"I am Serena Williams, and this is my Masterclass." When I heard this line, I couldn't believe my earsđŽ. Serena Williams was teaching tennisđž? In an online course?đ¤
The video ended with these words, but YouTube's algorithm didn't give me time to recover from my shock. It served another video- this time it was Gary Kasparov who had an online course about chess.
By this time, I was curious about the company behind these ads- Masterclass. In todayâs article, I will prove why Masterclass isnât an edtech company. Then, Iâll share an exciting insightđĄ into its business model.
đšOnline learning from the worldâs best:
David Rogier started Masterclass in 2015 with 3 classes- Serena Williams for tennis, Dustin Hoffman for acting, and James Patterson on writing. At that time, the edtech market was already oversaturated- Udemy, Coursera, Udacity, Skillshare, Lynda, etc. All these products are based on the same concept- lots of videosđĽ focused on a particular skill recorded by an instructor.
Masterclass differentiated itself through its USP- the celebrity instructorsâ. After all, who better to teach a skill than those who are at the top of that field? Plus, their course videos had Netflix-level quality, which was unusual in ed-tech courses.
Today, Masterclass is valued at more than $800 millionđ° and it offers more than 85 classes. The pandemic gave a huge boostđ to its subscriber base. And their celebrity instructorâ list now includes superstars like Gary Kasparov, Dan Brown, Penn and Teller, Natalie Portman, and Gordon Ramsayđ¤Šđ¤Š
đšMasterclass canât compete with Udemy/Coursera:
Just because the instructors are celebrities doesn't change the fact that Masterclassâ concept is very similar to its competitors like Udemy and Coursera. People are coming to Masterclass to learn certain skills; skills which they can learn on Udemy and Coursera as well.
Theoretically, Masterclass will easily win over its competitors where skills are concernedđŞ. After all, the instructors on Masterclass are very experienced and successful. Naturally, theyâll be able to give the best knowledge to students. Therefore, Masterclass is the best option for people who need to learn a particular skillđŻ
Sadly, this theory fails in the real world.
I was surprised to find so many negative reviews of Masterclass coursesđŽ
Itâs like someone studying violin but not holding a violin â just looking at videos of how to play a violin... Itâs silly to put on your resume that youâve studied acting because youâve taken this courseâŚYouâre expanding your mind, but I wouldnât consider that taking an acting class.
- Sharon Chatten(link)
Itâs not a master class, or a class of any kindâŚItâs tips and anecdotal information â a very cool thing professionals have done to share stories about their art. But itâs not training.
-Stuart Rogers(link)
Hans Zimmer talks about what went into scoring The Dark Knight and Sherlock Holmes, but thatâs not quite the same thing as teaching film scoring.
-Vox(link)
A person taking this class isnât going to learn much about the technical aspects of making a filmâŚ
-Clark Coffey(link)
Malcolm Gladwellâs analysis of why his stories work can be instructive, but itâs not what youâd think of as a writing course.
-Vox(link)
âMake sure you get the racket under the ball,â Serena Williams says in a MasterClass that is just technical enough to be useless to a novice and inane to anyone who has taken a tennis lesson.
-Vox(link)
Even the CEO of the company has said that taking a Masterclass wonât train you in that skill.
If you want to learn how to use your DSLR camera, this is not the place for you.
-Masterclass CEO David Rogier
These negative comments highlight the biggest problemâ with Masterclass: Doing a Masterclass course wonât train you in that particular skill. Sure, the instructors are good, but they are mostly talking about their experiences. Plus the average length of a Masterclass course is 1-2 hours, hardly enough to receive proper training.
Clearly, this is a very serious problemâ for Masterclass: its courses canât compete with the quality of Udemy and Coursera. Edtech is a very competitive market, right? Since competitors have better course quality, people wonât use Masterclass.
đšMy Doomsday prediction for Masterclass:
Based on the points above, I made a doomsdayâ prediction for Masterclass. Let me walk you through it-
- Masterclass must be spending a lot on signing up all these celebrity instructors.
- But the courses arenât very educational.
- The edtech market is highly competitive. When people will see that the quality of Masterclass courses is bad, so they will switch to another service.
- Therefore, lots of spending but little revenue for Masterclass.
Conclusion- Masterclass is doomedâ to fail, and it will shut down soon.
Fortunately, Masterclass raised a new funding round soon after, and my doomsdayâ prediction was proven wrong. Obviously, investors are not idiots. They would have taken a pretty good look at Masterclassâ finances before investing. This means people are paying for the courses. So, itâs safe to assume the company has a solid futureâĄ.
But I couldn't figure out the problem in my doomsdayâ prediction. If the courses on Masterclass arenât very educational, why are people paying for them?
I went through those 4 points again and again but I couldn't find the problem.
đšHereâs why Masterclass isnât an edtech company:
To understand the problem in my prediction, I asked a few questions to myself:
đWhat is the business model of Masterclass?
Celebrities teach courses, and people pay to learn from them.
đWhat do we know?
The courses arenât very useful or educational, but people are still paying for them.
đWhat does this imply?
People arenât paying for the courses, theyâre paying for something else.
đApart from the courses, what else might attract people to Masterclass?
Itâs instructors- the celebrities.
đThis means?
People are paying Masterclass for access to these celebs!
đWhy should people pay Masterclass for access to celebs?
Because people get access to the exclusive content made by the celebs.
Now weâre getting to the point. People arenât paying Masterclass for the educational contentâ
You see the mistake I made in my doomsdayâ prediction? In the 3rd point, I assumed that Masterclass was competing in the edtech market.
The edtech market is highly competitive. When people will see that the quality of Masterclass courses is bad, so they will switch to another service.
This assumption was wrong.
This proves that Masterclass isnât an edtech company, and it isnât competing in the edtech market.
đšIf Masterclass isnât an edtech company, what is it?
At the end of the questions, we concluded that people are payingđ˛ for access to the exclusive content of these celebs.
Did you notice something? This phrase âpeople payingđ˛ for access to exclusive contentâ is the business model of Patreon, a company that is at the forefront of the creator economy. Patreon lets people payđ˛ their favorite creators for access to exclusive content.
Since Masterclass has a similar business model to Patreon, it implies that Masterclass is also a âcreator economyâ companyđĄ. When you look at the company from this angle, its business makes a lot of sense.
- Creating a Masterclass means these celebrities are creating âexclusive contentâ.
- All these celebrities have a huge fanbase. The fans will payđ˛ Masterclass for access to this exclusive content, and celebrities get a cut of this revenue.
- Therefore, Masterclass provides a way for these celebs to monetize their huge fanbase.
đšConclusion:
First, we looked at Masterclassâs model- celebs as teachers. Then, we looked at the negative reviews and concluded that the educational quality of Masterclass courses is bad compared to its competitors. Based on this, I made a doomsday prediction that Masterclass will shut down soon, which was immediately proven wrong. We proved that Masterclass isnât an edtech company since people are paying for it despite the bad courses.
After we proved this, we arrived at the key insight into its business model- Masterclass is a âcreator-economyâ company. It is enabling these celebs to monetize their huge fanbase by providing exclusive content.
I hope you found this helpfulâ
â
This article originally appeared in Integral, a newsletter to get smarter about Indian startups.