Battle of the Brands: Byju’s vs Coursera

We all know that the most carefree, happy days of our lives are our school days. But with the changed reality that we now live on, going to school is basically asking for trouble. One of the sectors that have really benefited from this is Edu-tech companies. And when we talk about studying from home, the first thing that comes to mind is – Byju’s! The unicorn that makes nerdy the new cool! So, in the ring today are Byju’s and Coursera. Both startups were founded within months of each other, both are widely used by students and professionals alike and both are in the business of making education better. So, they’re certainly evenly matched – but now let’s look at what social media has to say about them.

 

Talkwalker, a social media analytics company, based in Luxembourg, provides information on the using their platform. Talkwalker Analytics analyses the performance of mentions all over the internet and provides key metrics such as engagement, related themes, demographic data, geographic data and influencer data. 

 

1. Mentions: 

 

 

Looking at data over the last 6 months, we see that Byju’s has over two times the mentions as Coursera in India. But a large part of these mentions – including the big peak – is associated with the recent banning of apps in India, and since Byju has several foreign investors, they’ve been mentioned here too. Coursera, on the other hand, has a larger volume of mentions on the international level. The peak, in mentions for Coursera comes in late July, owing to their association with the government of Odisha, which has signed MOUs with them to enhance the skills of Odisha’s youth.

 

2. Demographics: 

 

 

Like most other tech apps in India, both have a similar profile – they’re generally used by male millennials. For Byju’s , we see a slightly higher percentage of the buzz coming from the 35+ age group, and a lower percentage coming from the 18-24 year olds. This could mean that Byju’s enjoys a higher usage among professionals. Coursera, on the other hand, has a higher percentage of women using it and a slightly higher percentage of students.

 

3. Hashtags

 

 

What is the buzz about? It’s always interesting to compare the hashtags of two brands that have very similar demographic profiles. We see that the hashtags associated with Coursera are mainly to do with coding and tech. For Byju’s, it’s really their own hashtag and of course #ShahRukhKhan, following King Khan’s endorsement of the platform.

 

4. Visual Insights:

 

 

Let’s take a quick look at a slightly different dataset. What does the content contain and where is it coming from. Studying images from both brands, we see that both of them mainly have a lot of image content – but Byju’s also has a decent share of video content. For Coursera on the other hand, there is almost an equal split betwee images coming from indoors as well as outdoors – for Byju’s though, this is mainly indoors – a reflection of the Covid situation in India where the app mainly operates.