PhysicsWallah sees 182% surge in online course enrollments amid hybrid learning in 2023

Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah (PW) has experienced significant growth in online learning, with an 182% surge in enrollment for online paid courses in 2023 compared to the prior year, the company said.

The Noida-based firm noted that the number of online paid orders rose to 24 lakh in 2023 from 8.5 lakh in the previous year. This points to a strong inclination among students to choose online courses in the post-pandemic era, a period marked by growth in both offline and hybrid learning spaces.

“It is exciting to observe that despite the industry’s concerns regarding the decline of online learning in the post-pandemic world, it continues to thrive. Students are opting for the comfort, self-paced, and personalised experiences that online learning offers,” Alakh Pandey, Founder and CEO of PhysicsWallah, said in a statement.

Speaking at TechSparks 2023 in September, Pandey revealed that the company experienced notable growth in its online business despite a shift of students towards the offline channel.

PW provides its educational solutions through online, offline, and hybrid modes. Atul Kumar, CEO Online at PhysicsWallah, recently told YourStory that offline centres contributed to 40% of PW’s revenue in 2023.

PW, which began its journey as a YouTube channel created by Pandey in 2014, has also seen growth on the Google-owned online video-sharing platform.

The edtech firm said it currently has 4 crore YouTube subscribers, with 1.5 crore new additions in 2023. Across its 81 YouTube channels, it has accumulated 275 crore views and achieved 20 crore hours of watch time throughout the year.

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According to the Alakh Pandey-led company, community building is one of the best ways to consistently develop trust and a good student base. It practises community development on YouTube by providing free education to students. 

“This helps in developing the paid student base on the PW App as and when the courses are launched as education is a word-of-mouth business,” the edtech firm noted, adding that the app recorded 32.71 crore watch hours, 120 crore total views, and 53 lakh unique users in 2023.

Moreover, the average watch time on PW’s platform has increased to 65 minutes from 50 minutes per day in 2023.

The edtech company disclosed that the PW App’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) increased to 54 in 2023 from 50 in the previous period. Its content NPS rose to 4.5 from 4, faculty NPS to 4.6 from 4.2, and Test and Daily Practice Papers to 4.4 from 3.9.

NPS is a crucial metric for companies as it provides insight into a customer's perception of their brand and is often linked to revenue growth.

Despite English being a popular choice for online learning, there is an evident rise in demand for other languages. PW said it experienced a 300% surge in student enrollments for Hindi medium batches and a fivefold increase in the student base for vernacular languages such as Marathi, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, and Telugu.

The findings are derived from a sample of 27 lakh students using the PW App from January 2022 to December 2023, as well as 4 crore subscribers across its YouTube channels from January 2023 to December 2023.

In the financial year 2022-23, PW’s revenue from operations increased to Rs 771.76 crore from Rs 232.47 crore in the previous fiscal. It reported an adjusted EBITDA of Rs 127 crore in FY23 (adjusted for ESOP costs, Lease Equalization Reserve—LER and one-time inventory provisioning), which stood at Rs 134 crore in FY22. EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, is a measure of core operational efficiency.

Founded in 2020, PW has expanded into 28 test prep categories and a skilling vertical, with over 72 tech-enabled Vidyapeeth (offline) and 28 Pathshala (hybrid) centres across the country.