Udemy has become one of the best-funded companies in edtech, having raised another $80 million earlier this year, bringing its total raised to nearly $300 million. So, what are its plans, and how does it see the market for online courses changing after the pandemic?
Those were some questions we brought to Udemy’s CEO, Gregg Coccari, in a recent interview.
First, some background. The company lets anyone create and offer an online course on its platform, which has become the largest of its kind. Udemy’s most popular courses focus on technical and business topics—like how to code in Python or how to use Google Analytics. But the platform also features courses on topics that focus more on hobbies or personal development. For instance, you can sign up for short online courses on how to play the harmonica or declutter your home.
In part because of this open approach to online learning, Udemy claims to have the largest course catalog anywhere, with more than 155,000 courses. And its leaders say that the pandemic has accelerated its growth, from 3,000 new courses added each month last year to 6,000 a month today.
As on other large platforms that host so-called “user-generated content,” only a small number of creators end up making a living off the site, and a few of those end up as superstars within its system. Coccari says that a handful of teachers on the platform make more than $1 million per year on Udemy.
“They become professional at this,” he says. “They have assistants that handle the questions. They work at this every day. They're always looking for new publishing ideas, more courses, they're upgrading the courses they have. And so these become very professional online teachers.”
But those millionaires are, by and large, the exception.
“The top 5,000 instructors are making the vast majority of the revenue,” the Udemy CEO says, noting that that’s out of more than 70,000 instructors. Some make just a few dollars, and plenty of Udemy instructors give away their courses for free. In fact, the company says 80 percent of its courses on the site are free.
