Amazon India gets into ed-tech space amidst competition

By announcing the launch of Amazon Academy, Amazon India has ventured into the growing ed-tech space. This would help students prepare for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for engineering colleges. The online preparation offering will equip students with in-depth knowledge and practice routines required for the JEE, through curated learning material, live lectures and comprehensive assessments in Math, Physics and Chemistry.

In a statement, Amazon has said that in addition to the JEE, those preparing for other engineering entrance exams like BITSAT, VITEEE, SRMJEEE and MET can also benefit from the available content resources. The content is currently available for free and will continue to be for the next few months, the company said.

The ed-tech space is quite competitive with players like Byju’s and Unacademy already having carved a niche for themselves. This segment has seen a further traction during the pandemic which gave an impetus to online learning methods.

Experts point out that ed-tech is growing on the back of changes in the approach to education and the rapid rise in the use of smartphones. Of the three broad categories – K-12 supplementary teaching for grades 1-12, test-preparation and higher education – analysts at HSBC reckon K12 offers the most potential.

The ed-tech sector has been cornering the bulk of the start-up funding. Byju’s alone secured more than $1 billion from investors in 2020. Unacademy, Eruditus and Vedantu collectively raised over $500 million from investors.