We Rent Movies, So Why Not Textbooks? 398
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by
Soulskill
from the or-food dept.
from the or-food dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Using Netflix as a business model, Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra founded Chegg, shorthand for 'chicken and egg,' to gather books from sellers at the end of a semester and renting — or sometimes selling — them to other students at the start of a new one. Chegg began renting books in 2007, before it owned any, so when an order came in, its employees would surf the Web to find a cheap copy. They would buy the book using Rashid's American Express card and have it shipped to the student. Eventually, Chegg automated the system. 'People thought we were crazy,' Rashid said. Now, as Chegg prepares for its third academic year in the textbook rental business, the business is growing rapidly. Jim Safka, a former chief executive of Match.com and Ask.com who was recently recruited to run Chegg, said the company's revenue in 2008 was more than $10 million, and this year, Chegg surpassed that in January alone."
Why the latest edition? (Score:4, Funny)
schools will require the latest edition of a book
How do schools justify requiring the latest edition of a book to their students?
Re:Why the latest edition? (Score:1, Funny)
They don't justify requiring them. They just require them.
Re:Then switch to Free textbooks (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I do (Score:3, Funny)
Every book I buy is "rent" to my family/friends and my girlfriend
Honestly, you'd make more money renting your girlfriend.
Re:A personal anecdote (Score:2, Funny)
Highlighting was a bitch.
No chisels in the Cretaceous period then?
Re:Problem with that - Teacher's Editions (Score:3, Funny)
You split it up in 2 books and then forbid the students to own the answering book. You can have a good time convincing a 6-year old that they shouldn't peek without figuring out themselves; it's the same with an 18-year old. They will have a hard time understanding that figuring things out by themselves is exactly what education is all about.
Even then, you should not test on their ability to give the correct answer, but the correct reasoning and deduction. When 2+2=4, the correct answer is not "because it said so in the answering book", but "when I put 2 apples in this basket and add 2 apples, I count all the apples and end up at 4."