Chinese Learning Edtech Startup "LingoAce" Aims at 200 Thousand Users in Indonesia

Startups EdTech specializes in learning Mandarin LingoAce inaugurated its presence in Indonesia today, Wednesday (18/11). Indonesia and Thailand are the two countries that this Singapore-based company is targeting, after pocketing Series A+ pendanaan funding $6 million led by Sequoia India.

In a virtual press conference, Founder & CEO Lingo Ace Hugh Yao explained that Indonesia is a strategic market for LingoAce's development because of its population, promising internet penetration growth, and is predicted to be a country with the most potential digital economy in ASEAN.

He and his team also conducted in-depth research before actually entering this country. Therefore, the company highly respects the concept of localization so that LingoAce can be well received.

“We prioritize localization, in five months we prepared a team and made a site in Indonesian. The achievement is very satisfying, we managed to get 2 thousand users," he explained.

As is known, Mandarin is an important language because it has the largest number of speakers in the world. In one study, it was even stated that learning Mandarin also affects brain creativity. Therefore, LingoAce targets users from the age group 4-15 because that is the golden age of a child, where learning a language will be much easier to digest.

“Over the age of 15, children have more activities so they are easily distracted. We want to teach Mandarin and it can be mastered for life in a personalized and interactive way,” added Nirwanto Honsono, Marketing Director of LingoAce Indonesia.

LingoAce provides a Chinese learning platform for children aged 4-15 years. User will be taught by tutor native speaker who are certified and have passed the selection in teaching Mandarin to children and adolescents. These tutors come from abroad, some come from Singapore and China.

The tutor adapts the learning process for each individual, including the pace and learning style of each student, taking into account their cultural background. This personalized learning process helps students learn faster and more effectively. The duration per class is 55 minutes and the class schedule is more flexible.

Globally, LingoAce has been used by 100 thousand students and 2 thousand tutors spread across 80 countries, and has successfully completed 200 thousand classes since it was first established in 2017. In Indonesia, LingoAce has been used by 2 thousand users, whose domicile is still centralized in Indonesia. big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan.

Ambition in Indonesia

Nirwanto continued, his party will enlarge the local team in order to serve the needs of users in Indonesia. Of the funding obtained by the company, much is allocated to recruiting more employees. In pipeline, next year the plan is to have more than 200 employees from the current 25 people. The team will be deployed for customer service, operations and marketing.

“Our plan is to recruit people who have experience in the field of education because in operations, we don't just sell. We want to monitor the child's development, whether they on track or not because we offer services.”

In the same year, the company is also targeted to attract 50 thousand users. A more ambitious target is set in the following year, the company will recruit 500 employees, have 200 thousand users, and become the main choice for learning Chinese personally.

In Indonesia, English is more popular than Mandarin, so LingoAce is currently in preparation to provide this service. Nirwanto targets that by next year, learning English will be available and used by students.

Currently, the company is implementing a free class access strategy to attract 100 thousand new users with membership facilities for a year. With this program, users can access certain online Mandarin classes to their heart's content.

Hugh explained that in other countries, the company has recorded positive revenue through its monetization strategy. "There is tuition fees that parents pay for us, but there are also free classes available to support parents who want to try their hand at it. This strategy is balanced to have a positive impact in the future,” he concluded.