Every year, over two million students aspire to get into India’s premier engineering and medical colleges. To do so, they need to crack tests like the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). But with only a few thousand seats available per college, coaching institutes like Aakash, Narayana, FIITJEE, and others in the town of Kota in Rajasthan have become an integral part of the system.

Over the last 12 months, another company has been quietly laying its foundation in India’s online test preparation space, which is expectedStatistaEducational technology market size in India in 2020, with projection for 2025, by segment to be worth US$4 billion by 2025. And this is no ordinary player. In January 2021, Big Tech announced its entry into Indian edtech via Amazon Academy.

When it launched, Amazon’s online learning platform offered JEE preparatory resources like mock tests, practice questions, and live classes. Over the remaining year, more offerings were added, including paid courses, NEET prep options, and one interesting partnership: in September, Amazon Academy announced a tie-up with Sri Chaitanya Institute, a 35-year-old brick-and-mortar coaching centre.

Amazon Academy claims to have garnered over a million registered users in one year. That’s still a fraction of the 50 million-plus figures quoted by Indian edtechs like Unacademy and Vedantu, but Amazon Academy is trying to distinguish itself with a no-frills approach. It wants to be considered a serious platform for test prep and stay away from the gimmicky approach of some of its competitors, like teachers singing and dancingYouTubeAbhishek Sir Dance and Ambika Mam Singing Together | Vedantu Cute Moments | Vedantu 9 and 10 during classes.