BUSINESS PLAN FOR E-BIZ SETUP

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BUSINESS PLAN: ADHYAAPAK.COM

Abstract

The online education market in India is expected to grow from $247 million in 2017
to nearly $1.96 billion in next five years, backed by a phenomenal increase in the paid user
base which is expected to grow from 1.57 million users in 2017 to more than 9.5 million
users by 2021. Existing online education portals comprise a mix of dedicated online only and
offline players with an online presence. Adhyaapak.com, with its commitment of bringing
customised education to every doorstep, is an education portal that combines the online and
offline channels to deliver holistic content to students. The online model offers the twin
advantages of convenience and availability, while the offline model facilitates parents in
engaging accredited tutors for home tuitions. With the rapid proliferation of Internet and
smartphones, Adhyaapak.com expects to meet the aspirations of students looking for quality
content and focussed, individual learning to meet specific requirements.

Key Words

Online education, learning portal, recommending engine, virtual learning, partner tutors,
content and media teams, freemium model, interactive mode, offline mode, hybrid cloud,
web application, cloud provider.

Introduction

Background

Private tutoring for school going children has become very commonplace in India due to the
fact that in most households both parents now work, having little or no time to tutor their
children, as against previously where only one worked and the other helped tutor the child.
Apart from having no time, parents aren’t equipped to handle new information and
knowledge for teaching their children. In such a situation, parents often rely upon private
tutors for supplemental education for their children.

The inadequacies of the schooling system coupled with the high-stakes exam culture have
also contributed to the proliferation of private tutors. Tutoring started in the form of
individual tutors working from home and over time developed into a network of private
coaching classes. However, reputed private tutors are not only hard to find, but often are
already tied down by their commitments to take on any more tuitions. The limited availability
of good quality tutors has been one of the main reasons that have fuelled the growth of online
education, particularly in Tier II and Tier III cities.
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Today the online education services play a pivotal role in the overall education ecosystem. Of
late, these services have taken on the mantle of content providers and have even started
offering degrees/ diplomas through their own platforms or through third party aggregators.

Introduction of new government initiatives like Digital India has also helped Indian online
education market. The government is making policies for expansion of digital literacy in
India and to develop online education delivery infrastructure. Its Digital India Initiative with
a long-term vision to provide quality and technologically aided education to all provides a
major support in development of online education in India. This initiative aims to provide
high quality service of internet across the country at affordable price for growth of online
education in India. Similarly, the National Knowledge Network aims to link major
educational institutions through a high bandwidth network to ensure sharing of books,
journals and research work among such institutions.

Growth of Online Education in India and Present Status

There are five major categories of online education providers in India – primary and
secondary education, test preparation for competitive exams, reskilling and online
certifications, language and casual learning and higher education.

Of the above categories, school education has been the fastest growing sector due to the
increased Internet penetration in tier 2 cities and beyond. In the next five years, the market
size in the school education sector is expected to grow from $247 million to $1964 million by
2021. There a number of major players in this sector – Byju’s, Merit Nation, Extra Marks,
Khan Academy and Vedantu, to name a few. The business plan of such websites has been to
deliver pre-recorded video content and test students through remote test administration.
Byju’s.com, which is India’s leading online education portal, has gone a step further by
including live interaction between teachers and students for clearing doubts, as part of its
package for school students.

The present Indian online education market has students accessing lesson content on
computers/ laptops as well as mobiles, making it critical or all players to have a multi-device
offering besides having a wide variety of courses. While select large players dominate the
market, a large number of smaller new entrants with innovative business models are also
present. Courses are offered as subscription packages for a set of subjects applicable to a
particular class. In some cases, students are offered the option to customise the course content
and the learning methodology. The players have largely adopted a B2C mode, however C2C
model is also becoming prevalent for smaller players who work on a revenue sharing model
where the platform receives 15-30% of the fee paid by the student and the content generator
receives the remaining amount.

However, present online education portals do not offer a hybrid model for learning which
allows students to access content online, schedule private classes with tutors through video
conference and, if required, hire services of a private tutor for specific subjects or topics.
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Moreover, reputation of private tutors often spreads by word of mouth and no data of tutors
in various towns/ cities is available to parents or students.

Adhyaapak.com – Bringing Customised Education to Every Doorstep

Adhyaapak.com is an online tutoring service that will offer interactive private online tutoring
to school students in India. Unlike other learning portals, Adhyaapak.com’s business model is
focussed on tailoring lessons to meet individual student requirements. Moreover the portal
will also provide a tutor recommending engine that will contain database of prominent tutors
in each town or city along with their ratings, to enable hiring of private tutors.

