Startup
- Name
- busuu.com
- Description
- Social network for language learning
- Yrstart
- 2008
- Url
- Link for busuu.com
Main description
I'm not sure you could put together a better language learning site than Busuu, especially as it operates on a freemium basis ie a lot of features are free to learners. Its 2 million plus users obviously think it's very useful and I agree. The best feature (among many) is the social network aspect of the site, which allows learners to interract, and have their exercises corrected by native learners.
I have used the site personally, and I can confirm it is an excellent place to learn or improve a language.
Web articles
| 2012-07-03 | Full article via web link | EU-startups.com | The Madrid-based language learning startup busuu.com just announced that it has reached 10 million downloads of its Android and iOS apps. Every day, busuu.com registers more than 20,000 downloads of its app by language learners from all over the world. Downloads for iOS and Android devices are equally successful, each registering 10,000 downloads per day. | |
| 2012-01-23 | Full article via web link | EU-startups.com | busuu.com, the Madrid based language learning community which recently won a TechCrunch Europas Award, has just launched a new language – Japanese. This means, that busuu.com is now offering its users 11 languages in total. Like with every other language on busuu.com it’s completely free to start learning Japanese. However, you have the option to pay a minimal monthly fee to become a Premium Member. The Premium Membership gives you access to additional functionalities and more material (as PDFs, podcasts and voice recording exercises). busuu.com was founded in 2008 by Bernhard Niesner and Adrian Hilti and has grown to be Europe’s largest online community for learning languages. Today, busuu.com counts over 6 million users online and 6 million users on its busuu mobile apps. The young company will soon be adding Chinese as the next supported language. |
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| 2011-09-27 | Full article via web link | Web | BernhardNiesner and Adrian Hilti are the cofounders of busuu.com which is based out of Madrid, Spain. Before busuu.com, Bernhard (from Austria) was a strategic management consultant and Adrian (from Liechtenstein) had a career in engineering and consulting. During their time together as MBA students at the IEBusinessSchool in Madrid, Spain, Bernhard and Adrian decided to create busuu.com as part of their final project for their MBA. Their dream was to create a language product using web 2.0 tools that would meet the needs of language learners throughout the world. Busuu.com offers two technology assisted language learning solutions. The first option is a “social networking” option like facebook, where students connect with other language learners by reading and correcting other students work and in online chat areas. The other online option is the more common, “ theme units” – with visuals, audio and written exercises to complete. Busuu.com has unique partners like newspapers (the Guardian) and PONS – online dictionaries, to offer online non-fiction resources. Their partnerships have also included UNESCO because of their unique marketing strategy to save endangered languages. Two of these languages include busuu (hence the name) and SilboGomero – a language based on whistling. Bernhard and Adrian both come from Europe where learning a language is a key part of the education system. To this day, all employees at www.busuu.com are expected to know two or more languages. Unlike US and Canadian businesses who depend on advisory boards for their experience, the founders depend on their direct staff. This key group influences the design, implementation, operations, sales and marketing. |
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| 2011-08-02 | Full article via web link | EU-startups.com | Since their launch, the iPhone apps of busuu.com, which is a Madrid based language learning community, have been downloaded more than 2 million times. As the startup announced today, busuu.com apps are now also available for Android phones. The young company has just launched 9 new Android apps for devices like Samsung, HTC, Google Phone, Motorola and LG. These free apps enable you to learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Polish and English in an easy way. Like busuu’s iPhone apps, each Android app has extensive vocabulary – over 3,000 words and key phrases, beginner and advanced intermediate levels (A1 – B2) and includes the audiovisual learning content of busuu.com (consisting of pictures and sounds). The apps of bussu.com can be used even without an Internet connection. |
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| 2011-07-21 | Full article via web link | wikipedia | busuu.com is an online social network service that serves as a community language learning platform, where users can help each other to improve their language skills. The website provides learning units for several different languages: Busuu, English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Polish and Turkish. Learners can set up a profile, add one or more of these languages to their learning portfolio, work through the units at their own pace and keep track of their progress. |
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| 2011-04-23 | Full article via web link | eu-startups.com | The Madrid based language learning community Busuu has just raised an Angel round from Martin Varsavsky (founder of FON). The specific sum of this investment has not been disclosed yet. Martin Varsavsky had been advising Busuu before and recently stated via twitter that he uses Busuu to learn German. Busuu was founded in 2008 and is now probably Europe´s largest online community for learning languages – with over 2 million members. Busuu-users can access audiovisual language courses in currently more than 7 languages. Additionally, they can practice their language skills with other native speakers of the community via an integrated video-chat application and peer to peer text corrections. |
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| 2011-04-21 | Full article via web link | Techcrunch | Busuu.com, the language learning community, has raised an Angel round from FON-founder and serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky. The Madrid-based startup is remaining mum about the size of the investment, however, but says that to-date Busuu has received less than €1m in funding. That’s a figure dwarfed by its main competitors. US-based Livemocha has raised $14m, while European rival Babbel has raised over €1m. On that note, Busuu claims to have recently overtaken market leader Livemocha in terms of traffic, citing data from Compete. Talking up its underdog status, Busuu says that it is already cash-positive, bringing in “6 digit” euro of revenue per-month, although it’s worth noting that Babbel made its own cash-positive claims a year ago after dumping its freemium model in favor of a paid-for offering only. In comparison, much of Busuu remains free to access. It offers audio-visual online courses for seven languages, including Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and English. In terms of user numbers, Busuu says it has 2 million members, with over 10,000 new users registering daily. |
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| 2011-04-21 | Full article via web link | Investor | I’m happy to announce that I invested in Busuu, the most active language learning community worldwide. Busuu already has over 2 million users and is growing rapidly, adding more than 10,000 new users each day. Busuu also overtook its two older and more heavily funded main competitors, as this chart shows. How does Busuu work? In addition to providing the resources to enable individual language learning, users can interact with each other and engage in what Busuu calls “community learning”. |
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| 2008-09-16 | Full article via web link | Mashable | One of the best things about this language service is its community, which actually encourages its members to assist other members. The primary method for this interaction is via live one on one chat lessons which they call Busuu-Talk. You add friends just as you do on other social networks and their status indicator tells you when they’re online or offline. It’s easy to see what languages everyone already know and which ones everyone is learning. Thus, every student can be also be a teacher. |
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