Udemy

Udemy ( ) is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. It is based in San Francisco, California, United States. The platform hosts online courses, mostly connected to job-related skills.

Products and services

Udemy is a platform that allows instructors to host online courses on their preferred topics. Instructors can upload videos and other educational material. Courses are offered in various categories, including business, academics, health and fitness, and music. Most classes are in practical subjects such as AWS and Azure training, Excel software or using an iPhone camera.

Udemy has been described by some sources as a massive open online course (MOOC) platform, similar to platforms like Udacity and Coursera. Courses on Udemy can be paid or free, depending on the instructor. In 2015, the top 10 instructors made more than $17 million in total revenue.

In April 2013, Udemy offered an app for Apple iOS, allowing students to take classes directly from iPhones; The Android version was launched in January 2014. As of January 2014, the iOS app had been downloaded over 1 million times, and 20 percent of Udemy users access their courses via mobile. In July 2016, Udemy's iOS platform includes Apple TV.

History

In 2007, Eren Bali and Oktay Caglar created a live virtual classroom while living in Turkey. They moved to Silicon Valley two years later, where they founded Udemy with Gagan Biyani in early 2010. In February 2010, the founders tried to raise venture capital funding, but the idea failed to impress investors and they were rejected 30 times, according to Gagan Biyani. In response to this, they bootstrapped the development of the product and launched Udemy in May 2010.

Within a few months, 1,000 instructors had created about 2,000 courses, and Udemy had nearly 10,000 registered users. Based on the favorable market reaction, they attempted another round of financing, raising $1 million in venture funding by August. On April 22, 2014, the ''Wall Street Journal''s digital edition reported that chief operating officer of Udemy, Dennis Yang, was named CEO, replacing Eren Bali. In 2014, ''Forbes'' named Bali as part of their " 30 Under 30" list.

In November 2015, Udemy was accused of publishing and profiting from pirated courses on its platform. On February 5, 2019, Udemy announced that the board of the company appointed Gregg Coccari as its new chief executive officer. As of November 2020, Udemy had raised $273 million in funding from investors including Tencent Holdings. Its valuation was estimated at $3.25 billion. In 2020, Udemy Ranked on the Annual 'Change the World' List by ''Fortune''.

As of 2021, Udemy had not generated a profit. Udemy reported net losses of $69.7 million for 2019 and $77.6 million in net losses for 2020. In 2020, Udemy spent $192.6 million on marketing and advertising. By June 30, 2021, Udemy had an accumulated deficit of $407.9 million.

On October 29, 2021, Udemy held their IPO in the US and is listed under the symbol UDMY. In February 2023, the company laid off 10% of its employees. In 2024, Udemy announced that it would be cutting the percentage of revenues that academic labor received. In September 2024, it laid off 20% of its employees and announced plans to hire new workers from "lower cost geographies."

In 2025, it was announced that Hugo Sarrazin would replace Coccari as CEO. Shares in the company fell by 8.5% in response.

See also

* edX
* FutureLearn
* Khan Academy
* LinkedIn Learning
* Pluralsight

References

External links

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2010 establishments in California
500 Startups companies
American educational websites
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Computer science education
Education companies established in 2010
Educational technology companies of the United States
Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Software companies established in 2010
Internet properties established in 2010
Learning management systems
Virtual learning environments
2021 initial public offerings
Vocational education in the United States
Open educational resources
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