Preply mini rant and AI discussion!

0:02 Hi, this is sort of like an unscripted video really. I just have some time in between studying and lesson prep for a client and I was kind of just thinking earlier about the nature of online teaching on Preply. You probably have seen some people already comment about this with Preply.

0:35 Essentially, I think Preply is failing. Um It is failing. >> [sighs] >> I kind of look on the the Preply subreddit. And what I've seen with a lot of people is is that they're struggling to get students. Myself included. Um metrics seem to be down for a lot of people. Uh people that are far more experienced than me seem to be struggling. Um and so it seems to be a real concern for tutors [snorts] and educators like myself on that particular platform.

1:25 But really Preply has a lot of problems when you think about it. Um the commission rate is far too high, for example. There is no real vetting of tutors. So and this is no offense to anyone who wants to who has a passion for teaching but maybe doesn't have the opportunities to go on to third level education university. This isn't any slight against them. It's just because Preply takes in any amount of thousands of tutors recently where their credentials are kind of maybe not the best.

2:04 And then their rates are are quite low to gain traction. I've seen some tutors give lessons for $4 US. You know, it kind of just cheapens the market a little bit. Um and so there should really be more vetting of tutors. I I think the bare minimum personally should be a university degree in the subject that you want to teach. Um and maybe there should be some allowances then for people where tertiary education is not really something they can obtain but I don't know.

2:48 It seems like back in the day Preply was a useful platform to first to gain experience and secondly build up portfolio of clients, students. Uh I'm a business English teacher myself. And so I would be kind of niche, I suppose. Um I joined in August so August, September, August I think it was of 2025. I started teaching about September of last year.

3:19 And I've had three students. And you are promoted like a lot of people watching this video will know at the start with Preply. You're promoted as you're a new tutor and then kind of such a lot of devices after that. Um and it's kind of moving in the the direction of Preply kind of wants you to sort of do your own promotion, I suppose, via social media sites, LinkedIn.

3:51 Uh and as other people have commented on that, that's a little bit pointless when you're paying so much commission. Surely Preply can just do that work for you. Um And so it seems to me that it's not really worth an educator's time being on Preply anymore. Uh I still have my profile there but you know, it it is uh it's it's falling down the metrics, shall we say.

4:29 Uh and for a lot of other people as well and it seems like the heyday of Preply has kind of been and gone. And when I joined probably it was the tail end of its heyday. Um and it's a massive shame because I think there's a lot of merit to something like Preply. Uh There's a push for AI on Preply. The push for AI on Preply and I assume on the other sites as well, iTalki, twenix is really insulting to the educators that are pushing all their time compiling lessons and this is thing on Preply if you turn on insights.

5:21 Essentially, they're lit they're listening to use a less technical term and they compile your data and they're feeding to the AI. Which is absurd. It it's the push for AI in education. I I would have my own personal opinion on that. I know this is going off a bit of a tangent but implementing AI on a site like Preply and other sites where the whole point is to have face-to-face interactions with a tutor.

5:55 >> [sighs] >> And like you know, the vast majority of us we are passionate about what we do. We want to educate people. We want to we want to try and make a living but we want to we want to educate people or else we wouldn't bother doing this job, right? So it's a thing where there's there's this cheapening of tutors on Preply which is really disappointing. And it's a thing where you know, pushing AI and I'm sure Preply will push the AI agenda even more.

6:37 Kind of makes you feel what's the point? What's the point on in being on this site? What's the point? I have it on the background, I guess, but like you have to check in every day to to mess about with their stuff. I mean, I've I've tried to update my profile descriptions and it hasn't updated. It's been over 3 days. It hasn't updated. I changed my profile picture. I did this a few months ago and it didn't even update it.

7:05 Reaching out to the customer service on Preply is essentially trial and error. Uh a lot of the time you're just passed around from one representative to another. And uh it's it's kind of like Preply has just kind of completely just shot itself in the foot to gain money. Profit, really. You know, bringing all the tutors. >> [sighs] >> Again, it's not a slight against tutors from poor backgrounds. You know, everyone if they're talented enough, everyone should have the chance to try to try and teach and give something to society but you got to vet. You've got to you got to vet. Like I'm I'm in the process of upskilling upskilling even more with my qualifications because I want to be you know, at the top level of people who do this job vocation for a living.

8:04 Um and I know that's not possible for everyone but just letting annual tutors join the platform and offer saturation of the platform, the push for AI and in my opinion, AI is never going to replace face-to-face interactions uh with students anyway. It it's just not the same. Uh I think AI is useful as a tool to work alongside the educator but not to replace the educator.

8:38 And like I said, I know this is a bit of a tangent. I'm just having more coffee. Did some prep earlier and I kind of just think to myself is there really any point continuing on this platform pushing hours upon hours into prep work like all teachers will tell you that's where all the work goes into and that's fine. But it's a thing where you know, no new no new students are coming on stream for you. You're not being promoted. You're trying to promote yourself. It's not really gaining any traction.

9:13 And it's not just me, it's other people as well like I said on the subreddit. I see it all the time. People that people that are new, yes, they have been on there for a month or so and then there's people that have been on there for years, longer than me. Um I'm still relatively new to this journey. You know, I love it. I love teaching but you apart from getting some experience with online teaching with the first few months of Preply I I I I can't really see any benefit to being on that particular site anymore and I I would imagine that the other sites just from what I've seen, uh they don't seem to to really be all that much better.

9:58 Um >> [snorts] >> So, yeah, it it's just I'm just sharing my thoughts off the cuff, I suppose. It's probably not a new thing you haven't heard before if you're an educator and you're working on Preply, but I don't know. I just thought I'd I'd make this short video, 10 minutes, and just to share my thoughts and just for someone who is still relatively new to the profession, it's a real struggle for us on that platform, you know, it's if it's a struggle for for much more experienced tutors that have teaching for years, not even just on Preply, and they're struggling, well, you know, what chance do the rest of us have?

10:48 And it just seems like a shame that uh but here's another video uh complaining about Preply, imagine about Preply being got around. And a platform that a couple years ago seemed to be working pretty well as a business model, making any amounts of profit, I'm sure, and had its flaws, which it still does. Commission Commission rate is way too high. But useful, a useful tool nonetheless to supplement your income and to gain experience for new tutors, new to online teaching like myself.

11:27 So, it's a real shame, and uh and I'm not entirely sure with the push of AI if Preply can sort of roll back and sort of improve things, but right now people seem to be abandoning the platform fairly quickly. I don't really blame them. I'll stick around for a little bit. I kind of have it on in the background, like I said. But I don't know. It looks like Preply have sort of messed things up for themselves, and it really kind of looks like it's best days are done.

11:56 Um and so, yeah, that's it. Mini sort of mini sort of rant slash discussion. Uh do let me know in the comments if you have this experience yourself. Um be interesting to get your opinions on the matter, people in in the same boat as myself. Maybe you're doing very well on Preply, I don't know. Uh do let me know either way. And so, uh yeah, back to Justin Prep. Thanks for listening.