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Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
I don't have a business model but I'm trying to bootstrap an iOS language software company. Duolingo is really good but I think language learning is difficult enough that there are other good ideas worth pursuing.
Anyway, if anyone is learning another language, I'd appreciate any feedback on my apps. Here's my Spanish app:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/h4-spanish-lite/id388918463?...
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
Rosetta Stone, which seems to be the current leader in language training made $261 million last year. The funny thing is Duolingo is now valued higher than Rosetta Stone: https://www.google.com/finance?q=RST
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
Nah, they definitely provide value. Have you used it before? For someone who only took a few years of a foreign language in high school, it's a great refresher. If they could also structure the lessons to teach in a similar way to the classroom (e.g., actively showing different conjugations instead of just assuming you'll remember or pick up on it yourself) then they'll be golden.
Suppose they even managed to come up with that classroom solution for language learning. How does what they currently have help them? Teachers, schools & government education departments make the purchasing decision for classrooms, so what students use in their time outside class isn't especially helpful in driving more sales of a classroom solution.
If they came up with something good for classrooms, they might as well axe or install paywalls into their existing stuff.
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
They also monetize with a paid translation service. The service is exposed as challenges to users and in effect they crowd translate stuff.
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
They have a business model where they sell translation services to CNN, etc. I don't have a business model but I'm trying to bootstrap an iOS language software company. Duolingo is really good but I think language learning is difficult enough that there are other good ideas worth pursuing. Anyway, if anyone is learning another language, I'd appreciate any feedback on my apps. Here's my Spanish app: https://itunes.app…
> As a company spokesperson told me, the company actually tabled its ambitions around translations about a year and a half ago and hasn’t scaled the businesses or accepted new clients (it’s still working with CNN, though).
Anybody else feel a little nervous when a free language tool is valued in the hundreds of millions?
Not at all, because the free language tool is just half of what they do. The part that actually makes the money is crowdsourced translations, which are done by more advanced students as practice.
Evidently they're planning to make money from paid certification tests and they have "other plans to monetize".