Amazon will be shutting down Amazon Academy, an online learning platform it launched in India for high-school students last year, the company said Thursday.
The retailer says it will wind down the edtech service in the country in a phased manner starting August 2023. Those who signed up for the current academic batch will receive a full refund, it said.
The service offered curated learning material, live lectures, mock tests and comprehensive assessments to help students learn and practice math, physics and chemistry and prepare for the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE), a government-backed engineering entrance assessment conducted in India for admission to various engineering colleges in the country.
The comprehensive offering from the firm had prompted some to believe that Amazon might be making a major foray into the education market and may pose threat to upstarts such as Byju’s, Unacademy and Vedantu.
The homepage of Amazon Academy website. (Image credits: Amazon)
“At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers. We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products and services to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments,” an Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch.
“Following an assessment we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Academy. We are winding down this program in a phased manner to take care of current customers.”
In a memo, which Amazon has since made public, chief executive Andy Jassy said more layoffs will come next year.
Amazon to shut down its online learning platform in India by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch
