The market of educational services in the first half of the year increased by almost 35%

According to the results of the first half of the year, the market of educational services increased by almost 35% year-on-year, the revenue of the top 100 services exceeded 50 billion rubles, calculated in Smart Ranking. Market participants explain its increase by the desire of consumers to gain new knowledge in times of crisis. They acknowledge, however, that people are already abandoning courses that do not provide obvious benefits, and growth will slow down.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the study of the educational services market in January-June, prepared by the Smart Ranking agency. According to them, the Russian edtech market grew by 34.6% in the first half of the year compared to the first half of 2022. The agency estimates the revenue of the 100 largest edtech companies for the first six months of the year at the level of 52.4 billion rubles. The results “were better than expected, given the forecast for market growth of 15-20% yoy,” noted Smart Ranking. Most of the companies told analysts that their operating results were “in line with the plan or even better.”

In the first half of the year, the revenue of the segment of additional professional education (CVE) increased by 28.3%, to 18 billion rubles, noted in Smart Ranking. The revenue of the segment of children’s education increased by 32%, to 16.4 billion rubles, business education – by 30%, to 5.4 billion rubles.

The Smart Ranking report was formed after VK, which owns Skillbox Holding (which unites Skillbox, Geekbrains, Sferum and a number of other edtech services), published its financial and operating results for six months, Kommersant was told in the agency.

Sergey Popkov, co-founder and director of the Skillbox business development department, says that with a total revenue growth of 7% for the half year, there was a surge in demand for certain areas: “In the second quarter, design and marketing grew by a quarter, and higher online education almost six times “. According to the agency, the revenue of the Ultimate Education holding increased the most in the CVE segment – by 67%, to 761 million rubles.

In the field of children’s education, the popularity of a relatively cheap format of group lessons is growing, says Foxford CEO Andrey Sizov: “The format of one-on-one tutoring is less in demand. In addition, it is becoming more popular to pay for courses in installments.” According to the results of the year, the APE segment, as Smart Ranking expects, will grow by 25–30% compared to 2022 and amounted to 37.8–40 billion rubles. The volume of the children’s education segment by the end of the year is estimated there at 30 billion rubles, and the volume of the business education segment is at the level of 2022, about 10 billion rubles.

The growth of more than 30% year-on-year can be partly explained by the low base, “the subsidence observed in 2022”, but positive dynamics can be expected in the future, says co-founder of the Reforma business club and the Netology, Foxford and Edmarket projects Maxim Spiridonov: “In the next two or three years, as long as the situation in the economy remains under control, I can well imagine growth of 20–25% year on year.” In his opinion, consumers continue to understand the value of additional education in areas where benefits are clearly visible, such as preparation for the exam or foreign language tests. “The drop will be more likely to be observed in niches where the result is not so obvious and where education is obtained according to the principle “to be”,” Mr. Spiridonov believes.

Educational services are not yet facing a serious drop in the solvency of customers, “except for niches related to hobbies and self-development,” says Alexander Laryanovsky, co-owner of Skyeng. In his opinion, the growth of the market, as in 2022, is facilitated by the desire of people against the backdrop of uncertainty to improve their qualifications.

Yuri Litvinenko