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The connected millennial has a hungry mind. Consumption of digital content is a popular past-time for so many today. Rather than simply consuming, the online audience is also searching for a deeper understanding, and real education through these tools.

The e-learning market is booming, it is estimated that between 2017 and 2018, the LMS market will grow by about 23.17%, from $2.65 billion in 2013 to $7.8 billion in 2018.

Combine this with a massive shift in digital behaviors to the mobile device and you have a huge opportunity for educators to share their content with a connected audience.

Worldclass.io are enabling just that, their white-label affordable solution connects small businesses with audiences of students worldwide.

We spoke to Founder and CEO Uri Alexandrovitz about the creation of his edu-tech app service and the implications of a shift to an m-learning model of information sharing, for today’s educators.

An increase in time spent interacting with digital devices has led to a diversification in our habits, what trends have you witnessed in this space?

We do indeed live in an age of information. The internet means that a wealth of content is easily available, so much so that it can actually be confusing for the user. Educators today are looking for a great way to diversify themselves and communicate this information, in an easily digestible way. They need a polished mobile offering, with a user friendly interface that communicates their brand through a white-label solution.

There is a growing emergence of small to medium businesses in need of an affordable solution for in-house learning, or for educators to connect with students. This market is no longer dominated by B2C services like Khan, Udemy and Coursera. Instead we are seeing smaller guys, with great educational content to share.

We have seen a big increase in companies offering language learning, corporate training and academia. We are aware that people need a flexible solution to reach their audience, in a number of ways in an engaging way – it’s no secret that mobile devices and tablets are great way of achieving this.

Mobile usage has been on the rise for some time, why do you think some companies just getting started?

Until now, creating an app was costly and not a viable option for in-house training or smaller SMEs. We really noticed a greater opportunity as mobile use has continued to grow, in ensuring that these companies are not left behind.

We allow companies to create a professional and slick mobile offering, enabling exam preparation, language learning, business training and general academic courses. They can also enhance this experience – through buying content and selling their own courses – and in doing so, customize their mobile offering. We are connecting these SMEs with their students, with each other, and with leading publishers and distributors.

How did your personal experiences lead to the creation of Worldclass.io?

I met fellow co-Founder Tal Morgenstern teaching SAT classes in Tel Aviv. We worked together to develop One On One Test Preparation LTD, the biggest test prep tutoring company in Israel. After seeing such a huge success here we went on to set up our own teaching business.

As a small company we discovered that building an online presence was incredibly difficult. Prices were just so high. As we debated this issue we began to consider an alternative, feeding the desires we had as an SME, as a result we create a tool to enable others to succeed in this space.

Today our blog shares some great tips for our community to empower those struggling with these challenges. We share advise on a number of useful topics, such as setting up a domain and making engaging online courses. We are focused on the educator, through enabling these businesses we provide a better educational offering for all, in a range of industries. Our customers are the experts they know the best content they want to share, in various languages, and they understand their users – we just help them to do it in an attractive white-label interface, for a low-cost yet professional experience.

What does Worldclass.io offer that its competitors do not?

We offer similar the services that other e-Learning branded solutions do from a user perspective; such as structured content, self paced learning, assessments and gamification. We are different because compared to those academies we are not building a connection with the Worldclass brand –  we are enabling these smaller companies to do that for themselves. We are completely transparent. Our customer is not the user, it is the educator. We are building a great user experience for our clients, promoting their brands instead.

What advice do you have for educators for setting up a tool to communicate with their audiences?

To start off – you have to consider your mobile offering. Whatever you provide needs to fit seamlessly with the content of your website, for a professional look and a consistent messaging.

Across all platforms it is important to always be thinking about your audience. You have the great information, you know who you want to share it with – communicate this in a clear and sophisticated fashion. The educators we work with are knowledge experts. They have all the best information, they just need to start utilizing the correct tools to fully engage their students.

