Livemocha
 | |
Type of site | Social network service |
|---|---|
| Available in | American English, Bulgarian, Spanish (Castellano) Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hindi, Hungarian, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Icelandic, Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, Polish, Slovak, Ukrainian, Turkish and Urdu |
| Owner | Livemocha, inc. |
| Created by | Shirish Nadkarni, Co-Founder; Michael Schutzler, CEO |
| Revenue | undisclosed |
| URL | www.Livemocha.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required for some services |
Livemocha is an online language learning community claiming more than 8.5 million members from 195 countries. Livemocha offers free basic language courses in 38 languages and more advanced courses -- called "Active Courses" -- in five languages including English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. The Active Courses cost $29.00/month or $149.00 for a one-year package, with the exception of Active English, which costs $39/month or $399.00 for a year. The company claims that those who complete the "Active" courses will achieve conversational fluency. Livemocha offers grammar instructions, reading comprehension exercises, interactive role playing and both live and asynchronous interaction with other native speakers within the Livemocha community. When learners submit coursework for peer review, native speakers in that language can provide feedback on how that learner is progressing. Users can aid others in learning the languages that they are proficient in while learning other languages themselves.
Languages
Lessons are provided for thirty languages; American English, Spanish (Castellano), Persian, French, Hindi, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, Icelandic, Korean, Arabic, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, European Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Estonian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Hungarian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Urdu, Catalan, Swedish, Hebrew and Esperanto, which is the most recent addition. Other tools such as translators are provided for a variety of other languages. It is possible to vote for new languages to be introduced.
Several national newspapers (including The New York Times)[2] have included articles about Livemocha's language tools since its early development stages.[3][4][5]
According to John Cook's Venture Blog, Livemocha was easily Seattle's biggest moving start-up company in Autumn 2007.[6] According to CEO Shirish Nadkarni, Livemocha has over 2,000,000 users from over 200 countries as of March 2008.[7]
Basic Courses
Livemocha offers basic language lessons that are free and contain about 30–50 hours of coursework.
Active Courses
Active Courses are premium lessons offered for at a cost of $29/month or $149 for a one-year subscription. Active courses are offered in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German.
Finance
In January 2008, Livemocha announced that it had secured $6 million in funding from the venture capital firm, Maveron Capital.[8] In December 2009, Livemocha received an additional $8 million in Series B funding from the venture capital firms August Capital and Maveron Capital.[9]
See also
References
- ^ Site Information from Alexa Alexa Internet. Accessed September 20, 2010.
- ^ "Learning From a Native Speaker, Without Leaving Home", ANNE EISENBERG, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/business/17novel.html?_r=1&em&ex=1203483600&en=cde38341fd5cbf9f&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin , February 17, 2008.
- ^ "Not lost in translation: Livemocha blends language instruction with social networking, picks up $6M Series A", The Deal.com, Mary Kathleen Flynn, January 24, 2008. Accessed 18 April 2008.
- ^ "The social network where you can't understand anyone: Livemocha", Webware (Cnet), Rafe Needleman, September 24, 2007. Accessed 18 April 2008.
- ^ Learning Languages in Context: Startup Live Mocha leverages social networking to teach foreign languages, Technology Review, Erica Naone, October 5, 2007. Accessed 18 April 2008.
- ^ "Top Seattle startups: Intelius, Zillow, iLike, etc." http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/124855.asp, John Cook's Venture Blog. Accessed 18 April 2008.
- ^ "Livemocha eyes one million users this year", Pratima Harigunani, CIOL Network, http://www.ciol.com/News/News-Reports/Livemocha-eyes-one-million-users-this-year/1408104872/0/ , April 01 2008
- ^ "Livemocha Secures $6 Million in Venture Capital Series A Funding Led by Maveron: Funding to Accelerate Popular Language Learning Site’s Functionality and Growth", http://www.livemocha.com/pages/pr/01152008, January 15, 2008. Accessed 18 April 2008.
- ^ "Livemocha Bags Another $8 Million From August Capital, Maveron", http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/22/livemocha-series-b-funding/