K-Content News

“The classroom comes to you” - O2O Talent-Sharing Platforms on the Rise

With the increase in the use of highly portable laptops, smartphones and tablet PCs, the barriers to education are now lower than ever. Traditionally, adults who wished to learn English, instruments, photography, etc. needed to do a lot of legwork to find popular lecturers or teachers.
Even if they managed to do so, they often would need to travel long distances to receive education or training, and the lessons could be costly. But now it is becoming possible to learn almost anything easier and for a lower cost, so long as one has the passion to learn.
Better yet, the instructors can even visit you at home, taking the burden of travel off students. This is all thanks to various platforms and services that connect teachers directly to learners.
Some examples of platforms that provide these services are ‘SuuoomGo,’ ‘Tal-Ing’ and ‘Class 101’.
Through these talent-sharing platforms that allow people to develop hobbies and prepare for new chapters in their lives when still young, we will examine how the education market is being transformed to help individuals enhance their competitive power in anticipation of the future.

SuumGoSoomGo : Finding hidden masters

SuumGoSoomGo, serviced by Brave Mobile, is an abbreviation of the Korean phrase ‘Suumeun SoomeunGosu,’ which literally translates to ‘hidden master.’ As the name implies, it is a service that locates ‘hidden masters.’ It is an O2O (online to offline) open market platform that connects small merchants and freelancers with talent and techniques to the consumers who require their services.
Users need to enter a range of information, including the field they seek knowledge in, their desired degree of expertise, age, whether or not they own the necessary equipment, their purpose of learning, desired type of lessons, as well as the frequency of lessons, lesson duration and schedule, start date, and address.
The system automatically provides an estimate, and locates the most suitable instructor within 48 hours.
Students can receive and compare 5 estimates for each search. While the gosus (masters) need to pay (using credits) for each estimate sent to a searching consumer, the student does not pay anything in the process of searching for gosus. What sets this service apart is that it allows students to compare the content and pricing of services provided by multiple professionals, while allowing the professionals to suggest services and prices appropriate to their own circumstances.
As of mid-September, some 160,000 gosus are already registered, and close to 970,000 applications have been received. The fields of learning covered are also diverse, including writing, programming, TOEIC, Internet and LAN engineering, insulating film installation, and drone photography. The service’s hidden gosus also offer instruction in hobby activities such as DJing, painting, pop-dance, and flower arrangement, etc. Lessons can be received individually, as well as in groups.

Free as a bird? Cultivate your talents with ‘Tal-Ing’

The online talent-sharing platform ‘Tal-Ing’ is another service that links tutors with knowledge in a particular area with general consumers to learn something new. Tal-Ing combines the first half of talent with the suffix ~ing.
To improve brand confidence, Tal-Ing verifies the career information and curricula tutor prior to registration. For tutors with outstanding talent in a particular subject but a lack of teaching experience, the platform also provides consulting activities for curriculum-building and marketing support. This helps to make star tutors out of people who previously had no way of sharing their talent.
LikeSuumGoSoomGo , students use Tal-Ing by searching for lessons on their desired subject, examining the curricula and class reviews for various tutors, then purchasing lessons through the website or app. The platform also provides a real-time chat function, allowing potential learners to accurately inform potential tutors of their current skill level and negotiate lesson times and venues.
Some examples of the lessons offered include ‘Design tools : Photoshop, Premiere, etc.’, ‘Practical competency in Excel and Powerpoint,’ ‘Make-up, Hair, Nail and Beauty,’ ‘Programming : Web development, Python and Game Production' and ‘Lifestyle : Art, Dance, Writing, Tarot and Magic.’ Tal-Ing is home to experts with know-how in a broad range of fields, from professional skills to hobbies. One thing that sets Tal-Ing apart is its ‘1-day lessons’ offering, which allows busy students or office workers to get a ‘crash course’ in a field they have always wanted to learn about. These 1-day lessons are attractive in that they allow multiple students to gather at a venue - be it a group-work space or a cafe - to learn in a ‘short but concentrated’ manner.
If students find a curriculum or a tutor to their liking, they can continue to take lessons from the same tutor. In this way, the 1-day lessons function as a demonstration lesson of sorts. Prior to signing up, users can read candid user reviews of the curriculum contents, as well as on the tutor’s performance and interaction with students. This is yet another selling point of Tal-Ing.
Over the past year and a half on Tal-Ing, more than 1,500 people have taught and learned from each other over 57,120 hours. The aggregate transaction value of the site has exceeded 300 million Won.

Get out of that rut with a new unique hobby : ‘Class 101’

Online class platform ‘Class 101,’ serviced by Pedaling, is a platform that enables students to learn various hobbies and skills at home from celebrities in various fields.
While SuumGoSoomGo and Tal-Ing cover both hobbies and professional skills, Class 101 focuses more on hobbies. Students can learn new skills in a fun way, and engage in hobby activities. Some hobbies that can be useful in everyday life, including hand printing, drawing color diaries, drawing characters on an iPad, making miniatures, stained glass and watercolor painting, can all be learned online. As Class 101 is an online learning platform, learners are free of space and time constraints, and just have to attend the lectures online according to the curriculum. Most programs are offered at discount prices, and payment in installments is offered with no additional interest. The platform also provides learning tools and equipment, which means that students no longer need to purchase materials separately for learning.

BAIK, Bong Sam of ZDnet