Assignments

Group 2
Subject: Udemy
Viktor Walter-Tscharf
(00491782870759, tscharffranz@gmail.com)
Donya Rooein
(+393381897214 (+989179532500), donya.rooein@polimi.it)
Monday November 23
Questions afternoon:
Students will have to study the business strategies of a digital firm (Udemy, Groupon, or
Netflix) and provide an analysis of its business strategy which will address the following
questions:
- what is the current market and its features (competitors? partners? users/consumers?)?
Udamy is a multi-sided platform. The users can be divided into two groups: the writers or instructors and the
learners. The writers or instructors are ready to lower their prices because they want to sell their courses. In
some cases, the content is already prepared and only the licenses must be regulated and controlled. The users
are defined as learners, which can be students or employees of a company. The partners are Norwest Venture
Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Lightbank, MHS Capital, Learn Capital, and 500 Startups, among others.
Further corporations or firms, which want to self-train their employees, could be potential partners. Beyond the
industrial use of Udemy the platform is also used for Universities and institutions. This being introduced as a
valuable Business model there are competitors:
-Is market expansion in the current state possible? (is there opportunity for growth?)
The competitor analyses show that the market of training employees through online content is a promising
expansion market. This proves the competitor Skillsoft. Udemy is new on this market by offering integrations and
packages to address this B2B need. To extend the current revenue to different markets. We suggest three
models.
-Udemy University
-University course management
-Udemy Business
- Consulting for producing content for video producers.
- Quality control plan from Udemy to verify the quality of videos based on a standard plan.
- Udemy Home
- Virtual assistant for learning Udemy courses in different channels
(Facebook, Whatsapp, …)
- New technologies like “Alexa” to deliver content prepared by Udemy
- does it look possible to adapt the technologies employed by the firm to address other promising
markets?
Yes. First, for “Udemy University” the course management system is one of the promising markets for Udemy
now. A new platform like “Moodles” would be useful for Udemy to give authors and teachers an opportunity to
manage (update, select,...) courses.
Company CEO Founded Employees Revenue in million Price in $ Courses offered
Udemy Gregg Coccari 2009 1000 325 20-200 130000
Coursera Jeff Maggioncalda 2012 1792 170 29-99 6200
Udacity Gabe Dalporto 2011 300 90 399 100000
Edx Anant Agarwal 2020 245 … Free 3000
Skillsoft Matthew Cooper 2010 2605 724 … 180000

Second, “Udemy Business” focuses on sharing the Udemy experience on content creation. Since, the content
quality is one of the most important missions of the udemy, they defined some standards for content control. This
line of the business can also extend to the “Udemy Control Stamp” as a service to do quality control for a MOOC.
Third, in “Udemy Home” uses the smart technologies like “virtual assistants” in multi channels would be an
interesting market for Udamy to enter and deliver their content there.
-may users have other functions than 'pure' purchasing and participate more actively in the R&D and
production processes of the firm? If so, what should the firm do to benefit such contributions?
Udemy can be between companies and universities. They offer a package of courses to prepare students for a
specific position in the company (micro learning) and if the student got in the company they will get a commission
on their salary for a limited time. There is no direct purchase here, but if the student got the job they will be
charged on their job position.
- is an industrial partnership possible or should firm competition be preferred over cooperation?
Cooperation is an opportunity for Udemy to open its platform to other corporations. For example, Udemy can
cooperate with IBM to open opportunities for their employees to take their orientation by Udemy rather than their
local platform. Local online platforms for companies are costly, so it’s more economic for companies to outsource
it. As the Udemy develops their market to bring more technologies to their platform, they also can sell their
service to cooperators.
- how should the firm deal with its IP (e.g., patents and licenses)?
The brand and design should be trademark protected. The video content created on the platform should be
copyright protected and Udemy has exclusive rights. Acquire a patent for the quality control plan. Udemy
Home needs copyright protection for its open-source services. Like Alexa skills for Udemy Home should be
protected by a set of terms of the licenses.

