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@ZaneVella

Thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself and for writing such a detailed message. It’s really good to see someone from the leadership team engaging directly with instructors. Many of us appreciate that, especially given how uncertain things have felt lately.

That said, a lot of instructors are struggling right now. The shift toward subscriptions might make sense in the long run, but at the moment it has caused large drops in income for many of us. For a lot of instructors, subscription payouts just don’t come close to what course sales used to bring in. It’s becoming very difficult to keep producing and updating content at the same level when the effort no longer matches the reward.

You mentioned that this shift is meant to lead to more predictable earnings and higher lifetime value per learner. That goal makes sense in theory, but what instructors are experiencing now feels very different. There’s less stability, less transparency, and a lot of uncertainty about when or if things will improve.

The bigger concern is that many instructors are starting to leave the platform. Full-time creators who used to rely entirely on Udemy are now returning to traditional jobs or moving their content elsewhere. This isn’t just an isolated trend anymore, it’s becoming systemic. At this rate, Udemy risks losing some of its most experienced and talented instructors, the same people who helped build the platform’s reputation. If this continues, it will affect everyone. Learners will have fewer high-quality courses to choose from, the overall catalog will shrink, and Udemy’s standing as a trusted learning destination could weaken over time.

We understand that the market is changing and that Udemy needs to adapt. Instructors want to be part of that growth. But we need to see a clearer plan for how we fit into this vision. We need transparency around how subscription revenue is calculated, a realistic timeline for improvement, and some short-term support to help instructors through this period of transition.

Critical points worth highlighting based on my own research reading the forums:

1. Subscription growth comes at the instructor’s expense. The transition away from transactional sales has directly reduced instructor earnings without offering a comparable or reliable income stream to replace it. The financial burden of this “investment phase” is being carried almost entirely by instructors.

2. Revenue is becoming unpredictable. Many instructors used to be able to forecast income based on course sales, promotions, and student patterns. Subscription payouts are far less transparent and fluctuate without clear explanation, making it impossible to plan financially.

3. The incentive to create is weakening. When earnings per learner drop dramatically, motivation to produce high-quality or niche courses decreases. Instructors start prioritizing other platforms or projects where effort and reward are better aligned.

4. Experienced instructors are leaving the platform. Full-time instructors who once relied solely on Udemy are moving to platforms like Skillshare, YouTube, or self-hosted sites. This “brain drain” means Udemy risks losing the very expertise that built its credibility and content depth.

5. The quality and diversity of content will decline. As income falls, fewer instructors will take the time to develop comprehensive or specialized courses. Over time, learners will notice the shift in course quality and variety.

6. The instructor community is losing trust. Many feel that decisions are being made without adequate consultation or transparency. Without a sense of shared purpose or mutual benefit, the partnership feels one-sided.

7. The subscription model is opaque. The exact calculations behind payouts, learner engagement weightings, and performance metrics are unclear. Instructors have no way to understand or influence how their work is valued.

8. Udemy’s brand depends on instructor success. Learners don’t come to Udemy for Udemy, they come for the instructors they trust. If those instructors leave or disengage, learner loyalty and brand perception will suffer.

9. Short-term income drops have long-term consequences. Some instructors are scaling back updates, cutting support for students, or abandoning unfinished projects because they simply can’t afford to keep investing in the platform. This weakens course quality across the board.

10. Innovation is slowing down. When creators are worried about surviving, they’re less likely to experiment with new topics, formats, or teaching methods( Based on your experience, you should know this). That stifles innovation, which used to be one of Udemy’s biggest strengths.

11. This shift risks changing Udemy’s culture. Udemy was built on empowering individuals to share their expertise with the world. Moving to a system that primarily benefits platform metrics over instructor livelihoods changes that identity, from a partnership to a platform-first model.

12. Learners’ engagement metrics don’t reflect real teaching impact. The subscription model rewards time watched or activity metrics, not necessarily learning outcomes. Instructors who teach efficiently or whose lessons are concise and effective may actually earn less.

13. Long-form, in-depth courses are being devalued (Me for example i have a masterclass that is over 45 hours long). In the subscription model, short courses that maximize “minutes watched” often earn more. This discourages comprehensive, carefully built courses that take months to produce.

