Russia’s Online Education Market: Slower Revenue Growth and Shifting Demand

The expansion pace of revenues in the Russian online education market slowed considerably in 2022, slipping from a robust 70% to 17.9% year over year. This assessment comes from Vedomosti, which cites data provided by the Smart Ranking agency. Experts note that the revenue growth of the top one hundred educational technology companies did not collapse, but it did ease dramatically, with year-over-year increases dropping from 70% in 2021 to 17.95% in 2022. The main driver behind this slowdown is the shrinking purchasing power of households across the country, compounded by the exit of several large foreign advertising platforms from the Russian market. As a result, demand for business education fell as consumers opted to retain more stable employment rather than pursue new opportunities. Despite the overall market slowdown, analysts observed a contrasting trend in the children’s education segment, which reached 26.8 billion rubles in revenue, growing by 28.9% from the previous year. This resilience reflects a parental willingness to invest in their children’s education even amidst economic headwinds and uncertainty. In another development, TMT-Consulting highlighted in August that while the domestic online cinema market shows signs of slowing growth, there remains substantial growth potential for online video services within the country. Today, only about one in five households subscribes to online video platforms, signaling opportunities for providers and educators to broaden access to visual learning and entertainment content across diverse segments.