Udemy
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| Web address | http://www.udemy.com |
|---|---|
| Slogan | The Academy of You |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | e-learning |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Launched | 2010 |
| Alexa rank | 24,299 |
| Current status | Active |
Udemy is an online learning platform (website) that allows instructors to host courses.[1]
The site was launched by Eren Bali, Oktay Caglar, and Gagan Biyani in 2010.[2]
History
In 2007 while in Turkey, Bali built software for a live virtual classroom. He saw potential in making the product free for everyone, so two years later, he moved to Silicon Valley to found a company.[3] While there, he joined the Founder Institute, where he met Gagan Biyani, who would become his co-founder.[4] Biyani notes that they decided to create Udemy because "we saw a need. We’ve noticed there are thousands of people out there trying to teach over the internet, but they lack the technological capabilities to do it effectively."[5]
In February 2010, the Udemy co-founders decided to raise money to fund their idea.[6] They were rejected 30 times, largely because investors weren't confident enough in the business to invest.[6] In response to this, they bootstrapped the development of the product and launched Udemy in May 2010.[6] By July, 2000 courses had been created and they had registered 10,000 users; with this success, they decided to attempt another round of financing.[7][8] They used Adeo Ressi, the creator of the Founder List, and Darian Shirazi, the creator of Fwix, to introduce them to potential investors and within two weeks, had $500K invested.[6] They closed the round one week later with a total $1 million invested, with investments from 11 people, including Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO of Yelp), Dave McClure, and Keith Rabois (an early investor in YouTube and LinkedIn).[8] In August 2013, Udemy crossed 1 million active students mark and added support for 10 new languages including Korean, Spanish, Chinese, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Portuguese.[9]
Notable competitors include WizIQ, Edufire, Gyaanexchange.com,[10] Chalksy, Eliademy, Israeli Shioorim.co.il.
Site structure
Udemy serves as an online platform that allows instructors to build online courses on topics of their choosing. Using Udemy’s content platform, they can upload video, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, audio, zip files and live classes to create courses.[11] Instructors are also allowed to engage and interact with users via online discussion boards.
Students can take courses across a breadth of categories, including business and entrepreneurship, academics, the arts, health and fitness, language, music, and technology.[11] Udemy offers both paid and free courses; the choice whether to charge for a course is left up to the instructor. According to an April 2013 TechCrunch report, Udemy takes a 30 percent share of instructor earnings.[12]
Reception
Udemy has been featured in The New York Times, The China Post, Fast Company, the BBC and TechCrunch, with Mashable noting "Udemy offers an experience that rivals the real classroom, and should prove to be a useful utility for teachers and students of all subject matters."[1][8][13][14][15][16]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lynley, Matthew. Online Teaching Platform Udemy Raises $1M, Still Too Cool for School. The New York Times. August 31, 2010.
- ↑ Eren Bali biography. Udemy.com.
- ↑ Weisberg, Kim. Startup Profile: Q+A with Udemy.com Co-Founder Gagan Biyani. Lalawag. January 24, 2011.
- ↑ Startup Udemy is Building a Virtual Classroom. Under30CEO.
- ↑ Q&A with Gagan Biyani, President and Co-Founder of Udemy.com. SAGrader. May 25, 2010.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 How Udemy got oversubscribed. Venture Hacks. September 10, 2010.
- ↑ Roushe, Wade. Udemy Collects $1 Million to Expand Casual Learning Platform. Xconomy. August 31, 2010.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Toto, Serkan. Udemy Scores $1M In Seed Funding, Aims To Democratize Online Learning. TechCrunch. August 31, 2010.
- ↑ "Udemy added support for 10 new languages". couponslady. 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
- ↑ "gyaanexchange.com". .gyaanexchange.com. 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 About Udemy. Udemy.com.
- ↑ Empson, Rip. "With Over 6,000 Courses Now Live, Udemy Brings Its Learning Marketplace To iOS To Let You Study On The Go". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
- ↑ Chapman, Glenn. Online learning startup rises on US$1 mil. funding from 'angel' investors. The China Post. September 2, 2010.
- ↑ Schomer, Stephanie. Udemy: A Free University for All. Fast Company. December 2, 2010.
- ↑ Van Grove, Jennifer. Get a Real-Life Learning Experience in Udemy’s Virtual Classrooms. Mashable. May 13, 2010.
- ↑ Sumi Das (15 May 2012). "Ivy League education free on the web". BBC Click. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Udemy. |
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