Investing in e-learning proves to be lucrative

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

IIM-C summer placement back in limelightFuture belongs to true-touch technology: SMARTIIT faculty to accept new pay structureJBM forays into education biz

: Poor infrastructure in the country has proved to be a boon for companies offering e-learning courses and solutions. Although several companies, and some varsities have been offering web-based learning, plenty more are in the arena as it is proving to be lucrative.

Even thought the Internet penetration is 4% in India, still the e-learning market size is $27 million or Rs 105 crore. It is projected to grow to $280 million or Rs 1,092 crore by 2012, according to an education sector report by the reputed brokerage firm CLSA Asia Pacific markets.

Says Vijay K Thadani, co-founder and CEO, NIIT Ltd, “In 1983, when we started offering e-learning material, we were using own network to deliver the material—so it was largely computer-based training at the time.” Currently, NIIT services 5,00,000 students in 32 countries and 750 centres. It has a library of 3,500 courses ranging from vocational courses including computer languages, English language and soft skills to suit all pockets. Thadani mentions that in the US, the e-learning market size is currently $4 billion or Rs 15,600 crore. However, the Indian market, despite a 4% market penetration shows promise. The reason happens to be due to the size of the Indian population (100 crore)—the absolute Internet users are over 4 crore, which is bigger than the population of many developed countries.

Says Vivek Gupta, vice-president, business operations, finance & strategy, StudyPlaces.com, an e-learning firm, “In India, rise of even 0.1% gives an additional volume of 10 lakh because of sheer size of population.” Started last year, StudyPlaces.com is an education portal in India that wishes to serves as a comprehensive one-stop-shop for education search. StudyPlaces got venture capital funding worth $3 million (Rs 12 crore) from Sherpalo Ventures, KPCB and Info Edge each contributing $1 million in last November.

Says Gupta, “We also have some products like online test preparation where we intend to charge from students in future. Currently, all the services are free for students.” The market size of competitive exams preparation in India is currently $1.6 billion (Rs 6,200 crore), according to industry experts.

With CAT projected to go online from next year, much of this would move to computer-based or e-learning, it is felt. Computer-based learning still has a market size of $150 million (Rs 590 crore), which is expected to grow to $750 million (Rs 2,900 crore) by 2012, according to the CLSA Asia Pacific market report.