The size of the market

Large, fragmented,
and changing fast.

The global K-12 curriculum market is estimated at approximately €15 billion annually, with the digital segment growing at 12–15% per year. Traditional publishers have historically controlled the majority of this market through government procurement relationships. Digital distribution changes this equation fundamentally — a teacher-creator who publishes curriculum on a digital marketplace is competing for the supplementary curriculum market: estimated at €3–4 billion annually and almost entirely accessible to independent creators.

Who currently dominates each segment

Traditional publishers, teacher marketplaces,
and the gap between them.

Segment
Who dominates
Price point
Textbooks and standardised assessments
Traditional publishers (Pearson, McGraw-Hill)
District-level contracts
Individual supplementary resources
Teacher marketplaces (TpT, Tes)
€2–15 per item
Digital exam prep courses
Platform-specific providers
€50–300 per course
Modular quality curriculum for school-level adoption
Underserved gap
€25–300 per unit
Where independent creators win

Specificity. Speed. Trust.
The three things publishers cannot replicate.

🎯Specificity — publishers design for the median classroom
A creator who specialises in A-Level Further Mathematics for students targeting Oxford and Cambridge is designing for a specific student profile that no mainstream publisher addresses adequately. The more specific the niche, the less competition from traditional publishers.
⚡Speed — publishers take 18–36 months to produce new curriculum
A teacher-creator can produce and publish a new unit in 8 hours (C4/A1). A traditional publisher requires editorial review, rights clearance, design, production, and distribution. By the time a publisher responds to a new exam specification change, a creator has already published 20 new listings.
🤝Trust — peer-to-peer trust that publishers cannot manufacture
A school adopting curriculum from a teacher with a verified profile and 20 positive reviews from named schools trusts that the curriculum worked in a real classroom. Peer trust converts at higher rates in the supplementary market than brand trust.