# 20k installs push into Brazil's education Top Grossing chart: Foca sells not courses, but the study-hour certificates universities require · Mobile app

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/play_br.com.cessetembro.foca.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> It's not a new product. An older institute moved its million-follower Instagram and its website's existing students straight into an app, then used push notifications to remind them about certificate deadlines, bringing payments onto mobile.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · Android · written 11-6

Foca - Cursos Gratuitos · Centro Educacional Sete de Setembro

# 20k installs push into Brazil's education Top Grossing chart: Foca sells not courses, but the study-hour certificates universities require

**What it is** The official app of Brazil's CESS: a weekly batch of time-limited free online courses. Finish one and pay a few reais for a 40-hour certificate, which students use to meet university supplementary-hour requirements.

**Why it took off** The product isn't new. An established institution moved its million-follower Instagram and its existing website students straight into the app, then used push notifications to remind them of certificate deadlines, bringing payments to mobile.

**C** **How you could follow suit** Only worth copying if you already have a student or professional audience: make courses time-limited free, sell only certificates, push deadline reminders, and let existing users sync certificates with their original email. Not recommended from scratch.

Grade C: lots of 1.4M followers and 6M legacy students drive the launch, and followers can't copy that. "Free course + paid certificate" is already crowded in Brazil (Cursa and other 10M+ players). Worth studying the tactics, not worth chasing. Not many people know about it yet

Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-09-17 · 11-07 installs 20,281

Android · Total installs worldwide

Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.

A Brazilian free-courses app, live a bit over a month with 20k installs, has reached #71 on Brazil's Google Play education Top Grossing chart. It's not a new team behind it: an education outfit that has run "free courses, paid certificates" for years moved its 1.4M-follower Instagram and millions of past students into the app. The business is real, but hard to copy: its revenue rests on an audience it built long ago.

### A "comment APP" post

On 2026 Oct 7, Instagram account @cessetembro (about 1.4M followers, per HypeAuditor) posted an image post:

> Se você ama curso gratuito, esse app foi feito pra você. (If you love free courses, this app was made for you.)

The caption has no download link, only "comment 'APP' and I'll DM you the link." Tags: #HorasComplementares #VidaUniversitaria (extra credit hours, university life). The comments are a row of one word: "App."

The poster is CESS (Centro Educacional Sete de Setembro), an education company registered in Atibaia, São Paulo state. The app is Foca, listed on Google Play as "Foca - Cursos Gratuitos" (Free Courses). By 6 Nov it had 20,281 Play installs, up from 17,025 a week earlier. Its rank on Brazil's free education chart climbed from #10-29 to #142 and then #84, and on the Top Grossing chart it stayed between #69 and #73 (Google Play, 10-29 to 11-06). The store page has a 4.8 rating from 40 reviews and is Brazil-only.

On the same Top Grossing chart, Udemy is #6 and eduK is #56, both long-running apps with millions of installs. Foca, with 20k installs, ranks in the top 80, which suggests a good share of its installers are paying.

### What it sells

The app is free and the store page is blunt about it: each week a new batch of courses and online events drops, **free for a limited time** . After you finish, you can request a completion certificate, "usable as extra credit hours (horas complementares), depending on whether your school accepts it."

Most courses are health-related: psychology, physiotherapy, nursing, veterinary, plus other career tracks. CESS's website says each free course stays up for only 9 days, then gets pulled for the next batch. Certificates are 40 hours each, carry a number and QR code, and can be verified online by CPF (national ID).

The money is collected on the certificate. The in-app purchase on Play is listed at $1.79 to $64.99 each. When CESS runs promotions on Instagram, "any one course + 40-hour certificate + e-book" costs only R$11.90 (about $2), "today only," again with a comment to get the link.

### Who buys, and why

Brazilian university students have to accumulate a set number of "extra credit hours" before graduating, and health workers often need proof of continuing education. A 40-hour certificate costs about ten reais, far cheaper and faster than taking a proper course. The need recurs every semester; it isn't a one-off.