14. Marketing control has been taken away from instructors. Previously, instructors could drive their own promotions and build audiences through sales and coupons. Under subscriptions, Udemy controls the customer relationship and data, cutting instructors off from their own student base.

15. Instructors are losing ownership over their audience. Subscription learners often don’t even realize which instructor they’re learning from. It turns instructors into background content providers rather than recognizable educators with personal brands.

16. The subscription model favors quantity over quality. When payouts are based on watch time or engagement, there’s an incentive to produce more courses quickly instead of focusing on deep, transformative learning experiences.

17. Instructors are being asked to take on platform risk without support. Udemy’s pivot is essentially a business experiment funded by instructor income losses. Instructors bear the downside risk but have no assurance of sharing in the long-term upside.

18. Communication from Udemy often feels one-directional. While updates and statements are shared, there’s limited dialogue or action on instructor feedback. This creates a growing sense of distance between leadership and the teaching community.

All of us want Udemy to succeed. We’ve invested years of effort, creativity, and passion into building this platform. But we need to feel that Udemy is equally committed to our success and financial stability.

Thank you again for engaging with us and for opening this conversation. I truly hope we start seeing some concrete steps soon that reflect a real balance between company growth and instructor sustainability.

It does look brutal 😐️

What view is that, @KylePew - I don't know I've seen a layout like that.

That is even more brutal to look at. well it looks like you are making udemy a lot of money there. Our share is shrinking.

@AlexGenadinik - me too, approaching 1,000,000 people in my classes. I've earned a ton here… feeling really discouraged and sad to experience this, and hear the same from other instructors. It's been a good ride.

Not addressing the issue of falling instructor revenue, in my opinion, is the message. Or the message is, too bad. If you don't like your revenue, some other instructor will.

January is coming and instructor revenue will be cut again. I don't see a path to keep shareholders and instructors happy, and when people aren't happy, they should look elsewhere…

@FrankKane

Traffic data from various channels are public and available + accessible to anyone with internet.

• Here is a graph from Google that show Udemy's Google traffic trend to be increasing (you have to add organic and paid traffic to get the total. For trends cancel out the Pandemic effect. Google has a reputation of being best at canceling out traffic from bot farms, etc.

• Considering newer market places, Coursera is now selling single courses and there are plenty of other competitors such as something new in Singapore, Tencent - China, and a number of other competitors.
• Most academic-bureaucratic organizations become fat over time. Udemy is not different in that aspect and have the same type of organizational issues which all organizations in the middle moving towards large size will have.

Regards

My Udemy revenue has been declining for years ($2,500/mo. > $1,000/mo.). Thank you for the vigorous conversation here. I've learned a lot. I've been managing my decline in the meantime. Udemy has always been a side game for me anyway. Rather than unpublishing, I'd recommend people let it ride and try to milk Udemy for the last drops of revenue. Certainly stop publishing courses.

With Udemy demanding less time, I finally wrote and submitted several screenplays to contests. This would not have happened if Udemy hadn't crashed.

I truly feel sorry for the instructors who were making a lot of money from Udemy and depending up it. Udemy pulled the rug out from under all of us and it hurt some of us a lot more than others.

I've hated Udemy for years for their corrupt policies (I may post some of them you don't know about), it was just so easy to stay. I recently rejoined this chat group after having left multiple times because of people like @LawrenceMMiller.

@MuhammadDuj869, please keep posting, if for no other reason then to annoy the privileged ;-).

This is a nightmare. Happy Halloween. I'm so disgusted - can't believe the constant stream of bad news I keep discovering… It's just one thing after another. My PP is pretty flat, actually down about $50 month over month… not a good sign.

I think the PP report numbers are causing it to sink in just how ridiculous 15% is for what Udemy is actually providing.

Say over a year a course brings $100,000 USD in watched minutes. The instructor gets $15,000. $85,000 in platform and marketing costs?

You can host yourself on other platforms that do everything Udemy does (except marketing) for $2400 / year.

Is Udemy providing $80,000 USD in value in that case?