Unique Value Proposition

Adhyaapak.com is a learning portal for primary and secondary school students who want
detailed understanding of subjects rather than just clearing examinations. Our product offers
a personalised learning solution that integrates students and tutors through online and
offline modes unlike other learning portals which offer limited customisation through
online delivery only.

Being the first such portal to offer comprehensive online and offline tuition services,
Adhyaapak.com is likely to get the First Mover Advantage.

Business Model

Adhyaapak.com is a web-based learning solutions which provides quality and personalized

education to school students. It offers rich and valuable learning resources in the form of pre-
recorded lessons delivered through a web portal and mobile application for school going
students. The lessons are delivered by some of the most reputed teachers and include
interesting illustrations, models and examples to keep the interest of students alive.
Assignments are given at the end of each lesson to check assimilation of the students.

Once students register on the web portal or mobile app, they will have the option to choouse
from the following types of subscription packages:-

(a) Standard online package for a particular grade comprising pre-recorded videos and
mock tests for all subjects.
(b) Customised package for each grade comprising pre-recorded videos and mock tests
for specific subjects.
(c) Premium online package for each grade comprising private online lessons for all/
specific subjects in addition to the standard package.
(d) Offline package allowing students to select tutors for private home tuitions based on
rating and availability.
As specified above, apart from the standard packages, the portal also offers tuition services to
students who wish to make the learning experience more personalised. Tutors in all subjects
are available and students can schedule a private session which is delivered in an interactive
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mode through a Virtual Learning platform. The availability of each teacher is shared through
the website and mobile app so that students can schedule individual online classes for
particular subjects or lessons.

Adhyaapak.com’s free videos offer high quality content which and are made available to
users free of cost for the initial 15 days after registration. The focus is on delivering engaging
content helping students in retention. For instance, when a student spends a substantial
amount of time on a particular video, the positive experience encourages such a student to opt
for paid services year after year.

In addition to online tuitions, students also have the option of selecting Adhyaapak.com’s
partner tutors in their respective cities. The partner tutors are selected after a careful selection
process and are registered on Adhyaapak.com. After registering on the website, students can
find tutors in their respective cities for the subjects or lessons of their choice. Rating and
hiring charges of each tutor are displayed on the website. After engaging a tutor, students rate
them on various attributes such as teaching skills, subject knowledge, communication skills
and ability to connect with students. This rating helps other parents and students in finding
the right tutor to match their requirements. An active and responsive feedback mechanism
helps Adhyaapak.com in identifying the problem being faced by students and providing the
right solution. Moreover, tutors who register with Adhyaapak.com undergo an initial
orientation course and periodic updation/ skill development programmes to enhance their
knowledge and teaching skills.

Adhyaapak.com also delivers classes in an interactive environment for schools, through its
integration with the Educomp, one of the largest online education services providers to
schools. In this way, schools can schedule classes to be conducted for an entire grade which
is delivered through an interactive video conference where students can ask questions and
clarify doubts, thus replicating the actual classroom environment.

Adhyaapak.com also delivers its services through an easy to use mobile application which
students can download on their smartphones. The mobile application provides the same
functionality as the website, thereby ensuring that students never miss their lessons.

In all modes of delivery, Adhyaapak.com’s classes include lessons and examinations based on
the latest curriculum, which not only prepares students for school level examinations but also
provides them the cutting edge when they appear in various competitive examinations.

Behind the Scenes

Adhyaapak.com’s content and media teams are constantly engaged in creating content which
appeals to the students. The content specialists create scripts for the videos and assessments.
They are organized into small teams, each tasked with creating the content for a specific
subject and specific class level. Each team comprises engineering graduates, subject
researchers, and experienced teachers.
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Each content team carries out extensive researched on a topic to determine what needs to be
taught to the students. Lessons are continuously revised based on revision of syllabus and
feedback form students. Once the content team has identified the topics to be covered in a
lesson, they identify suitable and key concepts which will help students to understand and
assimilate the topic. Each lesson is built around certain key elements such as questions to
revise previously covered concepts at the beginning of the class, visual elements, common
mistakes and frequently asked questions. The media team includes 3D designers and visual
graphics designers. It is responsible for converting the lesson script into a story that would
appear as a video while the teacher is conducting a class. The type of video depends on the
subject and the class. Once the video is ready the teachers record the lesson against the video
background. Apart from recording lessons for different classes, teachers also have an
important role in conducting interactive classes through video conference.