"Free for a limited time" handles acquisition; "certificates cost money" handles monetization. The app does one thing the website can't, and it lands exactly on the payment step: push notifications. The app landing page on the official site says:

> Premieres, new courses, and certificate deadlines are pushed to you as notifications, so you don't have to track them yourself.

Courses only stay up for 9 days. Miss the deadline and you lose the certificate. The push goes off and the sale follows.

### Where users come from

There are three main sources, all CESS's own:

- **Big Instagram account** . 1.4M followers. The "comment a keyword, get the link by DM" play is one CESS has used for a long time, and this time it's pushing the app.

- **Past website students** . The official homepage says "6M+ students." The second step on the app landing page is "sign up with the same e-mail you used to buy on the website," so certificates from before automatically appear in the app. The download link on the landing page carries a tracking parameter (utm_source=site), which suggests they're measuring how many people come over from the website.

- **Possibly paid ads too** . On the complaints site Reclame Aqui, some users say they saw the "free courses" in Instagram ads, and online you can find CESS promoting "299 courses for R$9.90 a month." How much was spent, and whether it went to the app, I couldn't verify.

Separately, a TikTok and Instagram account called @adiretora has long compiled CESS's free courses and online events ("November has 14 free online events"). Whether it has any link to app downloads is unclear. Searching the app's name on TikTok turned up no videos driving a surge.

Daily installs also look like they're being pushed by these channels: 10-31 went up by 773, 11-03 went up by 1,546, and the days in between barely moved (Google Play daily installs). It looks more like installs jump after a post or a push notification goes out than like people finding it through store search (inferred).

### Who it's competing with

"Free courses, paid certificates" is an old business in Brazil, and a crowded one:

| Competitors | Scale | How Foca differs |
|---|---|---|
| Cursa | Play 11.5M installs, #42 on Brazil's education free chart | Same free-course + paid-certificate model, with a permanent course library, growing through store search and ads |
| Udemy | Play 43.6M installs, #6 on Brazil's education Top Grossing chart | Courses themselves cost money |
| eduK | Play 1.75M installs, Top Grossing #56 | Monthly subscription |
| Fundação Bradesco, Sebrae, SENAI, Escola Virtual.Gov | Bank foundations and public agencies | Courses and certificates both free |
| Cursos Grátis Online, Certificado Curso Online, Prime Cursos, etc. | Mostly websites; Reclame Aqui complaints of 115 and 59 respectively | Same model, mostly no real app |

So Foca's model has nothing new in it. Its edge is entirely "having an audience": a million-follower account and a multi-million-person past-user base, plus native app push that catches the "limited-time each week" rhythm.

The business also has clear problems. CESS has 673 complaints on Reclame Aqui in total, 6 of them in the last ~46 months, with a score of 9.1 and a response rate of 100%. Recent titles read "paid for the certificate, never got it, want a refund," "name on the certificate is incomplete and can't be fixed on the site," and "no one answers certificate payment questions, terrible support." The certificate is the only product, so when delivery fails, reputation drops immediately.

### If it were you

**Grade C** : worth taking apart, not worth copying. Foca runs on 1.4M followers and millions of past students, and anyone following can't get either. The model itself was already crowded in Brazil.

**Who it suits** : someone who already has a student or professional audience (an account with hundreds of thousands of followers, a site selling courses, a large community) in a market with a hard "credit hours / continuing education" requirement. For them it works as a playbook: keep the only paywall on the certificate, release courses on a timer, and let the app handle deadline reminders.

**Who it doesn't suit** : anyone starting from zero who wants to build a "free course + certificate" app on organic store traffic or paid acquisition. Brazil has veterans like Cursa with 10M+ installs buying traffic year-round. Your certificate has no reputation, and schools may not accept it, so even the first sale is hard.

**How to do it** : if you already have traffic, copy the structure. Release a batch of courses each week and take them down after about 9 days. Make courses free and sell certificates separately, priced around a cup of coffee. Use push to remind people of deadlines. Let past users log in with their old e-mail so their certificates sync automatically. Certificates must be verifiable online and delivered fast, since CESS's most common complaint is "paid but never received."

