Amazon wants to enter the e-learning market. What should be the strategy?

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Amazon wants to enter the e-learning market. What should be the strategy?

Asked at Amazon over a year ago

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hjc · Answer 1 · 2020-09-10T23:42:44+0000

Clarifications

Let's clarify the E-learning market.
- Who is the target User? [Users who wish to get continued education so that they can find better paid jobs]
- Do we plan to offer certificates? [Yes]
What does Amazon hope to achieve by entering? [Primary: Establish a brand in E-learning and gain marketshare; Secondary: Address the talent shortage for Amazon]
Which Country will we launch first? [I would like to hear your opinion]

Analysis

Strength
- Customer Connection: Most house hold in US and Developed Countries
- Experience with Video Service: Amazon Prime
- Cost efficiency: Since Amazon owns AWS
- Amazon's financial capacity to invest
- Job opportunity: Amazon has a lot of job openings every year
Weakness
- Content: Amazon lacks comprehensive course contents
- Platform: Amazon doesn't have an existing e-learning platform
Landscape
- A lot of competition already there, coursera, edx; Many universities put courses online already.

Strategic Choices

Develop platform and content in-house
Strategic Partnership with a e-learning provider, such as Coursera
Acquire a leading e-learning provider

Evaluation Criteria

Time to Market(TTM)
User Experience(UX)
Operation Complexity (Complexity)
Cost
Strategic Impact to (Impact)

Evaluation

Criteria	Opt1: In-house	Opt2: Partnership	Opt3: Acquisition
TTM	Long	Short	Short
UX	Poor initially	Good	Good
Operation Complexity	Low,	High, need to coordinate between 2 companies	Low
Cost	High	Low	High
Strategic Impact	High	Low	High

Recommendation

Based on the above evaluation, I would like to recommend Amazon to acquire a leading e-learning provider in the market. The advantages are quick TTM and good UX given the company already have a mature platform, Low operation complexity because of clear ownership and strategic alignment. High strategic Impact because Amazon owns the service, the user. This option indeed requires higher upfront cost for the acquisition, but it's not a big problem for Amazon.

To differentiate with other players in the market, Amazon can utilize its customer connection (Prime), Job Opportunities and competitive pricing.

Prateek Srivastava · Answer 2 · 2024-10-02T16:31:18+0000

We begin by asking clarifying questions:

What is the type of e-learning solution that Amazon wants to launch?
What is the TG of the e-learning solution?
What is the demography of the TG?
Are we focussing on any given geography?
Do we have any idea on the goal/intent of Amazon while launching into the e-learning segment? How does it align with Amazon's org strategy?

Key assumptions:

The launch is global and not geography specific.
The product will be launched via the subscription model.

To begin with, we clarify the scope of the problem statement at hand - To come up with a strategy for Amazon to launch an offering in the e-learning segment.

Next we identify the goal at hand - To monetize the offering and increase the subscription of e-learning product at hand.

Thirdly, we pick the strategy to execute the goal at hand -

Develop own product
Partner with another company and offer it the platform for product launch.

Of the two above, latter is the preferred as developing own product will take time and e-learning is not Amazon'e forte either. The metric to track here will be - #subscriptions & revenue accrued through e-learning segment.

Lastly, we identify the pre,during, & post launch activities to be done:

Pre - Partner with entities that develop e-learning products and come up with a revenue split model.

During - Come up with a pricing model (subscription model).

Post - check target metric and progress along the same. Course correct as required.

In sum, we start by asking clarifying questions and making relevant assumptions. Next, identify the scope and goal of the problem at hand. Thirdly, we come up with a stretgy to accomplish the goal and identify the pre, during, & post launch activities that need to be done.