 per cent cheaper than offline alternatives,” he added.
An estimated 280 million students are expected to be enrolled in schools by 2021. Industry watchers estimate that 735 million Indians will use the internet by 2021 from 409 million users currently.
Bawankule also pointed out that there high growth in education search-related queries coming from cities such as Patna, Guwahati, Aligarh and Kota — which points to the opportunities that growing penetration of smartphones and improving quality of internet have opened up.
The report says that in 2016, the reskilling industry alone was valued at $93 million. Add to that primary and secondary supplemental education will be the largest category by 2021, growing at 60 per cent and is expected to hit $773 million by 2021.
However, Google believes that there are some challenges in this sector. Despite being cheaper than offline alternatives, it believes that for higher adoption, there is an even further need to have a variety of content at affordable prices. The report also points out that an option to pay course fees through instalments could further increase adoption.
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