**How to get users** : funnel traffic from your own social accounts with "comment a keyword, get the link by DM," which converts better than a link in the bio. Tie course topics to the academic calendar; the start of term and finals are peak periods for credit hours (inference).

**When to move** : this isn't a window-limited opportunity. It doesn't rely on a one-time event, so there's no race to be first.

**Signs you've misread it** : (1) Foca's installs keep rising steadily for weeks without a big account posting, which would mean organic store traffic can carry this kind of app and someone starting from zero has a real chance; (2) outside Brazil, a new app with no big-account backing uses the same model to break into the top 100 of a local education Top Grossing chart. Then the playbook could be copied, and it wouldn't just be the privilege of established operators.

[Android store page ↗](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.cessetembro.foca)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cursa - Online courses | Android | 2017 | 11.5M installs, Brazil education free chart #42 (library) | Permanent course library, long-term store search and ad coverage. Foca is weekly timed releases plus its own social funnel, focused on health-related credit certificates |
| Udemy | Android | 2014 | 43.6M installs, Brazil education Top Grossing #6 (library) | Courses are paid. Foca's courses are free, only the certificate is sold |
| eduK - Cursos Online | Android | 2024 (reset on each listing date) | 1.75M installs, Brazil education Top Grossing #56 (library) | Subscription. Foca sells single certificates |
| Fundação Bradesco Escola Virtual / Sebrae / Escola Virtual.Gov / SENAI | Web | Years | Large institutions and public platforms | Certificates free and unlimited. Foca sells paid certificates for quickly meeting credit requirements |
| Cursos Grátis Online(CGO)/ Certificado Curso Online / Prime Cursos | Web | Years | Reclame Aqui complaints 115 / 59 | Same model, but mainly web-based, with no native app or push |
| A Nova Classe (same company) | Web | Years | R$34.90/month, with an annual plan on Hotmart | Its own subscription product. Foca is the free entry point |

Where users come from

- **Confirmed** **Own Instagram account (about 1.4M followers)** : 2026-10-07 posts promote the app with "comment APP, get the link by DM." HypeAuditor follower count 1,400,413

- **Confirmed** **Migration of past website users** : the cessetembro.com.br/app landing page carries utm_source=site / ct=landing_app. The same e-mail syncs past certificates. The course page embeds app promotion

- Inferred **Meta paid ads** : Reclame Aqui users say they saw free courses in Instagram ads. Promotional posts for R$9.90/month turned up in recall. Not tracked in the metaads library

- Inferred **Creator / partner accounts** : @adiretora (Alyne Soares) has long posted CESS free-course and conference compilations on TikTok/Instagram; the link to app downloads is unverified

- **Confirmed** **Store search / charts** : Brazil's Education Top Free chart climbed from 142 to 84, with some organic exposure

## Why Foca - Cursos Gratuitos (br.com.cessetembro.foca) is breaking out

### Bottom line

This isn't a new product breaking out. It's a **Brazilian institution that has run a "free courses + paid certificate" business for years (CESS, Centro Educacional Sete de Setembro) moving that old business onto phones** . Its 1.4M-follower Instagram account and its website's existing learners (claimed 6M+) were pulled straight into the app. Weekly time-limited free courses and push reminders turned the path of "watch course, buy certificate to cover horas complementares (university supplementary hours)" into Google Play in-app purchases. That's how 20k installs pushed it into the Brazil Education Top Grossing chart at #71.

### What it is

- CESS's official app in Brazil: a weekly batch of time-limited free video courses and online conferences (mostly health, psychology, physiotherapy, veterinary and similar fields). Courses are free; the completion certificate (40 hours, QR-code verifiable) is paid and can count toward university horas complementares / continuing education credit. (Play store description; official site [cessetembro.com.br/app/](https://cessetembro.com.br/app/))

- In-app purchases $1.79–64.99 each (data card iap_range). The official landing page says: "Sign up with the same e-mail you used to buy on the website, and the courses and certificates will sync over." It's the mobile handoff for existing website users.

