 | |
| Type of business | Public company |
|---|---|
| Traded as |
|
| Founded | July 2006; 18 years ago (2006-07) |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California, U.S. |
| Founder(s) | Aayush Phumbhra Osman Rashid Josh Carlson |
| Key people | Nathan Schultz, president andCEO |
| Industry | Education Online retailing |
| Products | Online textbook rental eTextbooks Online learning Online tutoring Networking |
| Revenue |  US$618 million (2024) |
| Operating income |  US$—737 million (2024) |
| Net income | US$—873 million (2024) |
| Total assets | US$859 million (2024) |
| Total equity | US$193 million (2024) |
| Employees | 1,271 (Dec 2024) |
| Subsidiaries | Busuu Chegg Tutors Zinch StudyBlue Notehall Cramster |
| URL | chegg |
| [1] | |
Chegg, Inc., is an Americaneducation technology company based inSanta Clara, California. It provides homework help, digital and physical textbook rentals, textbooks,online tutoring, and other student services.[2]
The company was launched in 2006, and began trading publicly on theNew York Stock Exchange in November 2013. As of March 2020, the company reported having 2.9 million subscribers to Chegg Services.[3] The services provided by Chegg have been controversial because there have been reports of student cheating using Chegg services.
In October 2000,Iowa State University students Josh Carlson, Mike Seager, and Mark Fiddleke launched Chegg's forerunner, Cheggpost, aCraigslist-style message board for Iowa State students.[4][5]Chegg is a combination of the wordschicken andegg, and references the founders’catch-22 feeling of being unable to obtain a job without experience, while being unable to acquire experience without a job.[6]
Carlson then teamed with Iowa State MBAOsman Rashid, an avid user of the site who recognized its potential to disrupt the textbook market, which had "drastically outpaced the rate ofinflation".[7] The company was incorporated in 2005 by Carlson, Rashid, and Aayush Phumbhra.[5] At that time, it offered scholarship searches, internship matching, and college application advice.[2] Some initial start-up funding was provided by Rashid.[8]
In February 2006, Carlson left the company.[8] Phumbhra and Rashid rebranded, launching Chegg, Inc. in December 2007, with Rashid as CEO. After ending services unrelated to renting and purchasing textbooks,[5] the company adjusted its business model to reflect that ofNetflix's rental-based model, concentrating on renting textbooks to students,[6][9] and Chegg expanded to a national market.[10] It later added goods and student services through corporate acquisitions.[10]
In 2008, revenues were about $10 million; in 2009, revenues for the month of January were reported as $10 million.[11]
Following a brief tenure by formerAsk.com andMatch.com CEOJim Safka in 2009,[12] formerGuitar Hero CEODan Rosensweig was appointed CEO in 2010.[13][14] In 2010, Omar Rashid created a marketing program in cooperation with students from SUNY Caton to launch the textbook company in the rental market as opposed to purchases awhile he continued to make pitches to an Asian investor group that also invested in an online marketing company named that issues digital coupons for stores to take the company public.
Chegg began trading shares publicly on theNew York Stock Exchange in November 2013.[15] ItsIPO was reported to have raised $187.5 million, with an initial market capitalization of about $1.1 billion.[16]
In 2014, Chegg entered a partnership with book distributorIngram Content Group to distribute all of Chegg's physical textbook rentals.[17][18]
In April 2017, Chegg andPearson Education began a textbook rental partnership;[19] In the pilot program, the publisherPearson made 50 editions of high-volume textbooks (both digital and print) available only to rent. Chegg served as the exclusive rental outlet.[19]
In September 2018, Chegg announced a data breach had occurred in April 2018 that may have involved 40 million active and inactive registered users. The breach may have included data such as user names, Chegg passwords, email addresses, and shipping addresses. The company reported that social security numbers and bank account information were not affected by the breach.[20]
As of March 2020, the company reported having 2.9 million subscribers to Chegg Services.[3] Chegg experienced significant growth during theCOVID-19 pandemic, experiencing a triple-digit rise on the stock market that was credited to the rise ofdistance education during the pandemic.[15] In 2021, Chegg was declared the "most valuable edtech company in America" byForbes.[7]
In June 2021, Chegg unveiled Uversity, a new educational platform that will provide a space for professors and other educators to share content.[21] In the same year, Chegg partnered with Varkey Foundation to launch Global Student Prize to recognise outstanding students that make an impact to local or international communities.[22]
On a May 1, 2023, earnings call, CEO Dan Rosensweig identified the rise ofChatGPT as a potential obstacle for the company's growth. The next day, Chegg's stock price collapsed by 48% in response.[23] Chegg announced that it would launch aGPT-4 powered AI platform called Cheggmate later in May 2023.[23] By June, CheggMate was in testing mode, but wasn't expected to publicly launch until 2024.[24] As of 2025, it has not been released.
