Udemy

Thanks, @DiogoAlvesd487 ! I'm so glad you found it useful. It was great to see some familiar names on the call (and new ones too, of course).  😊 ... View more

Hi all,   Thanks for the continued questions. I'll try to address several inquiries together here.   @Parker:  I believe you created a separate thread regarding the trends you're sharing, and you'll get a more detailed response there. In general, the trends you're describing aren't universal -- we've continued to see growth, and continued to see sales driven by paid channels rise with Udemy's increased investment in growth.    @derekm1215: We definitely keep instructor costs in mind whenever we make changes to anything that would affect your return on investment. This includes pricing, promotions, revenue share, Q&A features, support changes, and more.    Overall, we don't expect that this change will meaningfully alter the average share instructors take home in 2021. Based on historical data and trends, we expect that in 2021 this system will result in the same division of revenue between Udemy and most instructors, and between Udemy and instructors overall.   To address a point both you and @EveWilliams made, it's not the case that all "big" instructors or courses will see an upside, while all "smaller" instructors or courses will see a reduction. Improvements to Udemy's marketing systems have resulted in a much greater number of courses getting sales from paid channels than would have been the case a few years ago. It's not just the top 1% or 10% of courses that get paid traffic, and all courses have the potential to benefit from the increased audience brought in by paid channels (today, many do). If we want to continue these investments (which we do! we want to keep growing for and with instructors), revenue share can't rest on real-time, 1:1 attribution.    @EveWilliams, to your larger point about trust:   We recognize that changes like this can be difficult to parse and to plan around. There are two ways we can earn trust when we make these kinds of changes: by communicating clearly, and by delivering results. Our goal with the new revenue share model is to continue to provide instructors with opportunities to monetize their expertise, which means continuing to invest in growth. We hope and expect that as time goes on, instructors will benefit from that continued investment.    No change, whether it's a new policy, a new feature or a new growth strategy, will affect every instructor the same way. In a marketplace we can't ever guarantee that every instructor will see the same level of return. Our focus is on continuing to grow, continuing to adapt to changes in the world and in the online education space, and continuing to reward instructors who deliver the content and the results students are looking for.     ... View more

@GuilhermeMP --  We believe that a subscription model will complement the transactional model. Based on previous testing and data, offering students multiple options (individual purchase or subscription to a collection) stands to create more value for instructors and the platform. We also believe we can better help some students meet their learning goals with this model.    We'll approach this new initiative with careful testing and analysis, and we'll share more information as the pilot progresses.  ... View more

@JonAvis865 , my apologies, I missed your question.   We'll be providing more information about the individual learner pilot when it first becomes available to select students in April. But to answer the revenue question: when instructor revenue reporting for the subscription first begins, earnings from individual subscribers will not be lumped in with your Udemy for Business earnings. Since these will be discrete calculations -- monthly minutes consumed and subscription revenue in separate "pools" for business and individual learners -- they will appear separately.   ... View more

Hi @KateAlison017  -- Only courses currently in the English Udemy for Business collection will be included in the initial pilot. However, if you're opted into the Udemy for Business program, your course will be considered for inclusion in the collection moving forward. So let's say that today, you're opted in, but you don't yet have a course that's been included. In the future, your course could be added to one or both collections. For now, the plan is to keep them consistent.   In terms of what content is included, the curation team works to ensure the Udemy for Business collection includes Udemy's most engaging, well-received content in professional skills. To maximize the chances that your content is included, your course should be highly rated, recently and/or frequently updated, and focused on a topic relevant for professional learners. You can read more here.   @Pavel-N -- When the announcement mentions "category-level" promotions along with Brand and TV advertising, this could refer to any promotion where prospective students are directed to a group of courses rather than a single course landing page. It doesn't necessarily mean the category landing pages as they exist today. The idea is to be able to market more holistically, directing prospective students to the place that's right for them at that moment in time, whether that's an introduction to the way they can use Udemy to meet their goals, a group of courses to give them a taste of the breadth of content on the platform, or an individual course they can purchase on the spot. Does that make sense? ... View more