- The parent company also sells a subscription product, "A Nova Classe" (R$34.90/month, 250+ courses, annual plan sold on Hotmart), plus the certificate lookup site setecertificados.com.br. (anovaclasse.com.br; Hotmart product page)

### Data (source: googleplay library, 2026-10-29 to 2026-11-06)

- Installs: 17,025 (10-29) → 20,281 (11-06), 7 days +3,256; store page shows "10 mil+", rating 4.8 / 40 reviews (Play web, 2026-11-06).

- Charts: Brazil EDUCATION Top Grossing has held at #69–73; EDUCATION Top Free climbed from #142 (10-29) to #81–84 (11-05/06). Only in 1 Brazil-store listings.

- Release date: library released = 2026-09-17, data card says 2026-10-05 (the Play date resets with updates). The iOS version "Foca - Cursos Livres" (id6801124979) went live 2026-08-29, 10 ratings, 5.0 stars, 11-05 just updated (iTunes lookup, br store).

- The developer has only this one app in the library (data card).

- Comparison: on the same chart, Udemy is #6 Top Grossing, Qconcursos #2, Tec Concursos #10, eduK #56, Gran Cursos Questões #20 (googleplay library app_profile). These are long-established apps with millions of installs. Foca reached #71 with 20k installs, showing that paying per user (buying certificates) converts very efficiently. It also shows the bar for Brazil's education Top Grossing #70 isn't high.

### Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How Foca differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cursa - Online courses(Cursa Educação) | Android/iOS | 2017 | 11.5M installs, 7 days +37k, Brazil EDUCATION Top Free #42 (library) | Same "free courses + paid certificate" model, but those competitors keep a standing course catalog and rely on store search and long-running ads for steady acquisition. Foca drops time-limited new courses weekly and drives traffic through influencer-style social posts, with courses skewed toward health and professional credit hours. |
| Udemy | Android / iOS / web | 2014 | 43.6M installs, Brazil education Top Grossing #6 (library) | Those courses are paid, with certificates included. Foca's courses are free and it only sells certificates. |
| eduK | Android | 2024 (reset) | 1.75M installs, Brazil education Top Grossing #56 (library) | Subscription handicraft and career courses. Foca sells single certificates. |
| Fundação Bradesco Escola Virtual, Sebrae, Escola Virtual.Gov, SENAI | Web/app | Years | Big corporate and public institutions; free courses and free certificates. | Certificates are free and the courses are more "serious", not time-limited weekly. Foca sells 40h certificates for quickly earning credit hours. |
| Cursos Grátis Online (CGO), Prime Cursos, Certificado Curso Online, iPED, etc. | Mostly websites | Years | CGO has 115 complaints on Reclame Aqui; Certificado Curso Online has 59. | Website peers running the same "free courses, paid certificates" model. Most have no dedicated app. Foca's difference is a native app with push notifications. |
| A Nova Classe (same company) | Web / Hotmart | Years | — | The parent's own subscription version. Foca is the free entry point. |

Bottom line: this niche is very crowded in Brazil, and Foca has nothing new in its model.

### Growth tactics (evidence)

1. **Own Instagram account promotion (confirmed)** : @cessetembro has about 1.4M followers (per the HypeAuditor page); 2026-10-07 posts the app and drives downloads with a ManyChat-style setup where commenting gets the app link sent by DM (instagram.com/p/DeNVBGImUi2). The Facebook page has about 125k followers.

2. **Website user migration (confirmed)** : the website's /app landing page carries utm tags (utm_source=site&utm_medium=landing_app) and App Store ct=landing_app tracking. Course pages directly show "App Foca: your courses and certificates on your phone." Logging in with an old e-mail syncs past certificates.

3. **Paid social ads (likely, not verified in our library)** : Reclame Aqui complaints include users writing "I saw an Instagram ad saying the courses were free." Recordings also show Instagram promoting "299 courses R$9.90/month." Our metaads library does not track this Page (no record doesn't mean no ads were run).

4. **Creators / partner accounts (confirmed to exist; link to app unverified)** : On TikTok/Instagram, @adiretora (Alyne Soares) has long posted compilations of CESS free courses and online conferences ("November has 14 free online conferences"). Media such as Terra have run advertorial-style coverage (terra.com.br "Cursos on-line agregam currículos…").