Identify your student’s goals – ask them what they want to get out of the course. This is helpful for when you come to decide the course content and the best way to deliver this material. Through asking this question at the beginning it kicks off a relationship – with strong communication lines between the educator and the student. Online learning relies on strong student motivation – this can only be achieved when a dialogue is maintained. Personalizing this approach in any way possible will put you in great stead for a connected and engaged set of students, who will learn and share much more.

We recommend visually interesting content. Don’t make it too wordy. Today’s world is full of distractions, be direct and clear and you will keep the students’ attention. This can be done in a whole range of ways, incorporating video, infographics, social media sharing, blogs, announcements – be creative. In turn ask for the same back from your students, promote innovation. People want to share their own ideas, to study with autonomy and make something new. A great educator provides a space in which this can be done.

What do you think the future holds for online learning?

As more and more content becomes accessible we really see the future in the hands of the experts. Continued fragmentation, diversification and specialization mean that the most successful educators will be those who are the knowledge leaders in their fields.

I also think we will continue to see niche products, enabled with a mobile offering gaining more and more traction. Likewise the consumer hunger to learn will grow. People are innately curious, they want to learn. Our connected world makes this possible, and increased use and interaction with content through social media drives people to question information, seek out sources and teach themselves.

Another trend we predict will be the increase of bite-size content. Short lessons and quizzes that can be done on-the-go, be that on the bus, in a queue, during a TV ad break, or sitting down to commit to an hour’s lesson. People want to make the most of their time, and they want to learn. At Worldclass.io, we are helping the experts to teach them.

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An evolution of media consumption behaviors has seen a rise in time spent with video content. Specifically, digital video platforms are receiving increased attention, with consumers exploring a variety of channels also suited to the mobile device.

Social media has cottoned on, and dramatic advances in the competition for consumer attention will soon mean evolved offerings, opening new avenues for consumers and marketers alike.

Video Consumption Trends

Video content is the most popular form of content being consumed online.  By 2017 Cisco predicts that video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic, and on-demand viewing will have tripled.

eMarketer claim by the end of 2015 U.S. adults will have spent an average of 5.5 hours each day consuming video content, with 76 minutes of this conducted on digital video devices (PCs, mobile devices and other connected devices). As TV viewing slowing shrinks, time spent with digital video is on the rise. 51% of this is with the use of mobile devices – a pastime that has seen huge growth in recent years.

According to a 2015 study from Google and Nielsen, time spent watching TV from December 2013 to the same month in 2014 dropped by almost 10%. Meanwhile the time spent on YouTube surged by 44%.

According to eMarketer U.S. digital viewing analysis, online audiences are continuing to opt digital platforms – with 49% respondents claim to have used online streaming subscriptions, network website viewing (42%), free sites and apps with ads (35%).

These findings show us a number of interesting consumption trends: TV viewership is slowly dropping, digital video platforms are gaining increased popularity – specifically on mobile devices, consuming video on-demand (VOD) through online subscriptions.

Perhaps this is no great revelation, however what may be more interesting is how the world of media production and advertising will react to quickly capitalize on this phenomenon.

Evolving Industries

This April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg reported, “In five years, most of [Facebook] will be video.”

Facebook today averages 8 billion daily video views, from 500 million users. The social media giant additionally claims 75% of these views take place on mobile devices.

Evidence of its evolving video offering can been seen in the recent testing of its YouTube-like dedicated video hub. The Video tab will home all the videos shared by a user’s friends and followed pages – Facebook’s own version of a hybrid of YouTube and Instagram.

Facebook is also developing its “Suggested Videos” concept, designed to push recommended videos based on user behaviors. These will include video ads – in a continuation of a developing video offering that looks set to rival YouTube. Facebook is also experimenting with the Save option – allowing users to store video content, for consumption at a later time.

Facebook is embracing a trend of on-demand, platform based viewing, using user behavior targeting for improved experiences. This illustrates a focus on increased digital engagement, in attempts to keep users engaged within the Facebook domain.

