(1888PressRelease)
December 11, 2007 - SHANGHAI, China -- In the year since it went live, italki.com has already transformed language learning for thousands of people across the globe. The groundswell from word-of-mouth recommendations by italki's 100,000 users, empowered by the diverse tools the site gives them on their journey towards fluency, has reached the tipping point. Now the site is pushing online learning to the next level with a major relaunch.
"I took English for ten years, but could not say one sentence," is a phrase the site's founders, Yongyue Jiang and Kevin Chen, had heard too often from frustrated language learners. Fixing this problem was what drove them to create their language-learning social network, italki.com.
The site's relaunch, on December 10, carries forward their dream of harnessing Web 2.0 technology to make language learning free for all, and to eliminate the time spent on stale and ineffective language learning methods.
The inspiration for American-born entrepreneur Chen came from a chance encounter in Shanghai. "I met a Chinese person who spoke excellent English. I thought he must have at least lived in the US, but in fact he had never traveled outside of China. His secret was talking to people on Skype to get practice."
By creating a social network of language learners, italki established a platform for students to learn from and encourage each other. In a "language exchange", students pair up with their counterparts from other countries to teach each other their native languages. By using the latest video and voice-enabled instant messengers such as Skype, MSN, Yahoo and AOL, language learners can get down to the real business of language learning - speaking, writing, and communicating with one another - at no cost.
italki's goal is to make language learning available to anyone who wants to better themselves, wherever they are in the world, for free. Estimates of the language learning market run as high as $20 billion, with analysts citing globalization as the driving force behind the rising demand for language learning.
"We know there is a lot of money in this market, but our plan is to disrupt this industry at its core," says Chen. "People pay hundreds of dollars for sometimes out-of-date CDs and textbooks. Online, there is a wealth of podcasts and websites that can offer the same, if not better, service, for free."
italki.com also aims to give its users the opportunity to learn any language.
"Some sites focus on Western countries because their market research tells them that's where the money is. We're interested in building a truly global community where every language and country is represented," says Chen.
italki.com will support eleven languages (English, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean), with more languages in the pipeline.
Key aspects of italki's learning approach are:
* Member-to-Member Learning -- Members can find language partners from all over the world to practice speaking a foreign language ("language exchange"). Members can use email, IM, voice, video, and text to communicate with each other.
* Community -- Members can rely on the community for "answers" and help. Members can post a question about a foreign language and get a response from other members.
* Open-Source -- Members are able to download and upload free documents about learning languages. Members can also find recommendations for other language learning resources on the web.
About italki.com
italki, a Shanghai-based Internet start-up, is using web 2.0 insights to create a language learning community focused on making language education free for all.
For more information on italki, please visit http://www.italki.com, or contact Kevin Chen on +86 139 1810 8824.
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