New distribution channels
Another way to grow the customer base would be through exploring new channels of distribution. TutorVista had recently secured a number of strategic partnerships that increased its access to prospective customers. In November 2006, it was named the exclusive online tutoring provider for the Microsoft MSN Encarta online education portal. In February, 2007, TutorVista’s services were made available to members of the U Sphere college admissions marketplace (http://www.usphere.com/), which matches colleges with students. In April, 2007 Vocabulary.com engaged TutorVista as its exclusive tutoring service provider, giving it access to more than 19,000 schools.
One possibility would be to put more attention and resources into corporate channels for marketing tutoring services to the families of employees. Another channel that might be explored was high school guidance counselors, Ganesh notes, “They are normally the first port of call for a struggling student, and one of our first employees in the US was a guidance counselor. Marketing through the national association of guidance counselors is something we’d like to do.”
New business models
During 2004 while he was pondering what venture to start next, Ganesh contemplated the idea of creating an exchange that would be for services the equivalent of what eBay is for products. A company named Elance (http://www.elance.com) had been launched in the late 1990s and had raised tens of millions of dollars from venture capitalists, but Ganesh did not believe the eBay model would work well in online education. He argues:
"You can’t do services on a pure exchange platform the way you can do products. Educating a student is highly emotional and personalized. It’s not like buying a CD or a used massage table. The quality of service delivery is important. A parent wants a guarantee that tutors are trained, certified, and that they can get one of equivalent quality if the one they are using drops off. Students want the assurance of a brand and continuity with a tutor."
However, it seemed to Ganesh that it might be possible to use a modified online matching platform to increase the size of the market.
He explains:
"Today, our tutors are employees who commit at least 20 hours per week and need to be available frequently. Can we add people who have different schedules, for example those who only have five hours per week? If you want to teach entrepreneurship and people will pay you $100 per hour, can TutorVista play a role by bringing you together with customers? This could be an extension of our current model, aimed at specialized subjects or highly-accomplished individuals who might not want a job at TutorVista but who want to work a few hours a week. Maybe someone in the world wants to have a discussion with a Ph.D. in nuclear physics or math at a different price point than the mass market wants. We could create a platform, advertise for tutors, give them a small test and register them on the site if they are good. Students will see brief profiles and can choose based on what they want and are willing to pay. The tutors would be paid by the hour while we get a commission. This is the kind of thing Tutor.com does; I’d call it a semi-platform, not a pure platform like Elance."
Ganesh’s decision
Faced with these alternatives, K.Ganesh and his management team had to choose which growth path held the most promise. His entrepreneurial experience had taught Ganesh the value of focus, and he believed that pursuing one or two opportunities with vigor would produce better results than putting the same amount of effort behind half a dozen growth initiatives.
The ultimate test for any growth path was how quickly it would help build the brand and the audience so that TutorVista became the place on the Web that people went to for online educational services. Says K.Ganesh:
"Students are an attractive segment because they are at an impressionable age and have a high lifetime value. What is attractive to us is not just an exchange but a portal that becomes a destination site. Our first choice was to launch a simple site with a single service and clear value proposition. That’s the first step—we don’t know what we’ll do the next 12-18 months. Everything is up for grabs."
TutorVista in 2008
In the autumn of 2007, TutorVista added a new product: Spanish language training. What drove the decision was demand from existing customers. Ganesh explains:
"People kept asking if we teach Spanish, and it is the next most spoken language in the world after English. A lot of US school districts are encouraging a second language, or even making it mandatory, so the demand in the US is huge. We looked at how to make it affordable for the masses, even if it wasn’t as inexpensive as what we usually do, so we decided to use teachers from Mexico and Argentina, which is unique. We started with five teachers who are all very comfortable in English. So far training them seems to be simple, but as we scale, one challenge is to see whether our methods for training Indian teachers will work in other settings."
In November, 2007, TutorVista acquired Edurite Technologies, a seven year old company that provided content for educational CD-ROMs. Ganesh intends to set up 300 brick-and-mortar tutoring centers across India where students can learn standardized material in a standardized manner, using local teachers. He comments:
"India is a market where the focus on education and the need for tutoring are high, but we can’t use our global model because the challenges and pressures are different. Internet penetration is low compared to the West, and unlike the US, there is no shortage of teachers. The economics also don’t work the same: $100 a month is a lot of money for an Indian family and the cost of a personal computer is very high related to the average salary, so most students don’t have a computer at home. People outside the top-tier cities feel deprived of access to the education one can get in a big metro. Although India has a lot of teachers, supplementary education is highly fragmented, and depends on the individual brilliance of the teacher. We can sell standardized content from star faculty to schools or in the retail channel as well as providing top-quality tutoring through our own centers with computers and Internet connections."
Finally, Tutorvista switched from Webex to its own proprietary platform for delivering online services. Says Ganesh:
"Webex worked well for tech-savvy people but others find it slightly daunting. It was built for corporate use, not for students at home, and it’s a big download that works best if you have a broadband connection. You force a parent to enable ActiveX controls, get Javascript, and so on just to get help with math. It took us 40 man-years to develop our own much simpler platform, which we could do because we’re in Bangalore. Now our back-end integrates videoconferencing, commerce, session timing, our portal, and our programs."
With respect to other forms of expansion or starting up a tutoring exchange, Ganesh says, “We’re keeping an open mind.” He elaborates;
“Our current business is working; had we struggled in the past six months to grow, we might have taken a closer look at alternatives. In the short run, we had better opportunities. Now that we have our own platform, we have all the ingredients for a successful exchange if we want to go in that direction in the future. We’re growing substantially, and we’re holding our options open.”
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written by Tony, March 14, 2011
written by Zarka Zargar, September 10, 2010
My question to Mr. Ganesh is that why this cheating and discrimination towards Indian customers. This is absolutely unethical, unfair and punishable act by a company for its frauds.
written by D K Pradhan, December 23, 2009
written by Janaki, October 13, 2009
I am working for www.igtutor.com now, the way they deal with their employees is really outstanding. Their payscae is also good compared to that of tutorvistas, anyway thanks to Mr Ganesh for implementing this innovative ideas, as a teacher I must thank him for taking the first step.
written by Justin Kidder, December 28, 2008
written by Gaurav Sharma, November 28, 2008
written by Deepthi Ramesh, September 22, 2008
I have been assossiated with Tutorvista for past 2 years.It has been a wonderful journey.I am deeply indebted to Mr.Ganesh for giving me this oppourtunity.What makes me proud is the fact that sitting in a remote village of India,I virtually reach the American homes everyday.Tuorvista has opened a new chapter in my life.Thank you.
written by RK, September 10, 2008
written by Binesh Kutty, September 10, 2008
written by RK, September 09, 2008
written by rajkumar, September 03, 2008
I really appreciate his work.
I am well wisher to him
all the best to your future business.
Rajkumar
math lecturer
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