YouTube Kids, Google Classroom Make The Most Of Edtech Boom In India

The golden moment edtech in India has not just increased traction for Indian learning products and services, but also international apps. YouTube Kids and Google Classroom were among the most downloaded apps in India in April, as per SensorTower, surpassing some of the biggest Indian startups.

According to a report by the research firm, YouTube Kids got the most number of downloads from India in April. YouTube Kids, which registered 10.6 Mn installs in April, got 16.8% of the total downloads from India, followed by the US at 10.7%.

Meanwhile, Google Classroom got the second-highest number of downloads from India. Notably, Google Classroom, which got over 28.2 Mn downloads, saw the most downloads from the US (15%), followed by India (13%). The report registered downloads from only Google Play Store and Apple iOS Store between April 1, 2019, and April 30, 2020.

Overall, four of the top five most downloaded edtech applications globally were from the US. Besides Google Classroom and YouTube Kids, Duolingo and Photomath were the other two US-based applications. Only Israel-based Simply Piano was among the top five most downloaded applications.

BYJU’s Top 10 On Google Play Store

While there are no Indian startups in the overall list of most downloaded edtech applications, BYJU’s was among the most downloaded app on Google Play Store. The Bengaluru-based startup was the 10th most downloaded application on the Google Play Store.

It is worth noting that BYJU’s is providing its online learning platform for free during the lockdown period. As of now, BYJU’s has over 50 Mn registered users and around 3.5 Mn of them have paid for the edtech content offered by the company.

Recently, cofounder Divya Gokulnath had claimed that the startup earned revenue of INR 2,800 Cr in the financial year ending March 2020 (FY20), a 2X growth from INR 1,341 Cr posted by the company for the financial year 2019.

Moreover, the engagement rate has increased significantly during the lockdown. Gokulnath said that students, who used to spend 70 minutes on the application per session and come back twice-thrice a week, are now spending around 100 minutes per day.

Besides BYJU’s, other edtech startups in India have also witnessed a surge in recent times. For instance, Vedantu claims to have amassed 650K new users across K-12 and competitive exams such as JEE and NEET.

However, the debate on the effectiveness of online learning has been a point of contention for many. Many have argued that the expertise of a good teacher cannot be replicated in an online classroom where one-on-one observation of a student’s behaviour is not possible and even peer-learning becomes a far-fetched concept.

Yet, the coronavirus lockdown has forced the world to experiment with online education. It would be interesting to see how things change in the post-Covid world. Will the edtech boom continue?