Busuu is a language learning platform on web, iOS and Android that allows users to interact with native speakers.

History

Busuu was founded in May 2008 by Bernhard Niesner and Adrian Hilti. The company launched with a free version of its website and opened its first office in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. In 2009, Premium membership was introduced to access to all features on the platform and in 2010, the first Busuu mobile app was launched. Busuu is named after the endangered language

Busuu Busuu is a language learning platform on web, iOS and Android that allows users to interact with native speakers. History Busuu was founded in May 2008 by Bernhard Niesner and Adrian Hilti. The company launched with a free version of its websi ...

, spoken in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. According to an ethnological study conducted in the 1980s, only eight people at that time were still able to speak this language. In 2010, Busuu created a short language course to encourage people to learn the Busuu language using Busuu. After closing a

Series A round A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

of 3.5 million euros from PROfounders Capital and private investors in 2012, Busuu further improved the functionalities of the platform and increased its global market share. During that year, the company moved its offices and staff to a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

based office. The head office of Busuu has remained in London ever since. In May 2016, the company launched Busuu for Organisations, the language learning platform for universities and businesses. Using the platform, organisations can give their students or employees access to Busuu Premium. The platform allows organisations to view learner's progress and use of the app over time. Personalised courses have been created for organisations such as

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

. This included lessons about the specific contexts an Uber driver would encounter with their passengers. In 2016, it was a launch partner for

Google Home Google Nest, previously named Google Home, is a line of smart speakers developed by Google under the Google Nest brand. The devices enable users to speak voice commands to interact with services through Google Assistant, the company's virtual ...

Assistant, offering voice-activated lessons in Spanish; in 2017, it launched a virtual reality app for learning Spanish, available for the

Oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following Architecture * Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...

Gear and Oculus Go, and in 2018, Busuu launched a comprehension test for the

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and ...

platform. On November 29, 2021, education technology company

Chegg Chegg, Inc., is an American education technology company based in Santa Clara, California. It provides homework help, digital and physical textbook rentals, textbooks, online tutoring, and other student services. The company was launched in 2005 ...

announced it would acquire Busuu for approximately $436 million (€385 million) with the deal expected to close in early 2022.

Concept

Language courses

Busuu incorporates the communicative elements of social learning into self-study language learning. Through its website and mobile apps, Busuu offers free and Premium access to 12 language courses, taught in 15 interface languages. Busuu offers courses based on

CEFR The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, abbreviated in English as CEFR or CEF or CEFRL, is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and, increasing ...

levels A1, A2, B1 and B2. Study material is divided into themed lessons, each based around common conversational scenarios. Lessons contain vocabulary and grammar practice, pronunciation exercises, interactive quizzes and conversational practice with native speakers who are members of the Busuu community. In 2019, Busuu launched third-party content with lessons featuring videos and articles from

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

, to allow learners to learn from real-life examples of language use. Through their partnership with

McGraw-Hill Education McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

, learners can receive a level completion certificate between beginner level A1 and intermediate level B2 in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. The tests focus on dialogue, comprehension and productive skills. There is free access to all courses, and paid access to Premium features. Grammar instruction, spoken and written conversations, spaced repetition vocabulary training and other features such as Offline Mode, are only available for Premium learners.

Community

The platform encourages collaborative learning by allowing members to practise their writing and speaking skills with help from native speakers of the language they are learning. All learners correct one another's work. They can converse via asynchronous voice recording or text chat. In this way, every Busuu user is both student of a foreign language and tutor of the languages they can already speak.

Academic research

In 2016, researchers from

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

and the University of South Carolina conducted a study into the efficacy of Busuu's courses. The results stated that learning a language for 22 hours with Busuu Premium was equivalent to sitting one college semester. Later in 2016, Busuu worked with a senior lecturer at

The Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

to find out about the behaviour of language learners on the platform. The results showed 82% of Busuu learners confirmed that Busuu helped to improve their language learning.Autonomous language learning through a mobile application: a user evaluation of the busuu app
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References