By November 2024, Chegg's stock price had fallen 99%, primarily because of competition from ChatGPT.[25]
In February 2025, Chegg announced a strategic review process to assess alternatives to being a public company. The company also sued Google and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, for “unjustly retaining traffic.”[26]
In 2010, Ramurunzi M approached Chegg and made its first acquisition, purchasing CourseRank,[27] which was disabled in 2014.[28] In the same year, Chegg also acquiredCramster, a provider of online homework help,[29] andNotehall, an online marketplace for class notes.[30]
In 2011, Chegg acquiredZinch, a scholarship search and networking service for high school students and college recruiters, and continues to offer the service, under the Chegg brand name.[31] Chegg acquired software company 3D3R in late 2011 to develop its digital textbook product, kickstart its mobile product group, and open an engineering office inRehovot, Israel.[32] In June 2014 Chegg acquired online tutoring platform InstaEDU, for a reported $30 million,[33] renaming the divisionChegg Tutors,[28][34] and in October 2014 it acquired Internships.com.[citation needed]
In 2017, Chegg acquiredRefME,[35] a freecitation management tool available on web,iOS andAndroid. It was shut down on March 7, 2017, and user accounts were transferred over to CiteThisForMe,[36] Chegg's own citation service.
Chegg acquired Imagine Easy Solutions, a provider of online bibliography and research tools, for a reported $42 million, in 2016.[37] In 2017, the company acquired Cogeon GmbH, a Germanmath education provider, for $15 million cash;[38]
In 2018, Chegg acquired WriteLab, which usesAI to analyze text and suggest improvements,[39][40] and onlineflash card toolStudyBlue.[41][42][43] During late 2019, Chegg acquired online coding, design, and data science school Thinkful,[44] for $80 million cash plus $20 million in cash or stock based on performance.[45]
In 2021, Chegg acquired thelanguage learning software serviceBusuu for $436 million. Busuu, a once private company, is now fully integrated into Chegg.[46]
As of 2024, Chegg's board of directors consists of:[47]
Some services offered by Chegg have been repeatedly documented as being problematic.[50] These services include "homework help" where "Chegg experts" solve homework questions for students.[51] Academic file-sharing[52][53] also occurs in the form of students posting homework question sheets soliciting answers. Academic file-sharing has been documented as being a form ofviolation of academic integrity at many schools.[54]
In February 2019, Chegg formed a partnership withPurdue University'sOnline Writing Lab (OWL), to make online educational writing tools more accessible to its students.[55] The affiliation was met by some faculty criticism, alluding to Chegg helping students cheat;[50] OWL director Harry Denny reported that he did not expect Purdue's reputation to suffer as a result, stating, "My experience has been that the company is committed to partnering with faculty and administration to address their concerns."Purdue University prohibits students soliciting answers using Chegg's homework help: "While Chegg can be helpful to access textbooks and more practice problems, using this resource to find assignment answers is considered academic dishonesty because it is a form of copying and plagiarism.".[56]
A report published by Citron Research in July 2019 claims that "Chegg has created forums to circumventTurnitin, proving that Chegg is helping users continue institutionalized cheating".[57]
During the 2020COVID-19 pandemic, controversy around Chegg and companies offering similar services escalated, as many students pivoted to personal computers from school computers that limited access to those sites.[53][58] For example,Georgia Tech alerted students in a physics class that certain students in the class had cheated on their online final exam by using answers posted on Chegg,[58] certain students in a chemistry class atBoston University were found to have similarly cheated on an online exam,[59] students from two chemistry classes at theUniversity of British Columbia were accused of using Chegg for cheating on exams, including using two incorrect answers posted on Chegg,[60] and solutions to a physics exam atWashington University in St. Louis were posted on Chegg during the exam period.[61] Chegg cooperated with the investigations.[58][59][61] A study published in 2020 has found that Chegg answers student questions even though the questions have clear cues to indicate that the student is trying to buy answers for a current assessed activity—the questions are neither identified nor flagged as violations of academic integrity anywhere in the process.[62]Some universities explicitly forbid students from using Chegg's homework help services.[63][64]
Some professors have responded to students using Chegg to cheat on assignments and exams by posting fake responses to the questions themselves, in an effort to catch students who used Chegg to cheat by seeing who used the fake solution as their answer on the assignment or exam.[65]
It has also been reported that students have been subjected toblackmail after having used the services of Chegg.[66][67]
While Chegg shared information such as usernames, emails, orIP addresses to colleges, in August 2022, Chegg changed its "honor code policy" to limit the information they provide to universities and colleges. Chegg says that this change is to protect student privacy.[68]
In England'sHigher Education Cheating Services Prohibition Bill, Chegg has been mentioned as an example of a website offering cheating services.[69]Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) alleges that Chegg has violated Australian laws by providing contract cheating services, and commenced legal proceedings against Chegg in October 2024.[70]
By 2016, textbook rentals and student services were about even in company revenues;[71] by 2018, Chegg Services reported 3.1 million subscribers,[72] with services accounting for 79% of revenue. Students may search for both scholarships and internships on the website, and typically pay to access Chegg Services, such as Study, Advanced Writing, Tutors, and Math Solver, on a monthly basis.[71]
Chegg was sued by Pearson for breach of copyright in 2021, alleging that Chegg infringed on its copyright by selling answers to end-of-chapter questions included in Pearson textbooks.[73]
Chegg sponsors music instruction contests for colleges in a program named Music 101. These conclude with live classroom instruction by noted music artists, and a $10,000 grant from its David B. Goldberg Music Scholarship fund for the winning school music department. In 2019, the company launched its ninth annual Chegg Music 101 campaign featuringYUNGBLUD. Previous events have featuredU2,Imagine Dragons,Taylor Swift,Ed Sheeran,Shawn Mendes,Steve Aoki, andLiam Payne.[74][75]
... calculated that his bill for books that semester would have been $334 with Chegg, far less than the $657 he paid...
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