HI all,   Lots to dig into here! Going to respond first to two specific questions from above, then address some of the broader points after: @janoschhrm, you asked "Is there the possibility that the subscription pilot, if ever rolled out in all markets, will be available for courses without the need for exclusivity? "   We're just starting this pilot and have a lot to learn, so I can't make definitive statements about the exact long-term policies. That said, we don't have plans to change exclusivity requirements for Udemy for Business, and for the individual learner pilot the goal is to maintain consistency between the collections (from the student perspective) and the policies (from the instructor perspective). So for now, no -- but we'll be evaluating policies as well as performance as we manage the pilot.   @TaniaMagdal781 and @MarkTimberl006 , you both asked what we meant when we wrote "On May 3, the Marketing Boost Program will be retired, and we’ll open up the opportunity for direct paid advertising to all courses on Udemy."   Under today's terms, Udemy can't run paid, off-platform marketing for courses whose creators are opted out of the Marketing Boost. So, there are courses that affiliates might like to promote, or for which our data suggests certain types of paid ads would perform well, but we're not doing those things. Moving forward, all courses will be eligible for these types of promotions (so, treated as courses opted in to the Marketing Boost program today, but with a 37% revenue share rather than 25%).   Mark, I know you also had questions about how courses are selected for different types of promotions. This ties in to some of the broader questions others are raising about Udemy's marketing strategies, so I'll respond separately to that -- wanted to get this more straightforward answer out first. ... View more

Hi @GuilhermeMP ,   To be really clear, we're not doing away with course-level marketing. We will continue to promote individual courses as they're relevant to new student audiences, like we do today. We will also expand some of the efforts we've begun in brand or platform-level advertising, such as TV. It's a question of investing in the full marketing "funnel," from the moment a student becomes aware of Udemy (and learns to pronounce it!  ) all the way to purchasing a specific course.    The category-level promotion was given as one example. It definitely isn't meant to represent the singular future of Udemy's marketing investments. I hope this helps. ... View more

@Julian and  @Anonymous  - Thanks for continuing to engage here. I wanted to clear up two things about our marketing strategy that are relevant to points you've raised.   First, @Anonymous, we're definitely not doing away with course-level marketing. We're looking at broadening the toolkit, not swapping one tool for another. The push to enable more "top of funnel" channels like TV or category-level promotions isn't meant to replace tried-and-true strategies such as individual course placements on search engines, social media platforms, and affiliate websites. We still expect to invest a lot in those channels. We just want to be sure we can also take a more long-term, holistic approach to marketing, which includes enabling more investment in channels like brand advertising that are incompatible with today's revenue share model.   Second, @Julian,  the goal behind this change is  continue to grow the platform with and for instructors. Your hypothetical doesn't quite make sense, because if we didn't make this change, we wouldn't invest in those channels that would drive up "organic" sales. As cookies continue to be deprecated, we we also would likely have to reduce investment in other advertising channels for the same reason. We can't spend advertising dollars that don't bring a sustainable return.   You will obviously be able to judge the results for themselves as 2021 moves forward. But I did want to clarify those two pieces -- that we'll still be advertising plenty on a course level, and that the change is designed to maintain instructor share while growing collective revenue, not to shift share from one party to another. ... View more

@SandorSzekeres - It's much more than just the top 5% of instructors who benefit from Udemy's paid channels. If you're opted into the Marketing Boost program, you'll have visibility into which of your sales are driven by ads, affiliates & external partners today in your revenue report.  As a very rough rule, if you currently earn about half as much from ad, affiliate, and external partner sales as you do from "organic" sales, your effective share will not change when the new system is implemented.   To the graph you posted, I'm touching base with our product team to understand what sorts of filters might be applied to the data you see on the Marketplace Insights tool (e.g. only certain channels, a certain time window, etc.). Though each topic will have a different distribution of channels, based on overall trends I think it's really unlikely that Cyber Security courses as a whole only receive 4% of sales via ads and affiliates.   @JohnBura  - Affiliates aren't going away. They'll continue to be paid as a marketing cost on Udemy's side. We'll keep evolving our tracking to ensure affiliates are credited for sales they drive.     ... View more

@Kain_Ramsay  - The affected channels are "organic" (all sales currently attributed at the 50% rate) and paid (ads/affiliates/external partners, all sales currently attributed at 25%).   You're correct that Udemy for Business revenue share will not be affected. ... View more

@ThomasBlees450 - You don't have to pay to be eligible for sales from Udemy ads and affiliates. There is no change there. The update in May will just mean that instead of receiving 25% of the net amount for ads/affiliate sales and 50% of the net amount for "organic" sales, you'll receive 37% of the net amount for all these sales.   @RobinLouw - Is there a specific question about the new model we could help address? Happy to help if I can. ... View more

@DiogoAlvesd487  - For the pilot, the plan is to test offering the existing Udemy for Business English collection to individual learners. We have a lot to test and learn here, so it's possible that this would change. But the collections should match, to start.   Great question on how users would benefit. What we've seen from our current data is that subscription models help students build learning habits -- they consume more content and spend more unique days learning than in a transactional model. For people who are also learning a little bit in a lot of areas, a subscription offering may also be the difference between choosing Udemy and a different platform that gives them that broader access.   We'll be sharing more about the structure and goals of the pilot when it goes live in early April, so stay tuned. ... View more

@Alfa-eLearning - Yes, the pilot is a part of the Udemy for Business program, which requires exclusivity upon inclusion. However, the pilot consists of courses in the English Udemy for Business collection, which are already subject to the exclusivity terms of that program. ... View more

@AndreiNeagoie - Your summary of the new channel-based shares is correct. However, this piece isn't quite accurate: "The above increase Udemy's revenue and thus more money for marketing (by definition cumulative instructor revenue will go down)."   On the whole, we expect this change to result in the same division of revenue between Udemy and instructors in 2021 as the current system would. While this looks a little different for every individual instructor, for instructors as a whole (and for the strong majority of individual instructors) the change should be neutral.   @Anonymous - Ah, I understand your question now, thanks. The plan is for current English Udemy for Business courses to be included in the pilot. If an instructor is opted in, but their content is not currently included, it will be considered for inclusion in both versions of the collection by the usual Udemy for Business criteria. Does that make sense?      ... View more

@AshishR  - I hear you that it's hard to predict the impact if you haven't historically participated in the Marketing Boost program. While this is a small minority of current instructors, we know any change to the revenue share model can be nerve-wracking.   If it helps at all, every month many thousands of courses are promoted via Udemy ads and affiliates. If your course is already getting a strong response from Organic students, that's an encouraging sign that it might resonate with new students from paid channels as well. Also, continued investments in growing the platform do mean more "organic" students who will continue to discover your courses through the current routes. The goal truly is mutual, sustained growth. ... View more

@Anonymous  - The pilot extends the current Udemy for Business English collection to individual learners, so only content currently in that collection will be included. As we test and learn more, it's possible we'll change what content is offered (and communicate accordingly). ... View more

@Anonymous - Correct. All sales not driven by instructor promotions will go to 37%.   @AshishR - In the case you presented, you would still receive credit. You'd actually receive credit today too -- if a student uses an instructor coupon, or if a student has clicked on an instructor referral link within the last 24 hours, you will receive credit for driving that sale. That won't change with this update. ... View more

@davisjones -- No, apologies if that language was unclear.    Under the current terms, courses opted out of the Marketing Boost program are not directly promoted by Udemy ads or affiliates. Under the new terms, all course will be eligible to be promoted via these channels. Like today, a course will be more likely to be promoted by Udemy ads, affiliates, or partners if it's on a high-demand topic and has strong social proof. ... View more

Hi @SeanFowler063 , @Alfa-eLearning , @AshishR ,   The 37% will be the new universal rate for transactional sales, regardless of previous program participation. The Udemy for Business rate will not be affected.   For instructors who were previously opted out of the Marketing Boost program, this does mean that the minimum effective rate will be lower. However, it also means that your courses will become eligible for paid promotion.    The "blended" rate helps Udemy continue the marketing investments that have grown the platform for many years. We want to continue to grow with instructors, which means continue to invest heavily in marketing. This isn't possible if paid marketing efforts are attributed as "Organic" sales, whether that's because of tracking challenges caused by cookie deprecation or new non-digital campaigns like TV or print advertising.   The blended rate should also make your revenue a little more predictable -- during big sales like Black Friday, when many instructors usually see their rate go down as ad and affiliate sales spike, you should see a more consistent benefit. ... View more

Hey @CarlosDeLeon ,   I just wanted to echo Lili's sentiment here -- we've been doing our best to make this smoother over the course of the year, and we've made some progress, but we know there's still a lot more work to do on that front. After last month's smooth reporting, you're totally right that this month was a step back.   We appreciate your point about the correlation between the predictability of the process and your faith in the end result. We'll keep pushing to increase predictability (and therefore reaffirm trust) in the reporting process. ... View more

Hi @DiogoAlvesd487 , Thanks for the feedback! We're testing out these ads in the current format and paying careful attention to the results. As we learn, we'll keep tweaking and improving. We appreciate the specific suggestions, and will pass them along to the team.  ... View more