The online education industry in India is estimated to witness a growth of eight times (8x) and reach $1.96 billion by 2021, according to a study conducted by technology major Google and KPMG.
The report, titled ‘Online Education in India: 2021, was based on market research conducted by KPMG and combined with insights from Google search.
The research covered more than 3,600 respondents from across 27 geographies, including metro and non-metros to understand the growth of consumer paid online education market in India by 2021. The respondents were in the age group of 16-45 years.
According to the report,the paid user base would grow six times (6x) from 1.6 million users in 2016 to 9.6 million users in 2021.
At a time when the IT services industry was talking about re-skilling, the study said re-skilling and online certification was the largest category in the online education space. In 2016, it was valued at $93 million and expected to grow at a CAGR of 38% to reach 463 million by 2021.
“The online education segment is set to become a multi-billion dollar opportunity in India. There are many factors driving this growth, including the perceived convenience, increased reach and personalisation offered by online channels,” said Nitin Bawankule, industry director, Google India, in a statement.
The report said over the last two years, there had been a 2x growth in online searches for education and a 3x growth in searches from a mobile device. Also, 44% of education searches were now coming from beyond the top 6 metros and there had been a 4x growth in education content consumption on YouTube in the last one year.
As per the report, the primary and secondary education category had the largest addressable audience with students base of about 260 million when compared with the other categories. Owing to this, the primary and secondary supplementary education segment was the second largest category in 2016 and would grow at a CAGR of 60% to reach $773 million, making it the largest category in 2021.
Test preparation, which is a small segment as of now, would likely to grow at CAGR of 64% to become a $515 million category in 2021.