In the third quarter of 2022, for the very first time, Coursera overtook Udemy in terms of consumer revenue.

In online education, which is more monetizable, content or credentials? Udemy and Coursera’s B2C revenues in 2022 Q3 might give us a hint.

On the surface, Udemy and Coursera are similar: they’re both marketplaces for online courses. Where they mainly differ is on who can offer these courses.

On Udemy, anyone can create a course. On Coursera, only certain universities and organizations can offer courses. In recent times, Coursera has tried to expand its catalog by letting professionals create Guide Projects.

But what they sell is quite different. On Udemy, you pay for the course, while on Coursera, the course is usually free-to-audit, and what you really pay for is the credential or certificate.

Early this month, I reported that for the first time ever, Udemy’s B2B revenue exceeded its B2C revenue. But that wasn’t the only first: in 2022 Q3, Coursera’s B2C revenue eclipsed Udemy’s B2C revenue — Udemy made $74.6 million in B2C, but Coursera made $78 million.

In the B2C segment, Coursera also has better margins than Udemy. This means that they keep a bigger cut of the revenue. In 2021, Coursera’s gross profit margin was 66%, compared to Udemy’s 52%.

So even though Udemy made $80 million more than Coursera in 2021 in the consumer segment, it netted just $8 million more than to Coursera.

Udemy’s best quarter in terms of B2C revenue was 2020 Q3, when the company made $91 million compared to Coursera’s $57.3 million. While Coursera has gained on its pandemic numbers, Udemy has struggled to do that. In 2022, Udemy is on track to see its B2C segment revenue decline. In 2021, Udemy’s B2C segment revenue grew by just 1%.

We know Udemy’s ceiling. Over the next few quarters, we’ll see whether Coursera faces the same obstacles.

But for B2B revenue, the story is completely different.

Udemy vs Coursera in 2022

In April 2022, when I compared Coursera and Udemy’s 2021, Udemy’s market cap ($1.6B) was about half that of Coursera ($3.0B). A few months later, the situation had dramatically changed.

In 2022, Coursera saw its stock price drop by 45%, while Udemy’s dropped by 20%, thus reversing their fortunes. This is probably one of the reasons Coursera conducted layoffs last week.

The biggest drop came when Coursera announced its 2022 Q2 results. The stock dropped by 20%. To understand why this happened, read my report on Why Coursera Stock Dropped.

After the recent publication of its 2022 Q3 report, Coursera’s stock recovered a bit, thereby mitigating some of the decline seen in 2022.