busuu

Busuu Ltd
Type of site
 Language Learning
Available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese
Headquarters London, England[1]
Owner Busuu Online S.L.
Founder(s) Bernhard Niesner, Co-Founder & Adrian Hilti, Co-Founder[2]
Website www.busuu.com
Alexa rank Negative increase 18,792 (January 2018)[3]
Registration Required (free)
Launched 16 May 2008

busuu is a social learning app for languages.[4] It is available on web and via iOS and Android. Courses are available in twelve languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese. Learners select one or more of these languages and work through the self-paced lessons, studying vocabulary and grammar, which they can then practice in spoken or written conversations with native speakers in the busuu community.

As of December 2017, busuu numbers more than 80 million registered users in its community.

Name origin

Busuu is a language spoken in Cameroon. According to an ethnological study conducted in the 1980s, only eight people at that time were still able to speak this language. The ISO 639-3 code for Busuu is bju.

Concept

Busuu was designed to incorporate the communicative elements of social networking into self-study language learning. Through its website and mobile apps, the business offers free and premium paid-for access to courses in 12 languages.

busuu offers courses based on (CEFR) levels A1, A2, B1 and B2. The study material for each language is broken down into thematic lessons, each based around common conversational scenarios. Lessons contain vocabulary and grammar practice, pronunciation exercises, interactive quizzes and conversational practice with native speaker members of the busuu community. Learners act as both student and tutor, correcting one another's work. They can converse via asynchronous voice recording or text chat.

There are two classes of member: ordinary member, and paying premium member. Grammar content, spoken and written conversations and some features, such as offline mode and spaced repetition vocabulary training, are available only to premium members.[5]

Uniquely, the platform encourages collaborative learning by offering users the unique opportunity to learn the language and practise their listening, writing, reading and speaking with assistance from a rapidly growing community of native speakers. In this way, every busuu user is both student of a foreign language and tutor of their own ‘mother tongue’.

Development

busuu was founded in May 2008, opening its first office in Madrid, and launching the first free version of its website. In 2009, it began to charge for premium membership.

In 2010, the first busuu mobile app was launched.[6]

In October 2012, busuu closed a Series A investment round of €3.5 million from PROfounders Capital and private investors. The funds help to further improve the website and functionalities and increase global market share.[7] During this year, busuu moved its offices and staff from Madrid to London.

In April 2014, busuu partnered with education company Pearson to allow its users to qualify with a recognised gSET certificate in English.

Global Education Publisher McGraw-Hill Education became a strategic investor in busuu in 2015.[8]

In 2016 busuu published research into the efficacy of its courses, conducted by researchers at City University New York.[9]

busuu is committed to exploring new technologies for language learning delivery. In 2016, it was a launch partner for Google Home Assistant, offering voice-activated lessons in Spanish[10]; in 2017 it launched a virtual reality app for learning Spanish, available for the Oculus Gear and Oculus Go.[11] In 2018, busuu launched a skill for the Amazon Alexa platform.

Awards

busuu was accepted as a project within the HELp 2008 international year of languages, after its campaign to save Silbo Gomero won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Marketing Festival.[12]

In 2009, it was a nominee in the Tech Crunch and Premios de Internet awards, and won the European Language Label for innovative projects in language learning.[13]

In 2011, busuu won the Tech Crunch award for Best Education Startup.[14]

In November 2012, busuu won the Seven Ventures Pitch Day prize, worth EUR 4 mil in media spend in Germany. The pitch day was hosted by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG in London.

In 2014, busuu won the Edtech Innovator award at BETT.[15]

Google Play selected busuu as one of the 'best of 2015' apps in 2015.[16]

In 2016, busuu was awarded a 'Bloomberg Innovator' award.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "busuu.com receives €3.5 million investment, moves its headquarters to London and welcomes lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman as board adviser", www.advantageaustria.org/, 6 November 2012, retrieved 13 May 2013.
  2. ↑ "About the founders". www.busuu.com. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
  3. ↑ "Busuu.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  4. ↑ "Busuu Online S.L.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  5. ↑ "Bussu Free versus Premium membership matrix". Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  6. ↑ Jolin, Lucy (2017-03-07). "From busuu to Babbel, language-learning startups adapt to thrive". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
  7. ↑ Language Learning Platform busuu Raises €3.5M Series A Round, Moves to London To Scale Up
  8. ↑ "McGraw-Hill Education and busuu".
  9. ↑ Vesselinov, Roumen (4 May 2018). "The Busuu Efficay Study" (PDF).
  10. ↑ "Learn Spanish with busuu on Google Assistant".
  11. ↑ "Learn Spanish in VR with busuu". 4 May 2018.
  12. ↑ busuu.com wins a silver lion in Cannes
  13. ↑ busuu.com wins the European Language Label for innovative projects
  14. ↑ Butcher, Mike. "Peerindex Wins the Grand Prix as the Europas Awards Drift Eastwards". The Busuu. Retrieved 2012-07-30.
  15. ↑ "busuu wins edtech innovator award at BETT 2014".
  16. ↑ "busuu wins best of 2015 apps in Google Play store".
  17. ↑ "busuu wins Bloomberg Innovator Award".
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