Key Differentiators

What sets Adhyaapak.com apart from other online education portals is its ability to provide a
holistic education solution that covers multiple domains – delivery of pre-recorded web
content, individual interactive classes through online mode, collective interactive classes and
offline hiring of tutors. While most other education portals offer either online or offline
services, Adhyaapak.com is the first to offer a hybrid model combining both modes of
delivery.

Parameter Byju Merit Khan Extra Marks Adhyaapak.com

Nation Academy
Mode of Online Online Online Online Online and offline
delivery
Interactive Yes- for No No No Yes – interactive
clearing delivery of all classes
doubts based on mode selected
Scheduling For doubt No No No Yes – online and offline
clearing
only
Content Generic & Generic Generic Generic Customised in
customised interactive mode
Customer Rating Rating No No Rating system for
Feedback system only system only classes and tutors
for classes for classes

Comparison of Top Education Portals in India

Moreover the different types of packages can be customised to meet individual student
requirements. Students are no longer bound by a – take it or leave it policy and can choose
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the subjects, time, teachers and mode of delivery; thus offering a high degree of flexibility
and convenience to both students and parents. Further, by providing services of reputed
private tutors at home for students, Adhyaapak.com offers more number of options than any
other online education portal.

Target Segment and Distribution Strategy

The growth drivers of an online education portal are as follows:-

• Low cost alternative to private coaching classes.
• Exponential growth in Internet penetration in India and increasing acceptance of the
online channel.
• Growing smartphone penetration favouring technology adoption.
• Significant increase in disposable personal income.
• Government’s awareness campaign regarding education and success stories from
small towns driven by good quality education.

The target segment for Adhyaapak.com comprises students from Tier 1 cities looking for
convenient and flexible method for supplemental education apart from school. The target
segment also includes students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities who want good quality education
from reputed tutors through private tuitions.

Currently, Social Media is one of the most cost-effective and immediate ways to reach the
target consumer market. Mediums like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest allow new
businesses to reach a large audience of potential customers in a very short amount of time.
Apart from this advertisements in print media and television will also be helpful in reaching
out to potential customers, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Better customer services often goes a long way in delighting the customers and building the
brand image through the word of mouth. Accordingly, creating a customer support helpline,
web chat through online portal and email will allow customers to reach us for all possible
queries.

Since a large number of online education portals are available, customer retention is an
important facet of the distribution strategy. Accordingly, greater emphasis will be laid on
enhancing the customer experience for online students such as detailed solutions to maximum
problems and concepts, making the video content adaptive and relevant to the core subjects,
sample papers and mock tests. For students who prefer the offline mode, focus will be on
building a database of reputed tutors to provide more number of options for students. The
online portal will also include a provision for providing feedback and rating of tutors by
students.
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Cost Structure and Revenue Model

Adhyaapak.com’s initial costs of setting up the business include cost of preparation of content
for online classes and setting up IT infrastructure and services. Content preparation will
require content and media teams for creating lesson scripts and developing the content
required for delivering the lesson. Engineering graduates, subject researchers, experienced
teachers, 3D designers and visual graphics designers will be hired for these teams.

The business model of Adhyaapak.com will be primarily B2C. The revenue model is one in
which Adhyaapak.com earns through subscriptions and fees for each personalised online class
from students. The revenue streams also includes membership fee from tutors who register on
the portal for providing private tuitions. Apart from a one-time registration fee on the portal,
tutors will also be required to pay a pre-specified percentage of their earnings, based on the
type of package for which they are hired.

Different types of revenue models will be followed based on the option selected by students.
The revenue models followed will be as follows:-

• Freemium model in which students will be provided with free samples initially and
will be charged subsequently for the complete course. This will be the primary
revenue model.

• Pay per session model in which students will be charged on basis of usage and
number of modules accessed.

• Course subscription model which is based on a one-time transaction where students

pay per course subscribed.

• Content sharing model in which students will be encouraged to share educational

content online on the platform and other students will be charge on basis of
consumption of shared content.

• Advertising and registration commission in which commission will be charged to

tutors who register on the platform.

In the freemium model, students will get access to some online content for free for a limited
period of time, primarily to generate interest and create familiarity with the teaching
methodology followed in Adhyaapak.com. Pricing strategy will be competitive and at par
with other online portals. However, additional subscription will be charged for customised
packages such as private online classes.

