Online coaching business being driven by small towns
Online firms attribute the demand to an unorganised tutors market and lack of quality checks in small towns. Why go to B-school?
By Shreya Biswas, TNN |
NEW DELHI: Big surprises come in smaller packets! That’s what on-line coaching and test assessment companies, such as extramarks.com, learninghour.com, 24x7guru.com and mathguru.com, catering to Indian school kids are realising.
The demand for the services of these portals and companies are being driven by smaller towns and non-metro cities such as Madurai, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar, Jamshedpur, Baroda, Bhilai and regions like Andaman and Nichobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Manipur.
Over 70% of 24x7guru’s users are students from these smaller areas. Extramarks, which is barely a month old, has 60% of it 25,000 users from non-metro cities and states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. Ditto for learninghour, with 50% traffic coming from non-metro towns.
For Mathguru, which has 10,000 registered users, 60% is from non-metro and little known towns, including Saharanpur, Baroda, Mussoorie and Nasik. In fact, such is the opportunity that Tutorvista, which is planning to enter the segment, plans to start its offerings in Class B cities to get a faster growth.
Many attribute the demand to an unorganised tutors market and lack of quality checks in these places. Most parents depend on the word-to-mouth medium to search for good teachers and even then they are not sure of the quality.
“In smaller towns and cities, they have limited access to resources and good teachers.
These portals are now planning to incorporate materials for state board students. While 24x7guru plans to tap students from six state boards by mid December this year such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, UP, Punjab, Extramarks would address queries from students of almost all state boards in the next one year.
“This is going to get a huge boost in the coming months and this segment has a huge potential,” says Bodhtree Consulting CEO Sanjiv Gupta.
But the success of these initiatives will depend on the broadband penetration. The PC penetration in the home segment in India is less than 1 %.
The demand for the services of these portals and companies are being driven by smaller towns and non-metro cities such as Madurai, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar, Jamshedpur, Baroda, Bhilai and regions like Andaman and Nichobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Manipur.
Over 70% of 24x7guru’s users are students from these smaller areas. Extramarks, which is barely a month old, has 60% of it 25,000 users from non-metro cities and states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. Ditto for learninghour, with 50% traffic coming from non-metro towns.
For Mathguru, which has 10,000 registered users, 60% is from non-metro and little known towns, including Saharanpur, Baroda, Mussoorie and Nasik. In fact, such is the opportunity that Tutorvista, which is planning to enter the segment, plans to start its offerings in Class B cities to get a faster growth.
Many attribute the demand to an unorganised tutors market and lack of quality checks in these places. Most parents depend on the word-to-mouth medium to search for good teachers and even then they are not sure of the quality.
“In smaller towns and cities, they have limited access to resources and good teachers.
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Thus, this comes as a good offering. They are able to get the much needed assistance at a nominal price,” says Extramarks.com CEO Atul Kulshreshtha. “No promotion was done targeting the smaller towns. In fact, this only shows what a focused advertising can achieve. Lot of parents have told it’s a great alternative to tutors,” says Educomp VP Gaurav Bhatnagar. These portals are now planning to incorporate materials for state board students. While 24x7guru plans to tap students from six state boards by mid December this year such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, UP, Punjab, Extramarks would address queries from students of almost all state boards in the next one year.
“This is going to get a huge boost in the coming months and this segment has a huge potential,” says Bodhtree Consulting CEO Sanjiv Gupta.
But the success of these initiatives will depend on the broadband penetration. The PC penetration in the home segment in India is less than 1 %.
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