Amazon to close down its on-line studying platform in India • TechCrunch

Amazon shall be shutting down Amazon Academy, an internet studying platform it launched in India for high-school college students final yr, the corporate mentioned Thursday.

The retailer says it would wind down the edtech service within the nation in a phased method beginning August 2023. Those that signed up for the present educational batch will obtain a full refund, it mentioned.

Amazon formally launched Academy, beforehand known as JEE Prepared, early final yr, however had been testing the platform since mid-2019. Academy sought to assist college students put together for entry into the nation’s prestigious engineering schools.

The service provided curated studying materials, dwell lectures, mock exams and complete assessments to assist college students be taught and apply math, physics and chemistry and put together for the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE), a government-backed engineering entrance evaluation performed in India for admission to varied engineering schools within the nation.

The excellent providing from the agency had prompted some to imagine that Amazon is perhaps making a serious foray into the schooling market and should pose risk to upstarts equivalent to Byju’s, Unacademy and Vedantu.

The homepage of Amazon Academy web site. (Picture credit: Amazon)

Greater than 260 million youngsters go to high school in India and far of the inhabitants sees schooling as a key to financial progress and a greater life. Fb additionally invested in Unacademy, a Bangalore-based startup that provides on-line studying lessons. Google, which invested in Indian edtech startup Cuemath, additionally partnered with CBSE to coach greater than 1 million academics in India and supply a spread of free instruments equivalent to G Suite for Schooling, Google Classroom and YouTube to assist digitize the schooling expertise within the nation.

“At Amazon, we predict huge, experiment, and put money into new concepts to please clients. We additionally regularly consider the progress and potential of our services and products to ship buyer worth, and we frequently make changes primarily based on these assessments,” an Amazon spokesperson informed TechCrunch.

“Following an evaluation now we have made the choice to discontinue Amazon Academy. We’re winding down this program in a phased method to deal with present clients.”

The corporate didn’t share why it’s winding down Academy, however ET Prime (paywalled), which first reported the event, mentioned the transfer was a part of the its ongoing cost-cutting measures.

Amazon is planning to chop about 10,000 jobs, in response to media reviews, and commenced eliminating roles in some divisions together with units and providers earlier this month. Amazon additionally shut down groups that make AWS tutorials and different on-line programs, Enterprise Insider reported.

In a memo, which Amazon has since made public, chief govt Andy Jassy mentioned extra layoffs will come subsequent yr.