Group 2 - Assignment 2
Subject: Udemy
Donya Rooein
Tuesday November 24
Analysis tools from class:
https://growjo.com/company/Udemy
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NFLX?p=NFLX
Questions afternoon:
On the second part of the course, we will have three case studies. The students need to analyze the three cases
and present which case is the best for an investment and what is risk and opportunities that the companies are
facing.
To analyze and compare the companies Groupon,Netflix and Udemy their different structures have to be taken
into account. Group and Netflix are public corporations. Udamy is a private hold firm. Therefore, the financial
statements for the first two are publicly accessible but the last one is more difficult to find because Udemy is not
obligated to share their numbers.
Groupon:
For Groupon and Netflix yahoo finance or investopedia can be used as a source. First, Groupon is currently at its
lowest value and the net income is decreasing. Also the company removed CEO Rich Williams and COO Steve
Krenzer from their roles. Another concern is the reverse stock split from June to remain listed on Nasdaq (above
$1). These indicators show that an investment in Groupon is unprofitable.
Netflix:
The second case study is Netflix. Netflix has a high potential but analyzing the firm shows that … it is not a suitable
option. The pandemic played an interesting role in the revenue stream of Netflix indicated by the covid-19 peak.

Netflix is currently at its record value and the stock is very high. Therefore the increase of the stock and the return
on investment possibility isn’t enough. The stock height is only temporary and not caused by organic growth.
Udemy:
Udemy is the world’s largest online learning destination that helps students, businesses, and governments gain the
skills they need to compete in today’s economy. But Udemy is a private company and it's harder to analyze it since
they don't have a public financial statement. Udemy recently announced the company’s long-time partner in
Japan, Benesse Holdings, Inc., has agreed to invest $50 million in Udemy with a valuation of $2 billion. From our
research on internet, we got information about Udemy as follows:
● In total Udemy raised $223M funded over 7 Rounds from 2010 to 2020 1
.
● Udemy raised $50 million in February 2020.
● In November 2020 , global edutech and growth funds including Learn Capital are investing in Udemy for
another $50 million2
.
● In 325M in annual revenue3
.
● 35 million current users with approximately 7000+ Enterprise customers 4
.
● More than 65 languages are supported by Udemy and there are around 130 K courses 5
.
Analysis Results:
From our analysis for Groupan, we don’t find it a profitable invest. Moreover, on Netflix even it gets a lot of
attention and profits due to the Covid crisis, but we analyze this profit as a market bubble and the company
validation might be only temporary and not caused by organic growth. We predict that due to the Covid crisis and
as it mentioned before for Udemy there is more opportunity to keep their profit. As their CEO, Gregg Coccari,
mentioned the pandemic resulted in "five years of worth of growth in five months" for the company. So we would
like to invest in Udemy rather than the other two use cases.
1
https://angel.co/company/udemy/funding
2
https://beamstart.com/content/128256/tencent-udemy-lead-investor
3
https://www.owler.com/company/udemy
4
https://about.udemy.com/
5
https://about.udemy.com/press-releases/udemy-secures-50-million-investment-from-long-time-partner-benesse-holdings/

