Udemy Inaugurates Presence in Indonesia

Marketplaceedutech from the United States Udemy inaugurated its presence in Indonesia. A local team has been built so that Udemy can focus more on serving the market, helping local instructors and students improve lives through online learning.

Udemy Vice President Richard Qiu explained, "We connect people everywhere with the best instructors around the world to develop expertise and knowledge in any topic.

"We believe that anyone can build the life they dream of through online learning. There are more than 30 million students worldwide and 35 new courses in 2018 globally," he explained, Tuesday (5/3).

Udemy's decision to officially be present in Indonesia, because this country contributes more than 200 thousand users. In fact, his party admitted that they are still running organic marketing only.

By differentiation from similar players, Udemy is more focused on educational content that is more towards professional career development and personal enrichment.

In total there are 15 educational categories to choose from, such as Development, business, IT & software, personnel development, design, marketing, to photography. Content that is academic in nature is also available, but it's not the most highlighted content on Udemy.

"So our target users are the wider community, non-academics, businesses, and others. It can be anyone who wants to develop their own expertise because the content we provide is more towards skill development," added Udemy Indonesia Market Manager Giri Suhardi.

Udemy localizes a number of elements to make it easier for users in Indonesia. First, starting from providing a translation into Indonesian for any content produced outside of Indonesia. Then, localize the language for sites and apps.

Payment methods are also now increasing, users can transfer bank, Alfamart outlets, and Doku Wallet. Udemy also created its first studio in Asia, located at Udemy's Jakarta office to empower local instructors to share their knowledge and create courses.

"In this studio, all the equipment is fully equipped. It is open to all instructors, if anyone just wants to ask questions, we can give advice there."

In the future, it will open a studio in another location through a partnership with a studio recording provider. Giri said outside Jakarta, there is already a Udemy studio in Bandung, the plan is to expand it to Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Semarang.

Udemy . business model

In providing its content, Udemy attracts instructors from various circles and universities to open wider access to education for the public. There are no requirements imposed by Udemy for instructors who want to join, even if they show a certificate that proves their capabilities.

Giri explained that his party curated each course produced by the instructor before it was published. Video quality is also considered. The minimum duration of the course that can be uploaded by the instructor is 30 minutes, but there is no maximum limit.

"For the quality of the content, so there is user ratings assessing how the instructor delivered the material. The higher it is ratingher, then it can be said that she is quite good and her knowledge is really useful."

Instructors will earn additional income from each course a user purchases. If the user buys directly from the link that the instructor spreads, the instructor will pocket a 97% commission of the total purchase. However, if it is organic, the distribution of the results is 50:50 for both instructors and Udemy.

Colleges can produce courses through Udemy. One of them is Bina Nusantara University (Binus). Knowledge Management & Innovation Director Binus Elidjen said that his party has been working with Udemy since three years ago.

In total, there are 480 courses consisting of 10 topics that have been published by Binus through the platform. All of this content can be accessed for free. Binus already has 53 thousand users and has been watched in 15 countries.

"We're trying to make a paid course on Udemy, still thinking about what it will look like," said Elidjen.

To date, more than 30 million people from various countries have accessed 100 thousand courses taught by instructors in 50 different languages, including Indonesian. The most popular courses are IT, Development, data analytics. Then followed by finance, self-developmentand leadership.

It is said that as many as 100 thousand courses have been translated into Indonesian. The local instructors have only reached 30 people and 100 local content has been produced. Giri was reluctant to mention the specific target that Udemy wanted to target this year.