Adhyaapak.com will also partner with schools by offering delivery of classes for various
subjects in the classrooms at nominal prices. Discounts will be offered for students of these
schools who register for online/ offline classes through Adhyaapak.com. Cash back schemes
will also be offered to students for successful referrals and group registrations.
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Technical Infrastructure

Adhyaapak.com is a start-up online education portal which will be available 24 x 7 x 365 to

students. Setting up the IT infrastructure from the ground up for such a venture would not
only require large amount of initial capital investment for procurement of hardware, it would
also involve recurring costs such as expenditure on maintaining and upgrading hardware as
well as maintaining an IT workforce for ensuring uninterrupted availability of the services.
Further, from scalability perspective it will be difficult to replace existing hardware and bear
the licensing cost of software for future upgrades.

In order to overcome above shortcomings and to make the IT infrastructure agile to be able to
respond quickly to scalability challenges, Adhyaapak.com will host its services through a
hybrid cloud. This will not only reduce IT infrastructure and maintenance related expenditure
but will also allow the organisation to focus on its Key Result Areas such as online content
development for classes and examinations.

The hybrid cloud deployment model will also provide Adhyaapak.com with the flexibility of
selecting its infrastructure partner based on requirements such as security, data residency
regulations, and performance considerations. In the hybrid model, only the enterprise data
will be stored on company owned servers. This includes Customer Data (User profiles,
choices, locations and preferences) and Teachers’ Directory. The cloud provider will be
responsible for all other day-to-day IT infrastructure related operations.
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IT Architecture

The core component for hosting web applications is the web application server, but to
produce a secure, reliable, high performance architecture a number of other components may
be required, such as firewalls, load balancers, transformation and connectivity functionality,
enterprise data, file repositories, content delivery networks, and robust security. In addition,
lifecycle management, operations management, and governance need to be considered for
these components.

Public Network Components

The Public Network components includes the users who interact with the web application
from a variety of devices and systems and edge services which include network service
capabilities needed to deliver content to web applications and its users through the Internet.
Edge services include the following:-

• DNS Server – The Domain Name System (DNS) server maps the text URL (domain
name) for a particular web resource to the TCP-IP address of the system or service
that can deliver that resource to the client.

• Content Delivery Network (CDN) – Content Delivery Networks are geographically

distributed systems of servers deployed to minimize the response time for serving
resources to geographically distributed users, ensuring that content is highly available
and is provided to users with minimum latency. Which servers are engaged will
depend on server proximity to the user and where the content is stored or cached.

• Firewall – A Firewall is a system designed to control communication access to or

from a system, aiming to permit only traffic meeting a set of policies or rules to
proceed and blocking any traffic that does not meet these policies. Firewalls can be
implemented as separate dedicated hardware, or as a component in other networking
hardware such as a load-balancer or router or as integral software to an operating
system.

• Load Balancer – Load Balancers distribute network or application traffic across many
resources (such as computers, processors, storage, or network links) to maximize
throughput, minimize response time, increase capacity, and increase reliability of
applications. Load balancers can balance loads locally and globally. Considerations
should be made to ensure that this component is highly available and is not a single
point of failure.

Cloud Provider Network Components

The cloud provider cloud can host the web services tier which contains the program logic
used to generate dynamic web content. This can involve retrieval of data from files,
databases, HTTP-services, sensors, and other sources of data as well as programmatic
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generation of new data or information. Web servers and application servers can also be
instantiated in a 3-tiered setup with separated, rather than integrated, web servers and
application servers. In that case, there would be separate pools of web servers and application
servers connected via load balancers. The application server would be responsible for
accessing databases or other systems. Its components include the following:-

• Web Application Servers – Web Application Servers offer web server functionality
and integrated application server functionality if it is needed. Web servers are systems
that return resources (web content and images, for example) in response to an HTTP
request and may be configured to handle requests for multiple IP addresses and/or
domains. Web application servers may support clustering, pooling, and other high
availability and scaling configurations including auto scaling – instantiating and
removing application server instances as demand requires.
• Cache – Caches store information temporarily needed to fulfill a request by the web
application server, including session data and other content. The purpose of the cache
is to reduce the latency in responding to a request from a client.

• File Repository – File repositories are devices or applications that store information,
data, etc. in the form of files. Access to the file repository generally includes the
ability to store, retrieve, delete, and search the repository for a particular file. File
repositories can use network storage to provide access to shared files.

• User Directory – User Directory contains user IDs and credentials needed to validate
that the user is allowed to access the information or applications being requested in
the Web servers and application servers. The directory can be accessed by web
servers, applications servers, databases or any other elements used in the web
application.