Subject: Udemy
Donya Rooein
Wednesday November 25
Udemy patent portfolio:
How is the patent portfolio of the company?
Udemy only patent two research topics.
1. System and method for automatically tagging products for an e-commerce web application and providing product
recommendations
2. System and method for determining whether users should be provided access to online content
Both of them are not in the e-learning area. There are not any methodologies, structure or content creation utility patents.
What does the general overview of the company look like?
The general overview for Udemy is to patent their technologies in educational systems to facilitate search systems and model
their users for scoring function. The disclosure relates to systems and methods configured for automatically tagging products
for an e-commerce web application and providing product recommendations. The present application describes a system that
may automatically tag products for an online marketplace. These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the present
disclosure, as well as the methods of operation and functions of the related components of structure and the combination of
parts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the
appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification, wherein like
reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures.
Moreover, Udemy considered systems and methods for determining whether users should be provided access to online
content or not.
How is the patent strategy of the company?
Udemy is a company, which is not interested in patents but still filled two. In comparison to the other competitors.
Only 2 patents but on the other hand other competitors like Coursera have 31 patents. These issued patents are about their
technology on educational systems and also implementation of the various methods for their tutoring system. The technology
domain for the first patent is “Computer technology Control” and the second one is “IT methods for management”. They got 28
cited patent families and no citing patent families.
What are similar fields of interest of the patent strategy of the company?
Based on the two issued patents from Udemy. There are more similar additional topics the company could expand its patent
strategy to. The following topics have been generated according to Orbit that are not totally aligned by e-learning and IT
domains.
Analysis of biological materials (45) | Audio-visual technology (3197) | Basic communication processes (339) | Biotechnology
(23) | Chemical engineering (36) | Civil engineering (153) | Computer technology (47444) | Control (6159) | Digital
communication (68709) | Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (396) | Engines, pumps, turbines (52) | Furniture, games
(883) | Handling (194) | It methods for management (38930) | Materials, metallurgy (17) | Measurement (1500) | Medical
technology (648) | Optics (339) | Organic fine chemistry (30) | Other consumer goods (463) | Other special machines (112) |

Semiconductors (111) | Telecommunications (9132) | Textile and paper machines (387) | Thermal processes and apparatus (70)
| Transport (696) |
Which main technical domains are there?
According to the generated presentation in the appendix these are the main domains:
Computer technology (13) | Control (20) | Digital communication (4) | It methods for management (7)
How many patents are issued from the competition in comparison to the company?
We searched top five competitors as listed in the following table. Mainly “Coursera” has the most patents in this domain.
Most of the patents are registered over the past 20 years and in 2018, it was the most number of patents with 5 patent families
in invention. The most patents registered by the United State.
From the key players legal status, all provided patents by Udemy are granted, while coursera has 12 pending
patents and 6 dead ones. From the graph about evolution of the application over the time, we can see two
separated waves on patents for educational platforms. The first wave was at the beginning of 2000 in 3 years and
later most of the patent families are from 2013 to the presenttime.
Appendix:
Name of the company Number of the patent
UDEMY 2
Coursera 31
Udacity 2
Skillsoft Ireland Ltd. 10
edX, Inc. 5

This chart shows the size of the applicants' portfolios in the patent
pool analyzed. This data is a good indicator of the level of
inventiveness of the active players.
Studying the portfolio of an entity:
This chart shows the portfolio of the applicant and its main co-
applicants. This representation is a good indicator of the applicant's
propensity to collaborate and also identifies its preferred partners.
Studying the patents of a particular topic:
This graph presents the top applicants by volume of the topic studied.
This represents the applicants who have the largest number of
patents in their portfolios in the subject area analyzed.
Note: In saved analysis mode, it is possible to group applicants (for
example, a subsidiary grouped with the parent company) in order to
improve the accuracy of this representation.

This chart illustrates the top applicants in the group of patents
analyzed according to their legal status.
This information makes it possible to identify applicants who have
already withdrawn from the sector (abandonment, lapse and/or
expiration of their patents) and those who are still active (applications
and patents granted still in force).

This graph illustrates the evolution of applications over time,
indicating the dynamics of inventiveness of the portfolio studied.
Different profiles can be observed, and these profiles depend on the
filing strategy implemented by the applicant.
Thus, a growing portfolio (linear or exponential) indicates that the
applicant is in the phase of construction of his portfolio (more or less
rapidly). When a stabilization of the number of filings is observed, it
can be explained by:
- a stabilization of R&D budgets, which leads to a flow of patent
applications that is more or less constant without too much selectivity
applying for patents.
- a desire to stabilize patent costs, which leads to a significant
selectivity in the filings and their maintenance.
A decline in the number of patents filed is generally symptomatic of a
substantial decline in R&D or intellectual property budgets.
Studying the patents of a topic:
Different types of profiles can be observed. Thus, a sector with linear
growth shows actors' continued interest in the field without their
needing to construct massive portfolios. Conversely, a sector with
exponential growth is indicative of a race for a patent. When the
number of applications filed decreases, it is indicative of the
disengagement of the actors of the field, while a stable profile is a sign
of sector maturity.
It is also possible to distinguish peaks or troughs in the number of
applications filed, depending on R&D budgets or broader
economic or even strategic changes.
Note: There will always be a gap in current patent information due to
the 18-month delay between the filing of an application and its
publication.

