Udemy CEO: “Asia is an incredible opportunity for us”

Udemy, the online learning marketplace that aims to democratize education, is making international expansion a priority in 2015, says CEO Dennis Yang.

An enthusiastic Yang recently told Tech in Asia he believes that his company has a good shot at “scaling and democratizing education” using technology and bringing Udemy outside of the US.

“If you want to scale education, you can’t just build schools. You have to use technology,” he says.

Current data has given the ed-tech startup early signals that it could prove popular internationally. Yang told me that markets outside of the US account for 66 percent of Udemy’s total site visits and 45 percent of its total sales. APAC countries like Singapore, Australia, and India are hungry for Udemy, Yang told me, drawing a growth chart on a whiteboard as he spoke.

Today Udemy offers over 21,000 courses and is adding 1,000 courses per month. Over 10,000 instructors are serving its four million students across 190 countries. On average, every instructor makes about US$7,000 with some exceptional cases like the instructor who made over US$66,000 in a month.

So how does Udemy plan to expand abroad? Part of that answer is partnerships. “We can potentially work with media, government, and education agencies as long as we have the same goal in mind,” he says. For such partnerships, Udemy is hoping to attract more locally-created courses as well as students to build on top of its existing ecosystem. To reduce payment friction, Udemy has a dedicated team of engineers to improve payments processing around the world.

“We are currently working with Paypal and Stripe. But overseas, we have to look for local payment partners that do a good job. We’re investing in making transactions on the platform work seamlessly,” he adds.

“Asia is an incredible opportunity for us”

With the rise of Android in Asia, Udemy looks prepared to serve many mobile-first developing countries in Asia which have sub-par internet connection. A “Udemy” search on Google Play surfaces hundreds of Udemy Android apps featuring different types of courses. These apps are different from the desktop version, allowing users to download lesson videos within the app rather than streaming them directly. This feature, though small, is a lifesaver in countries where a flaky internet connection is the norm.