My new language exchange website, turbolingo.com

Cianos

Hi folks,
I'm in the process of launching a new website that's all about language exchange.

The idea of the site is simple - to match people who are learning each others native language. For example, if I'm practicing French, I'll be connected with a French person who is practicing English.

Users chat via video, voice and text - kinda like chatroulette but without the nakedness :pac: (you can see a rough mockup here)

It'll always be 100% free for users to chat to each other. I hope to monetise it down the line eventually, but not until the site has found its legs and I can introduce revenue streams that won't disrupt the user experience.

So obviously, the main challenge is to get people to use it! The problem is, there's no product there if there aren't people using it, and there'll be no people using it unless there's a product there!

So, I thought it'd be good to post it here to see what you guys thought about the idea, and if there was any input on how I could drum up interest for the site.

Any input would be much appreciated.

P.S I've set up a Facebook page and a Twitter account, if anyone is interested in either

misetusame

It sounds like a promising idea. It's open to the network effect, where you need some critical mass of people to make it useful.

What are some services that are already online and relate to your idea? What will be different about you?

What's a one-sentence tag line that would describe the service?

If I'm in Ireland and want to learn Japanese, how will I deal with timezones?

How would I arrange to meet someone online who matches my language preferences?

Will the interface be already in English? If so, are you simply limiting yourself to English speakers looking to learn another language, and not being able to find a matching native speaker of another language?

Cianos

Thanks for the reply

To answer your questions...

misetusame wrote: »

What are some services that are already online and relate to your idea? What will be different about you?

From what I've seen, my site is the only one to offer user to user interactions in this way. There are quite a few sites that provide a way to meet language partners but most are quite outdated. Only some have voice/text chat, but they require you to go through a long sign up process and seek out people to chat with. Mine will be more instant in that you just have to hit next to be matched with a random person (who speaks the language you want to learn).

What's a one-sentence tag line that would describe the service?

I was using the tag "instant live language exchange" as a slogan. An elevator pitch style sentence would be; "TurboLingo allows you to chat instantly with random native speakers of the language you want to learn."

If I'm in Ireland and want to learn Japanese, how will I deal with timezones?

Good question. On release it will have to work just like any other chat room would work - you log in, and if there are people there, you chat with them. This is fine if there are enough matches, which won't always be the case especially for unpopular languages, even further for awkward time zoning.

So I'll be watching how this effects things for people wanting to practice those less popular languages. I might be able to implement something that graphs recommended times for activity. There'll also be a 'wall' for people to leave messages for others, maybe to arrange times to chat etc.

How would I arrange to meet someone online who matches my language preferences?

You set your native language, and the language you want to practice and the site will match you automatically with someone if there is a matching person online.

Will the interface be already in English? If so, are you simply limiting yourself to English speakers looking to learn another language, and not being able to find a matching native speaker of another language?

I'll eventually set it so that the interface is presented in your native language. Not sure if it'll be there for first release, but it's a feature that will be brought in at some point anyway

misetusame

Good that you're considering these things, and keep working at it. Try to answer the big questions before coding much more.

You might get some ideas from Y Combinator-funded Verbling:
http://verbling.com/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/verbling-links-up-language-learners-with-native-speakers-through-live-video-chat/

If the site is in English, then you'll only catch people searching Google in English. Would your business model still work with only English natives landing on the site?

How many languages are active on the Internet? From that, how many permutations of language pairs does the give you?

Instant language learning really does ignore timezones across the 24 hours. If the person is in Japan, the least of our problems will be to work out a "time" in our respective timezones. Scheduled language learning is quite different (and can't be done in ChatRoulette, for example, right?)

I'm afraid of being more critical than constructive, but I guess I have to leave it to you to being more constructive Just keep thinking of ways to get around these issues.

The last thing that comes to mind is that you first concentrate on one specific language pair. If you can get enough people visiting the site for those two languages, then it shows you might be able to expand to an open-ended matching of languages.

onedmc

Brill idea why didn't i think of it

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=59148150&postcount=4

Cianos

Just getting back to this after the weekend, thanks for your replies!

misetusame wrote: »

Good that you're considering these things, and keep working at it. Try to answer the big questions before coding much more.

You might get some ideas from Y Combinator-funded Verbling:
http://verbling.com/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/verbling-links-up-language-learners-with-native-speakers-through-live-video-chat/

I don't know how I missed that TC article, I'm gutted now Really disappointing to know I won't be the first one out with the idea even though I had it a couple years ago. It looks like verbling have some serious backing with Y-Combinator too. Thanks for the link though.

If the site is in English, then you'll only catch people searching Google in English. Would your business model still work with only English natives landing on the site?

I'll be trying to draw the attention of language bloggers initially, and I'm hoping that will stream over to outlets in other languages. I'm also considering running concurrent Google Ads campaigns in complimentary languages. For example, running a Google ad targeting English people wanting to learn Spanish, and at the same time running a Google ad written in Spanish and targeting people in Spain wanting to learn English.

How many languages are active on the Internet? From that, how many permutations of language pairs does the give you?

I'd hope to be able to accommodate as many languages as possible. As long as there are two people wanting to practice the same language, they can be connected by my site. Initially I'm going to start off with a low amount of options for simplicity sakes so I can have a better idea of how people are using the site and to keep it simple before cramming loads of options in. When the site is ready I can then open it up to an uncapped amount of languages.

Instant language learning really does ignore timezones across the 24 hours. If the person is in Japan, the least of our problems will be to work out a "time" in our respective timezones. Scheduled language learning is quite different (and can't be done in ChatRoulette, for example, right?)

If there are enough people using the site, users should be able to log on whenever they feel like it and if there are people there to chat to, then happy days. There's also nothing to stop them scheduling with other users if they want to.

I'm afraid of being more critical than constructive, but I guess I have to leave it to you to being more constructive Just keep thinking of ways to get around these issues.

All criticism is most welcome

The last thing that comes to mind is that you first concentrate on one specific language pair. If you can get enough people visiting the site for those two languages, then it shows you might be able to expand to an open-ended matching of languages.

I agree. I'll be first concentrating on English and Spanish (or maybe German). keeping the marketing efforts focused in on a particular will allow a greater chance of attracting the critical mass of users. I'll be allowing other language pairings still, but again just focusing the marketing on a particular pairing.

Many thanks again for your feedback.

Cianos

onedmc wrote: »

Brill idea why didn't i think of it

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=59148150&postcount=4

Never saw that post myself! There are actually a few sites out there that allow people to connect with each other for a language exchange.

The format of mine (and verbling) is what makes it unique, that's why I'm building it