This graph illustrates the evolution of applications over time by
applicant.
This graph illustrates applications over time and the evolution of co-
applications made with partners. This can highlight the beginning or
the end of a collaboration between two partners.
This analysis by applicant highlights the patent strategy and identifies
new entrants or applicants who are no longer involved in this subject
area. This information also helps explain the peaks in filing when a
player files a significant number of applications over a short period of
time (which could have an effect on the global evolution of filings).

This representation illustrates the number of alive patents protected
in the various national Offices. This graph includes extension countries
for EP documents.
This graph demonstrates the protection strategy of the applicant, and
thus helps to identify target markets.
This graph provides information on the patent strategies of the actors
in the sector studied, as the national filings are a good indicator of the
markets that need to be protected.
Note: Some players protect the geographical areas where the
manufacturing sites of their competitors are located.
NB: The data in this graph are at the patent level. For EP patents you
will see both the EP authority itself as well as all of the countries which
are currently covered by the EP patents being analyzed.

This visualization is based on the International Patent Classification
(IPC) codes contained in a patent set being analyzed. The IPC codes
have been grouped in 35 technology fields, which are represented
here.
This graph helps to identify the diversity or the specificity of an
applicant’s patent portfolio. This illustration enables users to very
quickly identify the core business of the player being studied. The
least represented categories also serve as a means to identify other
potential applications of this actor's patents.
This graph is useful in identifying patents in a domain and in a field
that may have multiple uses. It can be a good way to identify new
uses for patents already filed.
Note: Categorizations by technology domain are based on IPC code
groupings, so patents can appear in several different categories.

This graph shows the main technology areas protected by top
applicants.
This makes it possible to study the positioning of the applicants and to
identify complementarities with potential partners.
Note:
Categorizations by technology domain are based on groupings of IPC
codes, so patents can appear in several different categories.

This graph identifies inventors listed in the largest number of patent in
the analyzed portfolio and highlights expert inventors.

This graph shows the main IPC codes from patents being analyzed and
is a good way to highlight the main protected technologies in the pool
of documents.
This graph shows the distribution of the main IPC codes contained in
the patent portfolio and can help to identify the subject areas in which
the applicant seeks protection.
This graph shows the categorization of a sector's patents by IPC code.
For technical areas with multiple applications, this can be a good way
to identify potential new applications for these patents.

This chart illustrates the top players and their key inventions.
Key inventions are patents that have been litigated, opposed, cited in
a standard, or licensed. Patents that have survived litigation or
opposition are considered strong patents. Presence of a licensing
event is also a positive indicator, as another player was interested in
this patent. Citations in standards also signal an important patent in
the domain.

This graph illustrates citations between applicants. This information
identifies portfolios that have strong interactions with each other.
A portfolio that is strongly cited by most players is likely to be a
pioneering or a blocking portfolio.

Subject: Udemy
Donya Rooein
Wednesday November 25
1.1 Identify a core job applied to your case
According to the Udemy website we found these IT related jobs:
● Data Science Manager (Marketing Decision Science)
● Engineering Manager - Data Products
1.2.1 Job description for Data Science Manager (Marketing Decision Science)1
ABOUT THE ROLE:
Decision scientists draw on a combination of quantitative methods and business intuition to find actionable
insights that drive key business decisions at Udemy. Our marketing decision science team supports Udemy’s Direct
to Consumer (D2C) user growth and demand generation by answering questions such as:
-What is the ideal cadence for marketing emails?
-How should we determine the incremental value of different marketing channels?
-How can we improve performance within marketing channels by optimizing bids and bidding strategies?
-What types of ad creatives are most effective?
-What drives variability in channel or campaign performance?
As a decision science manager partnering with Marketing at Udemy, you will be responsible for leading a team of
decision scientists and driving meaningful business impact via thought leadership. We are looking for a sharp,
independent data leader with a talent for drawing structure out of ambiguity, a relentless focus on driving
meaningful business impact, and a passion for improving lives through learning.
Here’s what you’ll be doing at this job:
● Recruit, hire, and retain an amazing team of high caliber decision scientists
● Provide hands-on technical guidance and career mentorship for team members
● Drive and execute key analytic projects and initiatives when needed
● Identify critical business problems and develop analytical solutions
● Partner with marketing leaders to shape the team’s roadmap and drive execution
● Collaborate with other data leaders to define Udemy’s long-term data strategy/vision
● Maintain high quality standards for data science work and recruiting
● Build Udemy’s technical brand through talks, blog posts, and publications
Side benefits
1
https://jobs.lever.co/udemy/399e2411-d0b3-428b-8330-204667d93e30

