India's online education to grow 8-fold, hit $2 bn by 2021: Google, KPMG

User base for paid online tutoring to grow six-fold to 9.6 mn, driven by growing smartphone base

India's burgeoning online education sector is expected to grow by eight times in the next five years to $1.96 billion by 2021 according to a joint report released by Google and KPMG.

The report states that the user base for paid online tutoring will grow by six times from 1.6 million users today to 9.6 million users by 2021. This growth will be primarily driven by India's growing smartphone base and will come from beyond the top six metros in the country.

"There has been a 2x growth in online searches for education and a 3x growth in searches from a