Abu Dhabi-based Najahi Events, a company dedicated to bringing the world's leading speakers in personal empowerment, financial education and leadership skills to the Middle East, has launched iKew, an online Video-On-Demand platform containing hundreds of motivational speeches, training, courses and “edutainment” content. Offering a series of free or premium content via membership, iKew has a growing library of hundreds of hours of videos from international celebrity motivators. It will also feature key Arab speakers in the coming months.
A first of its kind in the Middle East, iKew is currently accessible on mobile devices and soon on smart TV applications. The new platform has joined forces with some of the top speakers and coaches around the world to give audiences access to exclusive content and premium courses for a monthly membership fee of USD $27. The business model also allows for “growing” mentors to create presence on the platform by paying a monthly membership to be listed and marketed on iKew.
The development of iKew (information, knowledge, education and workshops), began pre-pandemic, as part of Najahi Event’s expansion and growth strategy. According to studies, the global online education market will grow to $319 Billion by 2025, with an average growth of 9.2% per year, while the global Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) market will reach $21 Billion by 2025.
Additionally, the number of online students skyrocketed over the last six years by 900%+ growth, reaching to approximately 120 million in 2019. In 2020 alone, there was a 50% increase in the number of online learners which drove the massive demand for e-learning globally reaching 180 million students, of which 1.5% are from the Middle East.
With the annual growth rate of the global MOOC market at 29% and the potential to increase the percentage of students from the region, Najahi Events knew it was the right time to develop the platform as one of it the quickest growing sectors in online education especially as it became clear that audiences had more time and resources to invest in personal growth. The premium ‘edutainment’ platform that is affordable and transformative, offers courses to help audiences improve their health, wealth, mindset, impact, influence and career.
The pandemic accelerated the development of iKew, which also aimed to address the views expressed by 50% of online learners who were not satisfied with the quality of online courses and felt disconnected with presenters, coaches or trainers. iKew’s research showed that although 60% of internet users find online courses to better fit their lifestyle and schedules, 90% of the classes are skipped or quitted due to the content being boring, too expensive or losing interest in the mentor. As a result, the platform was developed in ways to increase engagement.
“Our vision has always been to create events with speakers who are known to make a positive impact in people’s lives. However, now more than ever, we realize that the pandemic has made people look inward and seek content that will help them deal with the emotional aftereffects of the pandemic and the changes in their lifestyles. Based on global average of fees for events or courses, iKew’s competitive fee structure motivates people to continue their journey of learning via advanced courses or private coaching on the platform,” explained Awfa Mustafa, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Najahi Events.
“Additionally, as a business, this was the natural progression for our offering as we anticipated a shift in demand due to the global digitization trends and increased internet access across the Middle East. However, the work doesn’t stop here as we have plans to increase partnerships with prominent speakers, add more localized content, create more benefit opportunities for mentors, as well as global expansion, which are just a few of the developments in the pipeline,” she added.
iKew has curated a highly desired roster of exclusive content directly from celebrities and well-known experts in various spheres such as John Assaraf, John Demartini, Lisa Nichols and live event recordings of Prince Ea, Jay Shetty, Les Brown, Nick Vujicic to name a few, with talks, training or courses on Public speaking, Business and Entrepreneurship, Investing and Trading, Mediation, Spirituality and Life hacks.
The platform is an interactive community allowing members to communicate with each other. In the near future, the videos will be translated/subtitled in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Mandarin and Hindi – which will be a first on a global scale for a motivational online platform. In lieu of membership, users can also purchase individual pre-recorded rich content and video courses covering several modules and, in the future, a state-of-the-art VR experience will be introduced.
iKew’s aim is to revolutionize coaching and mentoring with a variety of trainers and instructors in different fields making it accessible and affordable to everyone. The goal is to bring the world’s leading speakers on self-development to help people achieve their utmost potential and reach their ambitions and aspirations. Using the latest in interactive and entertaining learning techniques, iKew will bring lasting personal empowerment and growth for business leaders, community leaders and individuals across the region.