What This Means For Marketers

Marketers today have a powerful tool in the medium of video. Advanced creative solutions drive high brand awareness and proven improved engagements. VentureBeat recently reported video ads delivering on average five times the level of engagement compared to the traditional banner display ad.

Video ad-tech company Unruly last month unveiled its 2015 video ad analysis, reporting “a highly emotional year for video ads” that provoke strong responses, frequently aligning themselves with relevant social causes. Unruly reported Android’s “Friends Furever” as the most-shared ad of 2015. The video takes advantage of online fascination for animal antics, and saw great viral success – with 6.4 million shares and over 21 million YouTube views of the playful duos that stress the value of “togetherness.”

Statista reports that 78.4% of U.S. internet users watch online videos, exemplifying the enormous reach this can bring. Brands are gaining increasing global reach through successful video campaigns, and organic growth through user sharing on social networks. A result of this growing opportunity is evident in Nielsen statistics, with 64% of marketers expecting video to dominate their strategies in the near future.

New formats of video, offering bite-size content, 360-video and much more available to host and share through social sites mean marketers today can be creative with video solutions.

Avdiel Cano, founder and CEO of Vidooya Inbound Video Content Marketing shares his insights in a quickly evolving industry.

“We live in an information overload era, professionals are faced with an overwhelming amount of text every day, a good video cuts through this. It has been proven that viewers retain 95% of a video, compared to 10% of text, this alone is candy for today’s marketers.

Social media has become the most effective method for content distribution, it is by nature engaging. It is also free for marketing teams and comes with the lure of viral sharing. As these platforms adapt their video offerings we can expect a huge push for video content marketing. If you combine this with a rise in mobile usage you have a very powerful communication tool.

As we merge traditional content marketing with video, we need to note that lead generation and lead nurturing are at the core of every serious and successful campaign; therefore, we will soon see more innovation in terms of video lead generation.”

Evolving habits and new offerings look set to keep the digital world on its toes. As these varying solutions continue to develop in tandem with social media pushes to adopt video as a primary form of content, in turn we may expect a fresh wave of new online behaviors.

The post The Growth Of Video: Digital Platform Solutions For The Mobile Generation appeared first on The Startup Magazine.