5. **In-app retention mechanics** : weekly premieres, daily unlocked lessons, and certificate-deadline push notifications turn the urgency of "limited-time free" into return visits and certificate purchases.

6. TikTok searches for "cessetembro" and "app foca cursos" (TikHub) turned up no viral videos about the app.

### Why users come and why they pay

- Brazilian university students must accumulate horas complementares (supplementary hours), and health professionals need continuing-education proof. A 40-hour certificate costs a few to a few dozen reais, so demand is rigid and recurring (Instagram post tags #HorasComplementares #VidaUniversitaria).

- "Free, time-limited courses" lower the barrier to entry and create urgency. The certificate is the only paid point, and it's cheap (Instagram promo "any course + 40h certificate + ebook R$9.90 / R$11.90").

- The app beats the website because of push reminders for deadlines, centralized certificate management, and easy sharing with schools and employers, all of which serve the paid step directly.

### Differentiation

Compared with peers, Foca's edge isn't the courses or the model. It's (1) an owned audience of 1.4M followers and millions of past learners, and (2) turning a web + WhatsApp process into a native app that uses push notifications to ride the "limited-time" rhythm. That's why it's breaking out: **it's resources and distribution, not product innovation** . Peers like Cursa have already proven the model; Foca is an established player finally catching up on mobile.

### Visibility

Few people know about it yet: no media or X discussion of the app itself turned up, and there's no public revenue. But the parent is well known in Brazil's "free courses" circles (Reclame Aqui 46 complaints, rating 9.1; claims to have reached 7.3M people).

### Copycats

No app specifically copying Foca was found. Web peers with the same model have existed for a long time (CGO, Certificado Curso Online, etc.), so these are competitors, not copycats.

### Takeaways

- A knowledge/certificate business with a large social following puts its paid point (the certificate) into an app with deadline-driven push notifications, and a small number of installs can earn a Top Grossing ranking.

- Instagram funnels that use "comment keyword → DM the download link" convert better than simply posting a link.

- Letting existing users sync their past assets (certificates) with the same e-mail lowers migration friction.

### Risks and unknowns

- Certificate compliance and reputation risk: Reclame Aqui complaints include "paid for the certificate but never received it," "ad said free but charged," and "annual subscription charged by mistake."

- Whether the certificate goes through Google Play in-app billing or an external payment page wasn't verified transaction by transaction; what the Top Grossing rank 71 translates to in revenue is unknown.

- Whether Meta ads are run, and how much, is not verified in the ad library.

- The release date differs between iOS (08-29), Play (09-17) and 10-05. Treat Play's reset date as authoritative.

### Sources

- Play store page [play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.cessetembro.foc…](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.cessetembro.foca) (2026-11-06)

- iOS [apps.apple.com/us/app/foca-cursos-livres/id6801124979](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/foca-cursos-livres/id6801124979) ;iTunes lookup br

- Official landing page [cessetembro.com.br/app/](https://cessetembro.com.br/app/); homepage [cessetembro.com.br/](https://cessetembro.com.br/)

- Instagram promo post [www.instagram.com/p/DeNVBGImUi2/](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeNVBGImUi2/) (2026-10-07); promo post [www.instagram.com/p/DT8G1kKDpwn/](https://www.instagram.com/p/DT8G1kKDpwn/)

- HypeAuditor @cessetembro [hypeauditor.com/pt/instagram/cessetembro/](https://hypeauditor.com/pt/instagram/cessetembro/)

- Reclame Aqui [www.reclameaqui.com.br/empresa/centro-educacional-sete-de-se…](https://www.reclameaqui.com.br/empresa/centro-educacional-sete-de-setembro/)

- A Nova Classe [anovaclasse.com.br/](https://anovaclasse.com.br/); Hotmart annual product page

- Creator @adiretora [www.instagram.com/adiretora/](https://www.instagram.com/adiretora/)

- googleplay library (app_profile / chart_rank, 2026-10-29 to 11-06); metaads library (no record)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.