● Health insurance
● ticket restaurant
● Possibility of flexible working hours and smart working
1.3 Describe the profile required (academical background; experiences, soft skills)
● 1+ years of experience managing and growing high performance data science teams <How-know skill>
● 6+ years of industry experience in a decision science context <Knowledge skill>
● Ability to communicate effectively with non-technical stakeholders of all levels <soft skill>
● Strong knowledge of applied statistics, experimental design, and causal inference <Knowledge skill>
● Proficiency with SQL and 1+ programming languages (e.g., R or Python) <Knowledge skill>
From Linkedin2
:
● Brave. If you think out of the box and you are not afraid to stand up and share your ideas Team Player. If
you believe that you can go solo, but success is real only when shared with your team. <soft skill>
● Frank. If you believe that speaking clearly is the key for great communication and you are open to
constructive feedback. Don’t be touchy, be smart! You can always improve yourself. <soft skill>
● Passionate. If love for technology burns your soul and you are not afraid to look beyond your skills. <soft
skill>
● Empathetic. If you believe that emotions are what makes us humans and being in other’s shoes
sometimes can make you change perspective… ...we are waiting for you to rock with us! <soft skill>
2.1 What do you know about the company selection & integration processes?
The following section is describing the selection process of Udemy. In total the process can be divided into 7 steps.
The first Phase paraphrases the need and the profile. The second Phase includes the sourcing, selection and
integration of the candidates.
The diagram is driven by the slide from the today lecture (Caroline Ruiller)
Phase 1
- To define the need
- Udemy is currently looking for 129 people in the departments of Content, Customer Success,
Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Product and Sales.
2
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?keywords=udemy

- To define the profile
- As mentioned in phase 1 the need and profile is required, Udemy is a company, which values
skills, experiences, and knowledge over traditional educational and academic backgrounds.
Udemy invests in an innovative way of learning and it tries to promote education for everyone.
Phase 2
- Sourcing
- They select candidates from the submitted applications they got from the predefined sources. As
it mentioned in Glassdoor, they get interviews from applied online (56%), recruiter (19%), in
person (13%), recruitment agencies (6%), and employee referral (6%). The difficulty of the
interviews is average (3.3 out of 5).
- To select a candidate3
Our research and reverse engineering process conducted the following possible steps in which
Udemy selects a candidate.
1. Online test
2. Online interviews (19%) with the recruiter in mostly Telefon or in some cases via video
eg. Zoom
3. Interview with the hiring manager
4. Interview to Introduce yourself to the Team (Optional)
5. The Team and the Hiring manager make a Decision
- To finalize to integrate in the candidate
- They promote this opinion you join Udemy to first learn a new thing everyday
- Collaborative work environment4
- Diverse
- Young
- According to the video posted on their website5
, they are trying to keep the people at the
workplace by offering food, gyms, and other group activities
- Work Culture
- Work-Life Balance6
3
https://www.glassdoor.de/Vorstellungsgespr%C3%A4ch/Udemy-Fragen-im-Vorstellungsgespr%C3%A4ch
-E434871.htm
4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1JNM80JHz4
5
https://vimeo.com/279562170
6
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Udemy/reviews?fcountry=ALL