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“If you build it they will come” – Or will they?
The battle seems to be raging on in the digital world; in one corner you have the old school black hat SEO team that consists of online moguls frantically searching for high quantities of links each month that they have promised their clients, and SEO site networks that exist without integrity, simply to host article after article for a fairly hefty sum.
In the other corner you have those who have entered the realm of digital PR, who may not be chasing the high numbers but who ARE chasing the high quality, high authority links. It could be argued that a link back from a highly trusted site with a domain authority of 60-80 is worth more than 3 links from SEO sites/mummy bloggers with domain authorities of around 15-25. The great thing about digital PR is that the links are much more natural and published in a way that will reach the right audience, ultimately giving the piece and all involved, credibility. Online audiences are a cynical bunch and can easily see through a post that has been placed without any real thought.
The gods of the internet, Google, are also extremely quick to decipher the questionable link building tactics, and it’s not uncommon to see sites penalised for their substandard attempts at digital marketing. Continuing to produce content unnaturally littered with key words, placed on unnatural network sites that have little to no relevance to the brand it is linking to is an almost sure fire way to make sure that your site does not climb into the dizzying heights of page one.
And then we come onto brand mentions – many in the industry have argued that these are the future of digital marketing and PR. I’m sure that those working in digital agencies all over the world have been sat on the edge of their seat waiting for that AMAZING link they secured to go live, and when it does you scour through to make sure your clients comment or contribution has in fact been included, only to have your heart sink when, ‘it’s only a brand mention’.
However, it’s these brand mentions that are going to work towards your site being pushed further up the Google ranks. The launch of the Google Panda algorithm and its patents were placing editorial judgement that left SEO specialists everywhere trying to figure out just what it would now take to get a golden place. Let’s just go out on a limb and say QUALITY and the age old, “write for people, not search engines”. Well written content on a topic that you have expertise in, placed on a site that is trusted, influential and relevant – that is the Holy Grail. If there is a follow link included, you’ve hit the SEO jackpot – if not then it’s ok, because brand mentions are becoming important when it comes to building your sites authority.
“Brand mentions, unless linked, do not have the same impact on search rankings, but they do play a role in the trust and authority your business commands. If top influencers are talking about you, then there is a commensurate rise in trust & authority that has a cascade of knock-on benefits. One of those benefits is the increased likelihood of being mentioned or covered on other authority sites, which should ultimately lead to an increase in backlinks.” David Mercer, founder of SMEpals tells us, “Links are hugely important, but Google tries to only count genuine editorial links as conduits of PageRank. These are hard to come by in a natural organic way, and most companies simply don’t have the creativity and experience to do this effectively. Especially since it takes time, money and effort – and great content.”
Also known as ‘implied links’, these mentions are becoming relevant to building a brands authority – as long as the business name is specifically mentioned. The association from these high profile sites will place spotlight on your website, even without an explicit link – much in the same way that word of mouth recommendations work so effectively. They don’t appear to be forced, compromised or false in any way.
These brand mentions will go a long way to sorting the wheat from the chaff in online marketing; high profile, influential sites look for thought leaders and industry experts, and don’t accept dubious content in exchange for a fee. Brand and marketing executives will have to write exceptional content and a huge emphasis should be placed on creating solid content strategies that are immune to Google Algorithm updates because they are so honest and authentic that they have long term potential and don’t rely on holes in the algorithms to survive.
While I don’t think that implied are going to make link building obsolete, I think that it is going to regulate the process and make brands and marketers work harder to raise online profiles, keeping links natural, keeping the quality of content at an all-time high so that it naturally attracts shares and mentions and those responsible don’t need to default to black hat tactics. It should also encourage brands to truly research their audience, and use these data insights to write content that is in demand, ensuring that they stay relevant.
Stuart Buckley from CallTracks gives us his opinion, “2016 will undoubtedly see us optimise our content strategy by becoming data led. There is no avoiding it with the algorithm changes. We will aim to assess the performance of the content that we create by looking at social shares along with page views and entrances to conversion funnels to ensure that we are engaging with our audience and producing content that they want to read. We are heavily involved with Google in our line of work and have witnessed the changes in the algorithms first hand – it is becoming harder for brands to rise through the ranks without proving to the audience and Google why they deserve to be there.”
I’m sure that those on the peripherals who rely on the old school building links tactics to earn a living will find ways around this and start selling brand mentions, the way they sell links – but Panda has started a monumental shift where brands will begin to truly see the value in quality over quantity. Evergreen, quality content for high profile, high quality sites will reduce and eventually diminish the need for content farms.

The post Should We Forget About Building Links? appeared first on The Startup Magazine.

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On the 28th October 2015, the Startup Magazine in collaboration with Capco, held their very first event, ‘Fintech Beyond the Technology.’ Chaired by Dea Markova, Head of Programmes at Innovate Finance, the panel included Sophie Guibaud, VP of European Expansion at Fidor Bank; James York, founder of Worry + Peace; Ofer Deshe, CEO of Tobias & Tobias and David Tawil, co-founder of Allocator.

Fintech has been a hot topic as of late, with technology companies like Transferwise, Coinjar and Digit, allowing increasingly effortless financial management on both the B2B and B2C side. Moreover, as stated in “The fintech revolution” article in The Economist, approximately $12.21 billion was invested in fintech companies globally. It is then not surprising that this vertical is being perceived a place of abundant opportunity, with plentiful resources available to capitalise on them.

In light of these developments, we thought it would be timely and relevant to gather companies, at varying stages of growth, to discuss what it takes to make a fintech startup come alive and stay alive. Amongst a range of topics highlighted, our expert panel discussed operational challenges, the different methods of building a customer base in B2B versus B2C companies and how to tackle the tough world of regulation. The insights revealed that this exciting industry has challenges as great as its opportunities and left the audience inspired with a deeper insight into what it really takes to make a fintech startup thrive.

