# Take rate: what a marketplace really earns > Take rate and GMV vs revenue: why the money families pay is not all Klasna's revenue, and when a company reports the full price instead. - Course: [Finance for Product People: From Unit Economics to Business Cases](https://productovi.com/courses/finance-for-product.md) - Module: Are we actually profitable? - Lesson 6/32, ~25 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/finance-for-product/gmv-vs-revenue ## Leo's slide **Alex Tutor:** You're still on Klasna's product team, and Leo wants a second pair of eyes on his board slide. **Leo:** My headline for the board: revenue up 40% on last autumn. 14.7 million UAH from September to November, against 10.5 million a year ago. **Hanna:** Those are lesson payments, Leo. Most of that money was never ours. It's GMV, not revenue. **Alex Tutor:** **GMV**, gross merchandise value, is everything customers paid through a platform, including the part that goes to the people who deliver. For Klasna: what families paid for the 1:1 lessons delivered. It measures how much business flows through Klasna. **Sofia:** And revenue is what's left after the tutors are paid? **Alex Tutor:** For 1:1 lessons, yes: Klasna's **revenue** is its commission, and commission as a share of GMV is the **take rate**. In September families paid 4,284,750 UAH for delivered lessons and tutors received 2,936,250. Try it. > **Exercise:** In September 2026 families paid 4,284,750 UAH for delivered 1:1 lessons, and tutors received 2,936,250 UAH for them. What is Klasna's **revenue** from these lessons? ## Principal vs agent: gross or net revenue **Sofia:** But the whole payment lands in Klasna's account first. Why can't we call all of it revenue? **Alex Tutor:** Because the test is who controls the service, not whose account the money passes through. The family chooses a tutor, the tutor gives the lesson and answers for it. Klasna runs the platform and passes the tutor's share on. That makes Klasna an **agent**: it reports only its commission. **Hanna:** Teams is different. Klasna signs the contract with the company, promises the lessons itself, picks the tutors and replaces them if needed. There Klasna is the **principal**: the full 800 UAH a lesson is revenue, and the tutor's 430 is a cost of revenue. **Alex Tutor:** Same tutors, two presentations: principal vs agent. Accountants call the result **net revenue** for an agent and **gross revenue** for a principal. **Alex Tutor:** Now apply Hanna's description of Teams to one lesson. > **Exercise:** For Klasna for Teams, Klasna signs the contract with the company, promises the lessons itself, picks the tutors and replaces them if needed. The company pays 800 UAH a lesson; the tutor gets 430. How does Klasna report one Teams lesson? > **Exercise:** Klasna wants to list partner summer camps on its site. Families pay through Klasna, the camp runs everything and answers for it, and Klasna keeps 12%. A family pays 10,000 UAH. What is Klasna's revenue? ## How to calculate take rate: 40% or 26%? **Leo:** Fine, call it GMV. It still grew 40%, so revenue grew 40% too, right? **Hanna:** Only if our share stayed the same. Here are both autumns. > **1:1 lessons, September–November** > > | | 2025 | 2026 | > |---|---|---| > | Lessons delivered | 17,122 | 24,820 | > | GMV: families paid | 10,510,442 | 14,721,940 | > | Tutor payouts | 6,798,702 | 10,061,190 | > | Commission: Klasna's revenue | 3,711,740 | 4,660,750 | > | Take rate | 35.31% | 31.66% | > > UAH. Take rate = commission ÷ GMV. **Alex Tutor:** Divide commission by GMV and you get the **take rate**, the share of GMV a platform keeps. It fell from 35.31% to 31.66%. Remember the 32-lesson push: the discount came out of Klasna's share, while tutors still got their full payout. **Sofia:** So lessons grew about 45%, GMV 40%, and revenue less than both. > **Exercise:** Use the table of both autumns. By how many percent did Klasna's **revenue** from 1:1 lessons grow from September–November 2025 to September–November 2026? Round to two decimals. **Alex Tutor:** Put a price on the lower take rate. > **Exercise:** Use the table of both autumns. If Klasna's take rate on 1:1 lessons had stayed at last autumn's **35.31%**, what would its 1:1 revenue have been for September–November 2026? Use 35.31% as given and round to whole hryvnias. ## Same profit, different revenue **Leo:** Couldn't we just call ourselves the principal for 1:1 lessons too? Then revenue would be 16.9 million for the quarter. **Alex Tutor:** Only if the facts changed, and look what it would buy you. The tutors' 10,061,190 would join revenue and cost of revenue at once. Gross profit stays 5,108,699 UAH; gross margin drops from 74.77% to about 30%. **Hanna:** Teams shows the same effect in reverse. Gross, a Teams lesson keeps 339 of 800 UAH, a 42% margin. Shown net, like 1:1 lessons, it would keep 339 of 370, over 90%. **Alex Tutor:** So never compare gross margins across lines or companies without asking how revenue is presented. Gross profit in hryvnias doesn't care. **Alex Tutor:** Check the tutor's point on the whole quarter. > **Exercise:** Klasna's autumn P&L shows 6,832,760 UAH of revenue and 5,108,699 UAH of gross profit, with 1:1 lessons shown net. Tutors of 1:1 lessons received 10,061,190 UAH. If Klasna showed 1:1 lessons **gross** instead, what would its gross margin be? Round to two decimals. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** Klasna shows Teams gross: 800 UAH of revenue a lesson, with the tutor’s 430 and 31 for video and AI in cost of revenue. If it showed Teams net, like 1:1 lessons, its gross profit from Teams would change. ## Which number answers which question **Sofia:** Then is GMV useless? **Alex Tutor:** Not at all. GMV shows how much demand flows through Klasna, and tutors care about it: it's their income. Revenue shows what Klasna earns from that flow. The take rate links the two. More in the blog: [GMV vs revenue](/blog/gmv-vs-revenue). **Hanna:** The rule for any slide: label GMV as GMV, and never put it on the line that says revenue. > **Exercise:** Match each number to the question it answers. ## Your turn: fix the headline **Leo:** All right. The board meets on Thursday. Rewrite my headline so it's true and still shows that we grew. **Alex Tutor:** Give both numbers with their names, the reason they differ, and one thing to watch. **Sofia:** Growth first, then the honest part. > **Exercise:** Rewrite Leo's board headline "Revenue up 40% on last autumn" in 2–4 sentences. Give GMV and revenue growth with their names and numbers, explain why they differ, and say what you'd watch next. > **Key ideas** > > - **GMV** is everything customers paid through the platform, including the providers' share. It measures volume, not revenue. > - An **agent** that arranges a service controlled by someone else reports only its commission as revenue (**net revenue**). A **principal** that controls the service reports the full price and the provider's share as a cost. > - **Take rate** = commission ÷ GMV. Klasna's fell from 35.31% to 31.66%, so GMV grew 40.07% while revenue from 1:1 lessons grew 25.57%. > - Gross vs net presentation changes revenue and gross margin, never gross profit in hryvnias. **Alex Tutor:** Next: a family pays 18,560 UAH in March for 32 lessons. When does that money become revenue, and what if some lessons are never used? - Previous lesson: [How to read a P&L, top to bottom](https://productovi.com/courses/finance-for-product/reading-a-pnl.md) - Next lesson: [Deferred revenue: when prepaid lessons are earned](https://productovi.com/courses/finance-for-product/when-revenue-is-earned.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.