Highlights
- The edtech sector, by the sheer virtue of bringing together the need for education and the convenience of the internet, has tremendous potential in India
- Upskilling and pursuing further educational programmes – academic and professional alike, through online platforms have picked up momentum in recent times
- The ongoing pandemic has resulted in a country-wide lockdown in India, and the resulting downtime and work-from-home scenario has provided consumers with more bandwidth
To understand how businesses in the edtech space are responding to the surge in consumer base that has come about because of the pandemic and resulting lockdowns, we spoke with Shreyasi Singh, Co-founder and CEO at Harappa Education. In our discussion with her, Shreyasi sheds light on how her venture has responded to the opportunity by pushing offerings that helps onboard new consumers as well as how a well conceptualized and executed marketing strategy is core to driving an internet-based business such as theirs.
The complete conversation with Shreyasi can be listened to in this podcast episode on Harappa Education and the ed-tech sector.
While the Indian education system itself remains a much debated and criticized topic, there is no denying that formal education is a big part of the country’s social fabric. Associated with the privilege of better-off sections of society and consequently the pursuit of a better livelihood, education has an aspirational value linked to it.
Even before the nCOVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, the edtech sector had picked up a lot of momentum – from businesses and investors to consumers across age-groups. The convenience of consuming educational material off of computers and hand-held devices increased accessibility as well as pursuing alternative short courses on subjects of interest, were key drivers for the sector on a consumption-side. And realizing the scalability of such businesses, startups and investors took a liking for the sector.
But today, with the lockdowns in force, traditional offline institutions have been forced into the online game as well. What makes the future of this new marketplace interesting is the competition that will come about between the deeper-pocketed legacy institutions and the young, agile startups that are disrupting education consumption as we know it.
With the lockdowns making “work-from-home” a commonality, the availability of time and flexibility that professionals now enjoy as well as with children’s education entering the sphere of online zoom-meeting and video-conference calls, the market has been thrown open. And large segments of consumers and businesses have been catapulted into the world of online learning.
However, two questions come out of this – 1) Is this here to stay and will it become the norm? and 2) Will the existing models be sufficient, be it the digitizing of offline educational content or standard video lectures and webinars?
There is no denying that the pandemic has resulted in businesses pursuing innovation and disruption – and not just to stay alive, but in fact to gain a competitive edge in the market. The near future will be very interesting to see how the edtech sector responds to this call.
Harappa Education, one such startup disrupting the edtech sector in India, is definitely one that responded to the opportunity. We spoke to Shreyasi Singh, Co-founder and CEO at Harappa, to get an insight into their strategy and game plan to deal with current times as well as from a long-term point of view. From the inputs Shreyasi provides, it is apparent that the content developed, the technology’s ease of use, as well as the brand’s positioning & marketing are key assets for a business venture into the edtech sector.
You can listen to the complete discussion with Shreyasi Singh on any of our podcast channels below:
Castbox | SoundCloud | Spotify | YouTube
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