busuu

busuu, a social network for learning languages, enables users to access audio-visual language courses and practice with native speakers.

With more than 50 million users globally, busuu is the world's largest platform for language learning. Through a website and mobile apps, the business offers free and premium paid-for access to interactive courses for 12 languages. Uniquely, the platform encourages collaborative learning by offering users the unique opportunity to learn the language and practice 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’. busuu was founded by Bernhard Niesner and Adrian Hilti in early 2008, with a vision to enable everyone in the world to learn a second language. Based in the heart of London’s Tech City, busuu offers an integrated, cross-channel platform which is constantly evolving to meet the demands of an increasingly mobile world population. Winner of 'Best Education Start‐up' at The Europas TechCrunch Awards in 2011 and CeBIT Innovation Award in 2010, busuu is going from strength to strength, and has recently partnered with education giant Pearson to allow its users to qualify with a recognised gSET certificate in English. The company is named after the busuu language of Cameroon. According to an ethnological study from the 1980s, Busuu is spoken by only 8 people.