$357 for a Macro textbook... And you better get the new 19th edition. You shell out $300 for a textbook you only use for 3 months, then sell it for $50 (or use it as a dumbell). Chegg wants the days of rent-priced books to be over. The EdTech company is known for digital and physical textbook rentals. As learning moved remote, Chegg racked up a straight-A earnings report:
- Sales soared 63% from the same quarter last year. Chegg brought in $153M because Calc is hard, but remote Calc is harder.
- New subscribers jumped 67% on the rush for more learning support. Chegg added more subscribers in 3 months than in all of 2018.
Sexier than textbooks... Chegg wants to be more "Netflix of Learning," less "Blockbuster of Studying." While textbooks are a hook, most of Chegg's sales come from digital study materials and tutoring. It offers $19.95/month Study Packs that include homework solutions, practice sets, and Q&A with "experts."
- Chegg has been on an e-learning buying spree since 2010. Acquisitions include: a tutoring platform, a flashcard tool, and an $80M online coding school. Those acquisitions are seriously paying off now.
Chegg owns the whole customer value chain... Chegg isn't just a middleman platform that connects you with something (like Airbnb or Uber). It's one of the few digital platforms that owns the content, transactions, data, and distribution channels. This direct ownership, combined with the scale of its offerings, is helping it benefit from the e-learning surge — Chegg's shares have doubled this year.