Byjus the Biggest Con in Indian education ecosystem

Con of the century

Byjus is not an Ed-Tech company. It is purely a marketing company. Its a SCAM!!!!!

It is weird, right? 18 billion-dollar company Which is called the biggest ed-tech company in the world, Is actually not an ed-tech company. And this question arises, What is the reality of Byjus? How Does Byjus Business Modal work? The Truth About Byjus Is A Scam?

In India on average, An urban family for their child’s education up to 12th Spends around 15-20 lakhs. In today’s internet world Any person can learn anything new in a very less amount then the question arises, Why so much money is spent on a child’s education? Well, there is a very big reason. Today’s ed-tech companies. That compels people, To spend out of pocket on education.

Now the question is, What do companies do? That our parents give all their savings to these companies.

HOW BYJUS WAS STARTED?

So this story starts in 2009. When Byju Raveendran started taking online classes for the CAT exam. In 2011, he registered his business as “Think and learn”. And after 4 years that is august 2015, Byjus launched its learning app. After the launch of the Byjus online learning app, In 3 months, they had more than 20 lakh children.

In 2018, Byjus became a Unicorn Which means they crossed their valuation to 1 Billion dollars. But now this company’s valuation is 18 Billion dollars. Now question is, What did this company do in 3 years? That it increased its valuation by 18%.

WHITEHAT JR. SCAM

Wolf Gupta Who is 9 years old claims that By taking online coding classes on “Whitehat Jr” He cracked the package of 1.2 crore rupees. Interestingly, wolf Gupta is sometimes 9,12, or 13 years old Sometimes his package is 1.2 crore, And sometimes it is 150 crore. It is simple, This is a story that was created by whitehat Jr for a marketing camp. Which Byjus acquired 300 million dollars.

Interestingly, this incident happened after the Byjus acquisition. But the sad thing is that After watching this advertisement More than 20000 people enrolled in Whitehat Jr’s courses Now, understand this calculation carefully.

Whitehat Jr’s basic entry-level course price is 7200. 7200 X 20000 Do you know how much is this number?14 crore 40 lakh rupees Now the question is Why did people buy courses worth 14 crores? Well, the answer is hidden in the BYJUS Darkside.

HOW DOES BYJUS BUSINESS MODAL WORK?

Byjus is not an ed-tech company. Actually, Byjus is a marketing company. So to understand this, We have to understand Byjus very deeply.

So in the year 2019, Byjus did an Rs.1306 crore operating profit. Which in the year 2020 increased to Rs.2381 crore. Now let’s see about Byjus marketing spend.

In 2019, Byjus’s marketing spend was Rs.457 crore Which in 2020 increased to Rs.1175 crore. But do you know Byjus’s major revenue does not come from this marketing, This marketing is just to increase their brand value.

So now the question is Where does Byjus revenue come from? So the answer is Business development associates. In simple words, salesman. Byjus hire Business development associates on a salary of 10-12 lakh per annum. Their base salary is 7 lakh and the remaining is an incentive.

But still, they spend 10-12 lakh rupees. On every Business development associate. Currently, Byjus has more than 300 plus Business development associates. I know, now you must be thinking How can 300 employees togetherly Generate 2400 crore revenue And what does Byjus do, That people are ready to spend their life savings.

Byjus Marketing Strategy

So anyone who comes in touch with Byjus, Comes from one of the three ways.

1. “Cold Calling”. Byjus salesmanRandomly to your parents or in fact sometimes to you itself Will call you and ask. What are your future aspirations? Where do you see yourself? What do you actually wish to become? How do you see studies? They will discuss all these things with you.

2. “Advertising”. Either you will see shah rukh khan doing the endorsement, Or on Instagram, Facebook, and in fact, on Youtube, You will see the Byjus advertisement. And enquire about Byjus.

3. “Doubt solving”.Today when kids have doubts Then they go on the internet and search. When you search on Internet, Then they are many chances you will land on the Byjus website. Why? Because Byjus on their website Already provide answers to the kids. Now, you may come in contact with Byjus in any one of the ways You will definitely get one thing. That is a 15-day free trial. Whether it may be cold calling, Or whether you may come through an advertisement. Or through doubt solving you landed on the Byjus website, You will be offered a 15-day free trial.