Subject: Udemy
Donya Rooein
(+393381897214, donya.rooein@polimi.it)
Friday November 27
The Competitive Advantage of Udemy:
Gathering data for company Udemy
1- Archival data:
- Company Website1
- Digital Magazine2
- Business Insights3
- Online Reputation Sphere4
- Social Media5
2- Observation data
- Youtube videos are good channel to get some information about Udemy
- All advertisements from Udemy in (phone applications, websites, …) are useful for getting data
3- Interviews
- Glassdoor website informs some information related to employee (personal questions about Udemy)
1
https://about.udemy.com/careers/
2
https://www.informationweek.com/software/udemy-comes-to-corporate-training/d/d-id/1109571?
3
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/udemy
4
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/education/online-courses/udemy.html
5
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23udemy&src=typed_query
Questions Udemy
What is the company good at?
- Wide Range of Course Offerings
- Discounts and Low-Cost Courses
- Aggressive Revenue Sharing of Tuition Fees
What resources and capabilities create
those strengths?
The IT systems for course creation for teachers and also
consuming the courses for students, pricing policies
How does the company create value for
customers
Low prices that enable customers to purchase more total
items. The user-friendly services to students to take any

Udemy Competitors, Revenue and Alternatives6
Estimated Revenue & Financials
Udemy's estimated annual revenue is currently $653.9M per year.
Udemy received $60.0M in venture funding in June 2016.
Udemy's estimated revenue per employee is $165,000 Udemy's total funding is $170.2M.
Employee Data Udemy has 3963 Employees.
Udemy grew their employee count by 33% last year.
What Resources And Capabilities drive those activities?
Udemy is the private company and we found just the limited information regarding to the available sources for
capability measurements as follow7
:
‑ Physical resources:
○ Productive capacity:
= 83.33 k $
annual revenues
number of employees
= 3.9 K
325 M $
‑ Investment service:
○ Borrowing capacity: debt ratio versus industry average; debt-equity ratio versus industry
average, net cash flow to total invested capital
6
https://growjo.com/company/Udemy
7
Not available information written in red color in the text.
courses without prerequisites. It offers efficient and fast
learning.
What priorities support/sustain those
resources and capabilities?
Expanding their courses subjects to fulfil learner’s needs.
The company is constantly learning and adjusting.
Competitive Advantage
Rare?
Yes
- number of the available courses
- recommendation algorithm of content
- preparation and presentation of content
Inimitable?
Yes but the instructors and human resources behind the
platform responsible for content quality are difficult to
imitate. Also brand awareness and patent are protecting the
company from
Organized to Exploit?
Yes - centralized, takes advantage of digitalization and the
covid-19 padamic regarding topics in relation to smart work.

○ Liquidity: current ratio, credit rating, gross cash flow
○ Sustainable growth rate: ROE
○ Location: Udemy is based in San Francisco but also has offices in Ankara(Turkey), Dublin(Ireland),
São Paulo(Brazil), Denver(USA) aGurgaon(India).
‑ Human resources:
○ Education: Sum of employees’ years of education. Udemy’s own amazing L&D team regularly
provides top-notch training sessions and leads company-wide initiatives that help employees
enhance their professional skill sets.
○ Training:. Employees get free access to every course on the Udemy and Udemy for Business
platforms and receive a yearly stipend that can be used for other professional development and
training. Udemy grew their employee count by 33% last year.
○ Employee commitment: percent of absentee days versus industry average, total amount of sick
leave
‑ Intangible resources:
○ Organizational knowledge: average employee tenure, employee turnover versus industry
average
○ Reputation/brand: customer satisfaction score based on this resource8
in 2 out of 5 stars
according to 97 reviews.
○ Patents and intellectual property: Udemy only patent two research topics.
1. System and method for automatically tagging products for an e-commerce web
application and providing product recommendations
2. System and method for determining whether users should be provided access to online
content
Both of them are not in the e-learning area. There are not any methodologies, structure or
content creation utility patents.
8
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/education/online-courses/udemy.html

This training is part of the FogGuru project that has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant
agreement No 765452. The information and views set out in this material are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European
Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on
their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information
contained therein.

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