Creatorisation of ed-tech : Are educators the new superstars?
Creator economy X ed-tech : Is it a new phenomenon?
If you have been reading Xplainerr in the past, you must be knowing that it has been a really long time since I wrote something here. Nevertheless, I hope that I write more.
Recently, I stumbled upon a video where I saw Gaurav Munjal saying this -
As an enthusiast (a follower) of creator economy and ed-tech, this really intrigued me. From my experiences of seeing the Indian education industry closely, I wasn’t able to make out the emergence of creators over brands as a completely new phenomenon.
In this newsletter, which I am writing solely from educators' point of view, I will try to decode how the space and opportunities have been for educators over the years.
1. The hegemony of institutions
Be it, Bipan Chandra in JNU, HC Verma in IIT Kanpur, or CNR Rao in IISC Bangalore; until the advent of the competitive exam focused coaching industry in India; most great educators were found in educational institutions.
Educators had minimal access to the masses. Most of the time, the only access they could have with the masses was via books.
Educators drew relevance from institutions but teaching solely from a financial standpoint had never been a rewarding profession. For e.g, a Professor teaching at premier institutions like IITs in India has a meager salary.
Assistant Professor earns around Rs. 0.83-1.2 lakhs (gross) per month.
Associate Professor earns around Rs.1.3-1.4 lakhs (gross) per month.
Professor earns around Rs.1.4-1.95 lakhs (gross) per month.
2. The ‘Kota’ model of enabling educators
Just when PV Narshima Rao unleashed the biggest economic reform of modern India in 1991, Vinod Kumar Bansal (aka Bansal Sir) set up Bansal classes in Kota, Rajasthan to help students crack the IIT JEE entrance examination.
Very soon, Kota became a brand as synonymous as IIT itself. Herds of students from nooks and corners of India flocked to Kota and unleashed a 3200 crore coaching industry over time.
As money flowed into Kota and remuneration for faculties soared (at times in crores), it inspired a lot of passionate young folks from premium institutions to choose educator as a profession.
Some educators with their command on the subject matter, teaching pedagogy, and their willingness to help students beyond their line of duty garnered rockstar status. Many faculties in Kota like Vinod Kumawat, Amar Nath Anand (Anna Sir), Jitendra Hirwani (JH Sir), Anurag Mishra (AM Sir) are extremely popular among students and earn in crores.
ABP News had reported in 2015 that 15-30 faculties in Kota earn more than 1 crore with a few were earning more than 2.5 crores.
Educators couldn’t scale into brands in Kota
A lot of these rockstar educators; tried building their own coaching institutions in Kota but couldn’t succeed as with a limited marketing budget; their access to new students flocking in Kota was often very limited. While educators were empowered financially; the instutituional hegemony remained intact.
Unbundling of Kota in smaller towns
Although the unbundling of educators from coaching institutions didn’t happen in Kota; the overall euphoria of cracking JEE/UPSC/NEET through coaching institutes created in the minds of middle-class Indian parents ensured that at least 5-10 educators emerged in every Tier 2/3 educational hub city who earned in crores.
While I was enrolled at Bhardwaj Classes in Ranchi (while preparing for JEE), Mr. Jitendra Bhardwaj a local Physics + Mathematics IIT JEE educator earned around 2.8 crore rupees every year (800 students * ₹35,000).
3. Online education and creator economy
As we have seen above that -
Kota's model of education enabled lucrative financial compensation to educators and,
In every Tier 2/3 education hub, there are at least 5-10 educators earning more than a crore.
The bigger question now is where does the creator economy fit in ed-tech? Is it a fad?
Problem technology is solving for creators
Tech platforms like Youtube, Twitter, LinkedIn provide non-linear exponential distribution growth. While an educator in a traditional classroom setup may have to wait for 10 years to reach out to 10k students; Youtube can make an educator reach millions of learners in virtually a week. It helps an educator to build trust with their learners faster.
The infrastructure cost to set up online teaching is minimal and the educator is freed from finding real estate in the city’s premier location.
In 2021, Ankur Warriko sold his courses to 1,14,972 students generating Rs. 7.8Cr of sales (after refunds) and Gaurav Sen (GK CS), who has 4.09 lakh subscribers on Youtube did a revenue of 1.2 crores by selling his course on system design to techies.
A few creators like Aman Dhattarwal, Tanay Pratap and Vaibhav Sisinity have leveraged their creator identity are trying to create ed-tech brands at Apna College, Metavarsity, and Growth school.
In an interview with News 24 (at 7:30), Khan Sir (a teacher based out in Patna who help students prepare for general competition) with 13.9M Youtube subscribers claimed to have 16 lakh paid students on his app. With an average ticket size of 200 rupees per course; he sold courses worth Rs. 32 crores last year through his app.
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There’s no rosy picture everywhere around!
Mrunal Patel and Ravindra Babu Ravula, the OG of online UPSC and GATE - CSE preparation with 1.44 M and 1M+ subscribers on Youtube couldn’t continue as an individual creators for long. While Ravindra Babu Ravula highlighted the challenges a creator faces in periodic user acquisition and the challenges from brands when they can spend the mammoth amount on branding and customer acquisition costs, Mrunal Patel who taught for free on Youtube and dependent on ad revenue apart from running an offline coaching institute faced a host of issues before he joined Unacademy.
What’s ahead?
For part-time educators; the creatorisation of ed-tech has been a blessing. The popularity of launching micro-learning and cohort-based courses will multiply over time as it fulfills both the objectives of these creators - a sense of fulfillment and generates a source of passive income.
Educators/creators like Ankur Warriko/Gaurav Sen who are selling up one-time recorded courses and have the bandwidth for customer acquisition would benefit heavily from the advent of creator tools and democratized distribution. Few educators who understand tech businesses will create powerful ed-tech brands in the future.
Educators/creators who will be selling live content (and which is dynamically changing) like Mrunal for Economy (UPSC) would find it extremely hard to be an educator (at the core) and simultaneously build a team to create distribution and acquire users.
Platforms like Unacademy & traditional coaching institutions which have mastered the art of branding and customer acquisition; will continue to attract educators at lucrative compensation.
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