| Thursday, 31 March 2022 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
There’s a running joke in edtech circles about how, one fine day, Byju’s is going to “acquire” the Ministry of Education. This week’s announcement wasn’t quite that, but you can see how this joke has secured itself a longer shelf life.
In the roster of great Byju’s announcements, this is yet the biggest shake-up. Byju’s will be an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2022, set to be held in Qatar at the end of this year. This is the biggest international stage possible for Byju’s to show off its marketing prowess, and will likely dwarf all its previous marketing spends. ICYMI, this stood at a whopping Rs 880 crore (~US$116 million) in the year ended March 2020.
The global FIFA stage isn’t just about grabbing eyeballs though, or finding ways to spend the war chest Byju’s has accumulated in its 12-year run. The location—Qatar—is important. The company’s old-yet-growing business in the Middle East is important. Crucially, there was another announcement that came on the heels of the FIFA sponsorship. And it ties up rather well with everything else that’s going on with Byju’s.
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Football might only be a 90-minute game. But Byju’s goals have been years in the making.
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Juicing the GCC
Byju’s won’t have to start from scratch in MENA (Middle East and North Africa). After all, the company has had a GCC division for at least half a decade now. Officially called More Ideas General Trading LLC, this unit has about 150 employees, according to LinkedIn.
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And the unit’s website opens up to this homepage. See if you spot a familiar country here:
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Targeting the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) makes sense for Byju’s. Just the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has close to 80,000 Indian students in its school system, making up about 27% of its student population. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a popular board with Indian students in the Gulf—78 schools in the UAE are affiliated with it.
It’s not hard to imagine, then, that Indian parents there are just as worried about marks as Indian parents here, opening up a great opportunity for Byju’s.
