With number of courses and institutes increasing almost on a daily basis, there is a need to create a platform to bridge the gap between the student and the institutes. This is exactly what some of these firms are planning to do, by creating a vast repository of content including user generated content.
One such entrant is StudyPlaces.com which serves as a comprehensive one-stop-shop for education search. The portal aims to bridge the gap between education sources and the student seeking information. This is also supported by features such as a live chat with counselors. Earlier this year (Jan 2008) it received funding of $ 3 million from InfoEdge (parent company for naukri.com), Kleiner Perkins, Caulfield & Byers (KPCB) and Sherpalo Ventures.
Interestingly, Info Edge (parent company for Naukri.com) has also launched Shiksha.com in May 2008. Shiksha has similar plans as StudyPlaces, and I guess its investment would have enabled Shiksha to get a ready access to listings from StudyPlaces. Shiksha aims to become the hub for the large educational classifieds market and claims to have already got over 100000 listings (institutes). The firm intends to invest $5- $10 million in the portal over the next 3 years.
These players would be aiming to get a share of the burgeoning ad spend by education providers including universities, coaching institutes, vocational institutes and other foreign universities who target Indian students. They are increasing their spend across the media – print, TV, radio and outdoor. According to estimates, the advertising spend in education sector could be as big as real estate.
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