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— Info Edge Q4 investor presentation
Shiksha’s website traffic was already collapsing due to AI-powered Search. Now, it is directly impacting billings on the platform, said Hitesh Oberoi, managing director and CEO of internet classifieds company Info Edge.
“AI-driven changes in search behaviour have been affecting Shiksha’s traffic for several quarters. In Q4, this translated into a more direct billing impact as reduced referral search traffic from Google affected client deliveries,” Oberoi said during the company’s latest earnings call.
Shiksha is the education arm of Info Edge. It reported a 13% decline in billings to Rs 45.1 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2026 (Q4 FY26), down from Rs 51.8 crore in the year-ago quarter.
This marks the first year-on-year decline in billings on the platform in the last six quarters.
The ‘Google Zero’ effect: Shiksha is not the only company that has expressed concerns over declining search traffic recently. Earlier this month, Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast, the company that publishes Vogue and Vanity Fair, reportedly told his teams to operate on the assumption that Google would not send them any traffic at all—the so-called “Google Zero” effect.
The commentary comes at a time when Google Search is becoming an AI-driven answer engine, responding to queries directly instead of directing users to other websites. While publishers and education websites like Shiksha previously relied on search-driven traffic for visitors and sales, Google’s rollout of AI Overviews and AI Mode within Search has dramatically reduced the number of clicks. A recent study by marketing firm Ahrefs suggests that Google’s AI Overviews have led to a 58% drop in click-through rates for top-ranking search results.
How Shiksha plans to survive AI headwinds: Oberoi told analysts on the call that the company expects AI Search headwinds to persist “over the near term.” To stay competitive in the education business and sustain growth, Shiksha is scaling up its domestic counselling offerings and investing in AI-driven voice bots.
The education classifieds platform is betting that stronger adoption and monetisation of these services will, over time, compensate for the damage that AI has done to its traffic and billings.
Earlier this year, in February, MediaNama reported that Shiksha was pivoting to domestic counselling and marketing services amid declining search traffic. In India, it competes with Collegedunia, Careers360 and College Dekho.
Demand slowdown in the study abroad segment: Within the education vertical, demand softened in certain markets, particularly the US and Canada, due to shifting student preferences and macroeconomic conditions.
To navigate this, Shiksha is expanding its offerings to cover other destinations, with an increased focus on the UK, UAE, and continental Europe, to better align with shifting student demand, Oberoi told analysts during the earnings call.
While billings on the platform declined year-on-year, revenue from operations grew 11% to Rs 44.2 crore in Q4 FY26 from Rs 39.8 crore in Q4 FY25. The business also turned profitable at the operating level. It reported an operating profit of Rs 13 crore during the quarter under review, reversing from a loss of Rs 1 crore a year earlier.
Key operating metrics — FY26
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