E-learning platform MasterClass gets boost from lockdown

In mid-March, as much of the world withdrew into their homes, celebrity-powered e-learning platform MasterClass began to notice that people who encountered its advertisements were often watching them in full.

Founded in 2015, MasterClass lays claim to Bob Iger, Anna Wintour, RuPaul and Serena Williams, plus another 80 or so other titans of art and industry, all of whom impart wisdom and know-how from their respective fields in lectures that run about the length of a film by Martin Scorsese, who, as you might have guessed, teaches a MasterClass, too.

The idea is to accord virtual education the same sheen of prestige that HBO bestowed upon the three-camera sitcom and that TED Talks brought to the airport book. With a somewhat-captive audience now spending twice as many minutes each month on the platform; a promotional campaign called “Today’s the Day”; and another US$100 million (S$140 million) in private investment announced last month, MasterClass has seized its moment.

Mr David Schriber, the company’s chief marketing officer, described the MasterClass consumer as a “30-something who aspires to do something more, who is sensitive to the fact that they have a career, they’re not in structured education anymore, and they might even be feeling insecure that their peers know a little bit more about certain subjects”.

The people, he found, wanted classes about personal finance and negotiation. This led MasterClass to a “somewhat unlikely instructor”, he said: The former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss, whose course has been one of the most watched this year. A company spokesman said Voss’ class was the most common destination for users who have completed Bobbi Brown’s course on make-up and beauty, while those who start with Steph Curry’s lesson in basketball most often elect to watch Gordon Ramsay next.

“I think what’s happened over the last 10 years is we’ve become multi-hyphenate,” said Mr David Rogier, MasterClass’ co-founder and current chief executive.

MasterClass declined to share how its instructors are compensated, though reports say they receive a base pay up front and a revenue share of subscriptions sold to their classes.

MasterClass is aiming for post-pandemic posterity.

Mr Aaron Rasmussen, the platform’s other co-founder, said: “One hundred years from now, there should be a group of people capturing the knowledge of the world’s greatest. The things we make today should also hold up. So when people look back in time and say, who is the greatest singer of that era? Christina Aguilera’s name is going to come up.”

He has since left to start his own e-learning company, Outlier.

“There are lots and lots of players in this space who take various approaches,” said Mr Darren Shimkus, president of Udemy for Business, an e-learning startup that boasts over 150,000 prerecorded courses taught by some 57,000 voluntary instructors. Udemy is experiencing a new groundswell of activity in the early part of this year.

“It’s almost like the next 10 years of change and growth is being compressed into about a month,” said Mr Shimkus.

The MasterClass approach is not without its sceptics, who wonder if the masters might not be ideal narrators of their own prowess.

Mr Cole Steffensen, who works in digital marketing while pursuing a career as a stand-up comic, said: “People who are out there doing stuff don’t necessarily make good teachers.”

Quarantine provided an occasion for Mr Steffensen to work on his writing, so he took classes taught by Aaron Sorkin and David Sedaris on the platform.

“It felt very TedTalk-y to me, with people saying really profound things but maybe not a lot of actionable steps,” he said. “You’re David Sedaris, telling me what I should be saying to my publisher. I don’t have a publisher.”