[Finland/France] XIHA Life, the multilingual social network, is partnering with video tutoring service Blue Teach to offer its users a social learning marketplace.
Dubbed XIHA Learning, members of the social network can use Paris-Based Blue Teach’s browser-based video conferencing tool to teach on any subject they choose and, optionally, charge learners a fee. Blue Teach, and presumably XIHA, will then take a share of any revenue generated. Users can also swap lessons with one another on subjects for which they have expertise so that, for example, a math tutorial could be exchanged for a singing lesson.
Alongside video conferencing, Blue Teach also gives users access to a shared ‘white board’ with the ability to embed graphics, Google maps, YouTube videos and other learning ‘objects’. The whole app is browser-based so that users shouldn’t need to install any additional software, while its functionality is comparable to WebEx and its many clones or GoToMeeting or Conferendum, a German startup we recently highlighted that operates a similar e-learning marketplace.
Given XIHA’s multilingual focus – users can select multiple languages and the site filters mixed content appropriately – language lessons are an obvious use-case for the new offering. It’s not hard to imagine a user who is proficient in two or more languages helping another user learn a new one. This potentially pits the service against other language teaching marketplaces such as Amsterdam-based Myngle or traditional language learning sites like German startup Babbel, which recently ditched its freemium model for a purely paid-for affair.