Education is at the forefront of the Startup Magazine and Capco’s agenda. As part of this, Capco will be launching a mentoring scheme for startups, with further details to follow. To find out more about Capco consulting, click here. To be kept up to date with educational insights and upcoming events by the Startup Magazine, subscribe to our newsletter.

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Good morning! Here’s what you need to know.

The UK will bomb ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers reached the decision after more than 10 hours of debate.

Analysts are expecting a big announcement from the European Central Bank. The meeting concludes at 12:45 p.m. GMT (7:45 a.m. ET), when we’ll get any announcement of changes in interest rates, and the crucial press conference starts 45 minutes later.

How much tax McDonald’s pays will be subject of an EU probe. Antitrust regulators are likely to widen their crackdown on corporate tax dodging with an investigation into a deal between fast-food chain McDonald’s and Luxembourg, according to Reuters.

Spain is shrinking. Spain recorded more deaths than births in the first half of this year. Deaths exceeded births by more than 19,000, a turnaround from a year earlier when there were nearly 4,000 more births than deaths, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said.

The head of the US Federal Reserve can’t wait to hike interest rates. Janet Yellen said on Wednesday she was “looking forward” to a U.S. interest rate hike that will be seen as a testament to the economy’s recovery from recession.

Estonia is nervous about Russian aggression. Estonia’s prime minister said he does not believe Russia will attack the Baltic state, despite “worrying” developments such as Russian air incursions and military exercises near its borders this year.

China is cutting pollution. China will reduce emissions of major pollutants in the power sector by 60% by 2020, the cabinet announced, after world leaders met in Paris to address climate change.

The UK wants to wrap up EU negotiations by the end of the year. Prime Minister David Cameron is pressing other members of the European Union to conclude talks on Britain’s ties with the 28-member bloc at a summit in two weeks’ time.

Russia-Turkey ties continue to sour. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected Russian claims that he and his family are profiting from trade in oil with the Islamic State group. “No one has the right to make such a slander as to suggest that Turkey buys Daesh’s oil,” said Erdogan,

Brazil’s president faces impeachment. Impeachment proceedings were opened against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff by the nation’s speaker of the lower house of Congress, a sworn enemy of the beleaguered leader.

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African appeals court will soon rule on whether to overturn a manslaughter conviction against Oscar Pistorius and find the double-amputee Olympian guilty of murder for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The registrar’s office of the Supreme Court of Appeal has said the judgment is to be announced on Thursday.

Pistorius, 29, was convicted of manslaughter for shooting Steenkamp through a toilet door in his home early on Valentine’s Day 2013.

The former track star was put under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion on Oct. 19 after serving one year of a five-year prison sentence.

If convicted of murder, Pistorius faces a return to jail and a 15-year prison sentence. The appeals court can also order a retrial or rule that the manslaughter conviction was correct.

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Good morning! Here’s what you need to know on Thursday.

1. The British parliament has voted in favour of launching air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria after over 10 hours of debate in the House of Commons. 4 RAF Tornado jets based in Cyprus carried out strikes soon after the vote was announced.

2. At least 14 people are dead after a shooting in San Bernardino, California — about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. The shooting happened at the Inland Regional Center, a county agency that provides services to the disabled.

3. President Barack Obama said the mass shooting in San Bernardino, is part of a deadly “pattern” of gun violence that has “no parallel in the world.”

4. The European Central Bank meets on Thursday, and analysts are expecting a major announcement. ECB President Mario Draghi recently hinted that there was going to be more monetary easing in the very near future.

5. Alphabet Inc’s YouTube is aiming to get rights for streaming TV series and movies for its $9.99-a-month subscription service as it tries to step up competition against rivals such as Netflix and Amazon.

6. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been criticised in some quarters after he announced that he would be giving away 99% of his Facebook stock to “advancing human potential and promoting equality.”

7. Yahoo’s board of directors finished its first of three days of meetings on Wednesday without reaching a decision on whether to press ahead with the planned spinoff of its stake in Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba.

8. Spain, long concerned about its aging population and emptying countryside, passed a milestone in population decline on Wednesday when it recorded more deaths than births in the first half of this year.

9. Uber is understood to be testing a new colour-coding system to make sure you know exactly which car is yours.

10. Germany’s state intelligence agency says competition for influence inside the Saudi Arabian royal family is destabilising the Middle East.

And finally … Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn has won global praise for his powerful and moving speech at the end of Wednesday’s debate on whether to launch air strikes in Syria.

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The European Central Bank meets on Thursday, and analysts are expecting a major announcement.

In late October, ECB President Mario Draghi dropped a major hint that there was going to be more monetary easing in the very near future — either in the form of further interest rate cuts, or some form of boost to the quantitative easing programme.

In a speech this November, Draghi doubled down, saying that the ECB “will do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible,” a phrase a bit like his “whatever it takes” speech in mid-2012, which was credited with bringing an end to the euro crisis.

The meeting concludes at 12:45 p.m. GMT (7:45 a.m. ET), when we’ll get any announcement of changes in interest rates, and the crucial press conference starts 45 minutes later.

Here’s how things stand at the moment:

• The last ECB interest rate cut (the 11th since November 2008) came in September 2014, when the deposit rate was clipped from -0.1% to -0.2%. Two other policy rates — the fixed rate and the marginal lending facility — were cut to 0.05% and 0.30% respectively.
• In January 2015, the ECB announced a QE programme. It entailed buying €60 billion ($63.41 billion, £42.46 billion) of investment-grade government debt and some other securities it was already buying in smaller schemes, per month.
• This was meant to last until September 2016, or until the central bank saw a meaningful pick-up in inflation. Soon after, the eurozone recovery reached a recent peak, hitting 0.5% GDP growth in Q1. It’s since slowed to 0.4% in Q2 and 0.3% in Q3.
• There has been very little pick-up in inflation over the period since QE was announced. Because of tumbling oil prices, consumer prices have risen by basically nothing on aggregate this year. Core inflation, which strips out volatile prices like fuel, rose by 0.9% in the year to November, about half of what the ECB would like.

And here’s what’s on the table in the upcoming meeting:

• The ECB could cut rates. Draghi previously suggested the September 2014 cut was the lowest the ECB could go, but revised his view in October, saying that other central banks had managed to cut rates further into negative territory.
• They could boost QE. This could mean a number of things. The ECB could extend the universe of bonds it’s willing to purchase, into things like municipal bonds. It could extend the suggested end of the programme, or it could increase the amount purchased monthly.
• They could do both. This would be the both barrels approach — doing both would also loosen up the limits on how much QE can be done. Currently, the ECB can’t buy bonds yielding less than the deposit rate (-0.2%). With an increasing weight of EU sovereign bonds carrying negative yields, that would widen the scope that could be bought.

The one thing that’s clear is that it has to be big. Markets have now priced in a move from the ECB, and if they’re disappointed it’ll likely mean a stronger euro and a slump for European equities, at least in the short term. 

What’s interesting is the lack of opposition that Draghi’s comments have prompted. Since October, resident Hawks like Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann have done little more than make lukewarm comments opposing monetary easing in general.

Over at the FT, Gavyn Davies referred to the ECB as having “the zeal of a convert.” It was years behind other major central banks in its adoption of unconventional measures like QE, but now that it’s there, it seems to be far less conservative about its approach.

The combination of the impending easing from the ECB and the impending rate hike from the Federal Reserve has analysts expecting the euro to fall to parity with the dollar for the first time in more than a decade — analysts at Deutsche Bank, Capital Economics, Macquarie, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse are all expecting a 1:1 exchange rate between the euro and dollar to be reached in the next few months.

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