Chegg

Chegg, Inc., is an American educational technology company based in Santa Clara, California. It provides homework help, digital and physical textbook rentals, textbooks, online tutoring, and other student services, powered by artificial intelligence. The company has 6.6 million subscribers. Chegg has been widely criticized for facilitating cheating and academic dishonesty among students.

History

Founding and early growth

Chegg originated as Cheggpost, a Craigslist-style message board for Iowa State University students launched in October 2000 by Josh Carlson, Mike Seager, and Mark Fiddleke.[1][2] Carlson teamed with Osman Rashid, an avid user of the site who recognized its potential to disrupt the textbook market,[3] and together with Aayush Phumbhra they incorporated the company in 2005, initially offering scholarship searches, internship matching, and college application advice.

Controversies

Academic misconduct

Chegg has been accused of copyright infringement and facilitating academic dishonesty through its "homework help" service, in which paid "Chegg experts" solve homework questions submitted by students.[60][61] Students also use the platform for file-sharing, posting homework question sheets and soliciting answers.[62] A 2020 study found that Chegg answered questions even when they contained clear indicators that the student was attempting to cheat.[63] Some universities explicitly forbid students from using the service,[64][65] and some professors have posted fake answers on Chegg to identify students who cheat.[66]

In February 2019, Chegg partnered with the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University to make writing tools more accessible to students.[67] The partnership drew faculty criticism for legitimizing a platform associated with cheating,[68] though Purdue's guidelines explicitly prohibited using Chegg for that purpose.[69]

The issue intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as students taking exams on personal computers faced no technical barriers to accessing Chegg simultaneously.[61] Cheating incidents were reported at Georgia Tech,[70] Boston University,[71] the University of British Columbia,[72] and Washington University in St. Louis, where solutions to a physics exam were posted on Chegg during the exam period.[73] Chegg cooperated with the universities' investigations.[70][71][73]

In August 2022, Chegg changed its "honor code policy" to limit the information it shared with universities about student activity, saying the change was to protect student privacy.[76] Chegg was cited as an example of a cheating service in the United Kingdom's proposed Higher Education Cheating Services Prohibition Bill,[77] and in October 2024, Australia's Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency sued Chegg for allegedly violating Australian laws against cheating services. This case was subsequently won by the regulator in March 2026.[78][79] A 2022 shareholder lawsuit accused the company of misleading investors, claiming that Chegg's growth was "largely due to the facilitation of cheating-an unstable business proposition-rather than the strength of its business model or the acumen of its senior executives and directors".[80]

Data breaches

In September 2018, Chegg disclosed that a data breach the previous April had potentially exposed the user names, passwords, email addresses, and shipping addresses of 40 million users; social security numbers and bank account information were not affected.[81][82] The Federal Trade Commission subsequently investigated and in January 2023 finalized an order requiring the company to implement comprehensive security controls, enable consumer data access, and minimize data collection.[83][84]

company type	Public
traded as	nyse: CHGG Russell 2000 component
foundation	July 2006
founder	Aayush Phumbhra Osman Rashid Josh Carlson
location	Santa Clara, California, U.S.
industry	Education Online retailing
products	Book rental service Digital textbooks E-learning Online tutoring Social networking service
key people	Dan Rosensweig (CEO & executive chairman)
revenue	US$618 million (2024)
operating income	−US$737 million (2024)
net income	−US$873 million (2024)
assets	US$859 million (2024)
equity	US$193 million (2024)
num employees	1,271 (2024)
subsidiaries	Busuu Notehall
website	chegg.com

History

Founding and early growth

Expansion and IPO

AI disruption and restructuring

Acquisitions

Controversies

Academic misconduct

Data breaches

Philanthropy

See also

External links

References