Times Internet has entered into a strategic partnership with Coursera, a massive open online courses (MOOCs) company, to ‘assist Coursera’s growth in India’. Times Internet has also participated in Coursera’s Series C funding worth $49.5 million which took place today. Times Internet will provide operating, strategic and marketing support for Coursera and help Indian students and professionals to find Coursera, and earn certificates from Indian as well as global universities. Times claims that all of its partners have witnessed 300-500% growth after they associated with the Times, and that it expects the same growth chart for Coursera. Coursera will also be partnering with Indian universities and corporations to localise content for Indian audiences in the business and technology domains. Coursera claims to have 1 million registered users in the country. The Coursera partnership comes under Times Global Partner initiative of Times Internet, which has previously worked with Uber (more info below), Huffington Post, Business Insider, Ad Age (the launch here), Gawker Media and Ziff Davis among others to launch their Indian editions in the country. Times of India group pioneered the private treaties business, now called Brand Capital, which involved taking equity in companies in exchange for marketing inventory. An example of how private treaties deals were structured, here. Times Internet’s previous strategic partnerships – In March, Times Internet entered into a strategic partnership with the taxi booking service Uber in a deal that was “centered around a commercial marketing arrangement accompanied by a small investment”, according to the company.…
