Market Overview

The estimated domestic e-learning market for FY2020 rose by 13.4% from the previous fiscal year to attain 330,930 million yen, among which both B2B for enterprises and B2C for individuals continued to flourish in the COVID-19 pandemic, with the former estimated to have risen by 12.6% on a year-on-year basis to 97,130 million yen and the latter by 13.8% on the same basis to 233,800 million yen.

The B2B online learning market saw rapid surge in demand for e-learning training services where everything done online, as the conventional group training and face-to-face classes at companies were switched to online after the outbreak of COVID-19, and the demand remained high in FY2021. On the other hand, many service providers problematize progressive price declines due to the increase in the introduction of smaller services as a result of a broadened customer base, and intensifying competition due to the increase and diversification of competing services in accordance with the rising demand.

Also for the B2C online market, demand for e-learning services continues to be high and the number of users is increasing as remote teaching/learning using e-learning has taken root due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, in the field of e-learning for children, one of the factors that have been expanding the market is that parents have been accepting e-learning more than before due to the progress of information and communication technology (ICT) in school education such as GIGA School Concept. In FY2021, almost all categories of study that comprise the entire e-learning market are expected to contribute to further expansion of the market as they did in the previous fiscal year.

Noteworthy Topics

Future Trends of the E-Learning Market in the Post-COVID-19 World/the World Coexisting with the Pandemic from the Perspective of Market Player

In this research, most of the market players expect the market to grow steadily in the post-COVID-19 world/the world coexisting with the pandemic, regardless of the sector or whether the market is for individuals or businesses. Some of the key topics of future market trends that each marker player is watching closely include the following:


● In terms of the establishment of remote education, e-learning, which is less subject to time and location restrictions, is highly beneficial to both providers and learners, and its use will continue to take root and be used in combination with face-to-face education even after the end of the pandemic.


● Regarding the use of e-learning by learner’s age, face-to-face teaching is generally considered more effective for infants to elementary school students in terms of motivation to learn, making it difficult to meet their needs. In contrast, it is easy to take advantage of e-learning for learners who are junior high school students, high school students, university students, and adults.


● Competition among new providers and services is intensifying as many new providers and services have entered the market since the pandemic started in response to the growing demand for e-learning. The business environment is becoming more and more competitive. Business operators in various fields including Web services and human resource services can be competitors in the current market situation.

Future Outlook

The domestic e-learning market for FY2022 is projected to rise by 10.2% from the preceding fiscal year to attain 346,500 million yen. Both the markets of B2B and B2C are expected to remain being highly demanded due to COVID-19 pandemic and are likely to increase the number of e-learning individual users as well as the user companies furthermore.
However, it is anticipated that growth in value in FY2022 will be smaller than that in FY2020 and FY2021. This is because there are some obstacles (or challenges) as follows: the fact that needs for e-learning are beginning to stay almost flat in the market as a whole compared to the time when the pandemic first occurred; the decline in the average sales per customer in the B2B market; and the high demand for face-to-face education and a number of free learning services that have been created in the B2C market.
As a result, the B2B market size for FY2022 is expected to rise by 9.9% to reach 106,750 million yen and the B2C market size to increase by 10.3% to attain 257,800 million yen.

Research Outline