

Ask HN: Is a $100B MOOC startup in the making? - diminish

It seems plausible for billions of people to pay a two digit yearly sum for continuous online education. That means a MOOC empire bigger than Google. what do you think?
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Mitchella
I'm going to stick to a firm no on this one. For starters, this is very
expensive to some. Second, not everyone owns or has internet access. So to say
"billionS of people" is already incorrect. The second problem with this is
competition, you're assuming that people will just line up in droves to come
learn and this super company will have no competition. When you put a pricetag
on something it becomes a harder competition to fight. The example of google
being used as an 'empire' is comparable to that of Facebook. They're both free
services, so the idea of using them is a no brainer. People will easily sign
up for something that is free.

The final problem is most people don't care. I can say myself that I get
nothing out of most education programs and learn more from experiences and
communication. Of the people who are willing and able to sit down and educate
themselves further on a regular basis with a paid program is a fraction of the
population.

