With the scenes of queues outside liquor stores from across India unfolding, one can make this statement (with statistical confidence):
INDIA HAS A MASSIVE ALCOHOLISM PROBLEM.
It’s time for us to leapfrog to a marijuana + hemp economy.
INDIA HAS A MASSIVE ALCOHOLISM PROBLEM.
It’s time for us to leapfrog to a marijuana + hemp economy.
Sequel 1 - @BYJUS future is very threatened...
The original poster boys of Edtech disruptors in India were:
A. Tutorvista - Sold to Pearson starting in 2009 and then (coincidence of coincidences) acquired by BYJUs in 2017.
The original poster boys of Edtech disruptors in India were:
A. Tutorvista - Sold to Pearson starting in 2009 and then (coincidence of coincidences) acquired by BYJUs in 2017.
The famous founders of Tutorvista never ever forayed into education although they’re successful serial entrepreneurs - BigBasket, Protea, Bluestone, HomeLane etc.
B. Educomp - Read the story here m.economictimes.com/industry/servi…
TV Mohandas Pai who is quoted in this story is an investor in BYJUs has plenty to say on Educomp. “It was a case of unbridled growth and the inability to manage it, leading to creative accounting, fudging of books...
TV Mohandas Pai who is quoted in this story is an investor in BYJUs has plenty to say on Educomp. “It was a case of unbridled growth and the inability to manage it, leading to creative accounting, fudging of books...
... and an inability to stand up and say that things have not worked out and there is need for course correction. It’s almost similar to what happened with Satyam,” he says. (I draw a parallel to this later in the thread).
Here’s the Educomp fraud case just in case you love deep state type stuff thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/cbi-…
Now let’s analyse the trajectory of Educomp and compare the biz model with BYJUs.
The product - Educomp sold Smartclass hardware loaded with digital content to schools; BYJUs mainstay is selling digital tablets loaded with digital content to parents
The product - Educomp sold Smartclass hardware loaded with digital content to schools; BYJUs mainstay is selling digital tablets loaded with digital content to parents
Format - Educomp converted textbook content to videos and interactive material with explanations (no customization to learning styles); BYJUs ... ditto
Buyer/Payee - Educomp sold it B2B2C to Parents through school administration; BYJUs sells B2C to Parents
Buyer/Payee - Educomp sold it B2B2C to Parents through school administration; BYJUs sells B2C to Parents
Sales Channel - Educomp had advertising and massive field sales team convincing schools; BYJUs ... ditto... convincing parents.
Scheme - Educomp amortized hardware & ‘layered content’ (Layering Content - Product Catalogue approach wherein 20% is good content; 80% is avg) ...
Scheme - Educomp amortized hardware & ‘layered content’ (Layering Content - Product Catalogue approach wherein 20% is good content; 80% is avg) ...
BYJUs also amortizes the cheap tablets & additionally slips in a finance (the financing scam reported by @TheKenWeb talks about this) and layers content.
Financing - Educomp had access to public money & bank loans to burn its way through growth. BYJUS has VCs with deep pockets.
Financing - Educomp had access to public money & bank loans to burn its way through growth. BYJUS has VCs with deep pockets.
Now let’s look at this new free app on the market @MSVgo 
The above is from Hurix Systems which ‘digitised’ textbooks for HCL Tech, McGrawHill, Pearson etc. and sits on a massive content library which can be monetized through quick appification. There are hundreds of such cos in India and can go head on with BYJUs through apps.
With oversupply, hyper-competition and dropping unit economics it is anyways a very tough industry play. But it doesn’t stop there. All players are almost identical in their offering. The only separation currently is brand.
No innovation at all. We’re simply moving the same content/concepts from print/classroom to digital. Reminds me of the e-papers we get these days (at least the paper version had the tactile feel and olfactory experience of newsprint). Outcomes are not improving - employability?
BYJUs is in the same spot as Educomp - high growth but not sustainable. If BYJUs went IPO today and Sensex was at 42,000 would you subscribe?
