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EWA: Learn English · B2C · English learning app

Win your home market first, then add languages one by one

Liked locally, then expanded; later #2 after Duolingo

Workedmarket-selectionlocalization

What they did

EWA launched a funny, whimsical app in the founders' native language/home market, then grew into other languages. Similar pattern cited for Babbel and Blinkist in Germany. Advice: don't default to the US if you know another market better.

What happened

Liked locally, then expanded; EWA later #2 after Duolingo.
Stage
launch

In their words

Make Ugly Ads to Grow Your App – Yuliya Lennox (Solid Starts)

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David BarnardYeah. Well, that was a really fun digression. I think people will enjoy that pushback on both sides. So what was the net philosophy you learned at EWA?

Yuliya Lennox… a lot of people, they don't use their strengths. A couple of people came to me at some point and they were from different countries. They were from Lithuania, they were from India, they were from different markets and they're like, "Oh, help us grow." And what they want to do first is to go America, of course, let's start with the US market because it has a lot of cash value. It is right, but in the same time, you should look first at what you know best. So Babbel, a great example, what's their name? Blinkist also. They started with Germany and they're super big in Germany and they're getting the same results in Germany as some people are getting in the US, which is what, 10 times bigger. So if you have a benefit of knowing some local market better, definitely use it because this is what Eva did.

Yuliya LennoxIt was very good in speaking their native language and they started this super funny, super whimsical app that everybody in their local country liked. Then they grew it to all their other languages. But the actual lesson here is not that the actual lesson here is the world is really, really big. And with current AI, when you can translate any service in three hours into any languages, why don't you try different languages? Why don't you try …

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Tags: home-market, native-language