Enterprise Network Components

Within enterprise networks, enterprises typically host a number of applications that deliver
critical business solutions along with supporting infrastructure like data storage. Typically,
applications will have sources of data that are extracted and integrated with services provided
by the cloud service provider. Analysis is performed in the cloud computing environment,
with output consumed by on-premises applications. Any data from enterprise applications can
be sent to enterprise or departmental systems of record represented by the enterprise data
components. Systems of record data have generally matured over time and are highly trusted.
The enterprise network components include the following:-

• Enterprise User Directory – Provides storage for and access to user information to
support authentication, authorization, or profile data. Security services and edge
services use this to manage access to the enterprise network, enterprise services, or
enterprise specific cloud provider services.
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• Enterprise Data – Enterprise Data includes metadata about the data as well as systems
of record for enterprise applications. Because of compliance requirements for
localized data storage, the use of distributed database management tools that
accommodate hybrid cloud architectures is essential to handling global user bases.
Many types of enterprise data play a role in a web application hosting design. These
include:-

(a) Reference Data – Reference data provides the standard context for collected
data. In some instances, Reference Data and Master Data are one in the same.

(b) Master Data – These repositories can be updated with the output of
applications, enterprise applications, and analytics to assist with subsequent data
transformation, enrichment, and correlation.

(c) Transactional Data – Data about or from business interactions that adhere to a
sequence or related processes (such as financial, logistical, or other process).
This data can come from reference data, master data repositories, and
distributed data storage.

(d) Application Data – Data used by or produced by business solutions and

enterprise applications functionally or operationally. Frequently the data has
been improved or augmented to add value and drive insight.

Security Components

Security for web application hosting addresses fundamental business needs of security such
as right people having access to the cloud web applications and their data (confidentiality),
the data of business users are intact and not tampered (integrity), availability / uptime of
cloud web applications despite many security threats (availability) and help address industry
and regulatory compliance needs (compliance).

Security capabilities to address business needs include the following:-

• Identity & Access Management – Capabilities to identify and authorize the user
providing role-based access to cloud web applications. It also enables single sign-on,
user lifecycle management, and audit logging. The user types and their levels of
access for cloud web applications need to be managed. This could include business
users (customer, vendor, 3rd party, staff users), or IT users (administrators, privileged
users, application users). Identity and access management could leverage the
enterprise user directory from the service tier.

• Data and Application Protection – Capabilities that help identify vulnerabilities and
prevent attacks targeting sensitive data. It provides protection to cloud web
applications against many malicious threats right from the beginning of the
development cycle. In addition, it monitors privileged access to sensitive data. It also
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protects integrity of sensitive data in transit and at rest and provides network isolation.
Firewalls in the public network component tier help protect the network level flows to
application and data.

• Security Intelligence – Capabilities to monitor the cloud web application for security
breaches to provide visibility. It provides actionable intelligence to detect and defend
against threats using event and log analysis that feeds to a corporate incident
management system. Security reports support regulatory compliance of the cloud web
application.

Non-Internet Option for Business Plan

In case the business has to be developed as a non-Internet venture, its unique value
proposition will be diluted to a great extent. However, the business can be sustained by
delivering pre-recorded content through CDs/ DVDs. These CDs/ DVDs could be offered for
sale at book stores or could be offered as a bundled product with prescribed course text
books. Further, CDs containing mock tests and sample question papers could be distributed
through partnership with schools, private tutors and coaching classes. In such a scenario, lot
of emphasis will have to be laid on publicity through print and television media to generate
awareness among the target segment.

Future Trends and Way Ahead

The online education market has great potential for expansion and is likely to expand in the
coming years. Online learning portals which can offer enhanced customer experience and
support will attract students to their platforms. Students will look for a holistic solution
provider like Adhyaapak.com which can provide a one stop solution to all types of learning
requirements, both online and offline. Accordingly, most online players are likely to move to
towards blended or hybrid education solutions which focus on online learning with offline
touch points to deliver greater value. Value added services such as industry interactions,
career counselling and soft skills development will further enhance customer retention.

The online learning market will be driven by competitive differentiation by players via
alternative technology enabled learning solutions such as Artificial Intelligence. Practical
component of course content will be enhanced through live projects offering an in-depth
learning experience to students. Going forward, the freemium model is likely to be preferred
revenue generation model since users will start researching courses extensively online before
making purchase decisions.

Government initiatives are also expected to enable infrastructure support in online areas,
fuelling further growth in the online education sector. With increase in smartphone
penetration and availability of cloud technology at low cost, online education portals are
expected to grow and finder greater acceptance in the student community in India.
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References

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4. Impact of Online Education in India, Zahoor Ahmad Lone, International Journal of

Engineering Science and Computing, July 2017.

5. Research on the Effectiveness of Online Learning, The Future of State Universities,

Sep 2011.

6. E-learning: New trend in Education and Training, Ekta Srivastava and Dr Nisha
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