ETtechZoho Corp. has launched TrainerCentral to offer a collaborative e-learning platform to tap into the booming e-learning market, Aarthi Elizabeth, chief brand evangelist at the new business division, told ET.
Chennai-headquartered Zoho is the parent firm of technology brands such as ManageEngine, Zoho and Qntrl, and now TrainerCentral which will provides knowledge creators, solopreneurs, and experts from all fields a single platform to host live sessions as well as sell on-demand courses, evaluate students, build an engaged learner community, and manage their business.
She said there's a 95% opportunity remaining that TrainerCentral was keen to tap. She added that while there are tools in the market, there is a huge gap as small solopreneur, or small training companies end up depending on big players, like Coursera or Udemy to launch their business.
Going forward, she said that TrainerCentral will look at entering the enterprise segment but as of now, the focus is entirely on small, individual trainers and training companies. The platform is available in Hindi and Tamil, as well as English, and will support other regional languages soon.
"We're working really hard in terms of the native languages and to be able to reach even the small niche teachers and trainers. The product is already available in 11 international languages including French and German," Elizabeth said. With Tamil and Hindi, the finishing touches are going on, but it's already available in both languages. We are looking at adding Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, over the course of the next one year."
TrainerCentral's users can create pre-recorded online courses while also hosting live workshops and online coaching sessions for up to 1000 remote learners through web conferencing functionality. Using a drag-and-drop, no code builder, trainers can design an intuitive website with a customized URL, to publish and sell online courses. They can set up a payment gateway, configure different payment methods like one-time fees or a recurring subscription and accept payments in any currency too.
"So far the maximum customers we have are from the US," she said. "But right now, we're not doing a global launch, we want to launch in India first because we feel this is a good market for us to capture. Besides India and the US, we are planning to target Europe, UK and Australia. That's where we see the most traction."
TrainerCentral will also be looking to launch their mobile app in February 2022. The app will be a completely free app that a trainer can rebrand to suit their needs, Elizabeth said.
TrainerCentral is available immediately and offers a 15-day free trial. It offers two paid plans with access to unlimited courses and unlimited learners: Starter (Rs 1167 per month billed annually) and Professional (Rs 2917 per month, billed annually).
Chennai-headquartered Zoho is the parent firm of technology brands such as ManageEngine, Zoho and Qntrl, and now TrainerCentral which will provides knowledge creators, solopreneurs, and experts from all fields a single platform to host live sessions as well as sell on-demand courses, evaluate students, build an engaged learner community, and manage their business.
"Online learning has been popular even before Covid-19," Elizabeth said. "It's just that with Covid-19, it accelerated its pace. Because of many internet users in India, especially, there are about 100 creators on an average that enter the market almost every single day. In fact, according to research, at any given time, there are about 15 million creators, and only 2 million of them are actually making money."
She said there's a 95% opportunity remaining that TrainerCentral was keen to tap. She added that while there are tools in the market, there is a huge gap as small solopreneur, or small training companies end up depending on big players, like Coursera or Udemy to launch their business.
Going forward, she said that TrainerCentral will look at entering the enterprise segment but as of now, the focus is entirely on small, individual trainers and training companies. The platform is available in Hindi and Tamil, as well as English, and will support other regional languages soon.
"We're working really hard in terms of the native languages and to be able to reach even the small niche teachers and trainers. The product is already available in 11 international languages including French and German," Elizabeth said. With Tamil and Hindi, the finishing touches are going on, but it's already available in both languages. We are looking at adding Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, over the course of the next one year."
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TrainerCentral's users can create pre-recorded online courses while also hosting live workshops and online coaching sessions for up to 1000 remote learners through web conferencing functionality. Using a drag-and-drop, no code builder, trainers can design an intuitive website with a customized URL, to publish and sell online courses. They can set up a payment gateway, configure different payment methods like one-time fees or a recurring subscription and accept payments in any currency too.
"So far the maximum customers we have are from the US," she said. "But right now, we're not doing a global launch, we want to launch in India first because we feel this is a good market for us to capture. Besides India and the US, we are planning to target Europe, UK and Australia. That's where we see the most traction."
TrainerCentral will also be looking to launch their mobile app in February 2022. The app will be a completely free app that a trainer can rebrand to suit their needs, Elizabeth said.
TrainerCentral is available immediately and offers a 15-day free trial. It offers two paid plans with access to unlimited courses and unlimited learners: Starter (Rs 1167 per month billed annually) and Professional (Rs 2917 per month, billed annually).
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