Now the question is, Why a 15-day free trial? So the reason behind it is “Behavioural economics”. As soon as any kid takes a Byjus free trial, Byjus track the kid’s behavioral data. And after that, create a strong profile.

For example, there is a kid named Aditi. Aditi studies in the 9th class. Aditi will get 2 things from Byjus in 15 days

1. Study material. Which will be in the form of videos.

2. Quizzes

So the study material From that Byjus will calculate What is the average view time of the kid on that study material? How many times is revisited the video? At what speed does he watch the video? Apart from this, Byjus also notices, How much time does he spend on the platform? And not only this, but They also monitor whether a kid in 15 days Regularly uses the Byjus app or not. what is his login activity?

Number 2, Quizzes, Quizzes shows the kid’s performance. And in performance, there are 2 very important things.

1. “Accuracy”.How well he does do?

2. “Time taken”How long does he take to solve the question?

The Truth About Byjus Is A Scam?

Now, when Byjus learns all these things about Aditi, They create a profile of Aditi. So after the free trial is finished, In fact before finishing the trial, the Byjus sales executive has to contact the kid’s parents. And depending on which category the kid falls under, the Sales pitch is customized accordingly.

So Byjus divide these kids into 3 categories.

1. “Underachievers” These are those kids who are very weak in their studies. Their performance is not that much. Chances are if they are not paid attention to, then they will fail.

2. “Average”.These are those kids who are average in their studies. So their parents are told, If you don’t take Byjus course Then your kid will remain an average kid. He will never be able to outshine in this world.

3. “Overachievers” These are those kids who always top in studies. Byjus sells its premium courses to these kids. Byjus salesman talk to this kids parents, And ask what does their child want to become? Let’s assume, If the kid says “Doctor”, Then the Byjus salesman Tells their parents that their kid needs “Neet course” very badly. If the kid says “Engineer” Then he is recommended “JEE course”. If the kid says he wants to be a “Lawyer” Then he is recommended “CLAT Coaching”. And consider if the kid says he wants to do a startup, Or he wants to do business or do a normal corporate job, Then he is recommended the “IPMAT” or “CAT” Coaching.

And this is planned very strategically. Executives tell the parents that In today’s date competition has increased very much. As competition is so high, Then the chances of your kid getting a job is very tough. If he does not go to IIT or IIM.

After the executive’s sales pitch 70% of customers are converted. Now you must be thinking, How is 70% conversion possible in any industry? Even an eCommerce website that has a traffic of lakhs of people, Even there the conversion rate is 3-5 %. So what does Byjus do, That they are able to convert 70% of customers?

The answer to this is hidden behind one line.“Insecure people purchase convenience to feel secure.” Now this line consists of 3 important elements. “Insecurity, Security and convenience”.

Now understand this thing very carefully. First, “Insecurity”. Among us, many of our parents have very big insecurity in their minds. And this Insecurity is because of these 3 factors.

• “Career”.Our parents are worried about our careers. That the child’s career should not be spoiled in the future.He/she should get a good career.

• “Competition”. How can my kid perform better than Gupta’s son or daughter?

• “Society”.What will I say in my society? Which face I will show in society? And most important, What will I tell relatives? What does my kid do?

The second word is “Security”. When will any parent feel secure? When their kid is scoring good marks. And when their kid gets admission to a good college. And most important, When their kid is doing a good job Or is doing anything by earning a good amount.

To see People want to go from an insecure to a secure environment. But if in the middle of this journey, you are offered convenience, wouldn’t you take it? And this thing is done by Byjus. In the middle of this journey, Byjus offer you convenience.

To take Byjus Classes where you can learn online. Which are good. When you take Byjus classes, Then by taking Byjus classes you will score well. If you get good marks you will get admission to a good college. Which means you will do a good job. It means Byjus doesn’t sell you intellect but convenience. In simple words, It sells a dream of security to secure people.

Lesson

There is only one solution to this. Continuous self-learning. You keep on doing self-learning. Because in the upcoming timeThe whole world’s economy will be skill-based. If you have a degree then it is good. Even if you don’t have then also having skills is most important. Because the one who doesn’t have any skills, In the upcoming time, Any company or any person will not entertain them.