Success Story – Busuu

Intro

Busuu is an AI-powered language learning platform on web, iOS, and Android that allows users to interact with native speakers from around the world, offering up to 12 languages.

Status

China had always been a very important target market for Busuu, and the company had added special features for Chinese speakers. But they didn’t have a good understanding on how to introduce their app to Chinese users properly.

The company had a product person working on distribution, and it proved too challenging to handle in-house, primarily due to the language barrier and a general misunderstanding of the process and requirements. For example, the employee in charge tried to rely on Google Translate to navigate the various app store websites and try to get the app uploaded and approved. But stores would reject the app for reasons they did not understand.

Challenge

The AppInChina team reached out to Busuu to offer a solution to distribute their app to the Chinese market.

A dedicated account manager was assigned to individually contact and submit Busuu’s app on 17 Android app stores. Busuu’s team had to create a different APK for each app store, and at the time AppInChina’s dashboard only had room for one. After feedback from Busuu, AppInChina quickly added a new feature to upload multiple APKs, making the process more efficient.

Outcome

China has turned out to be a core element of Busuu’s strategy. China is currently the company’s second-biggest market, with 5 million users in the country alone. By presenting their app in the Chinese Android App Stores, Busuu is reaching out to more potential users and open to more opportunities.

Later in the year, Busuu wanted to test some new ideas in the Chinese market, so they asked AppInChina to assist with App Store User Acquisition (UA). AppInChina designed a campaign strategy. With AppInChina’s expertise and connections, Busuu successfully launched multiple UA campaigns across the app stores and received major gains, eventually leading to historic download numbers during the COVID-19 crisis. Busuu plans to launch more exciting projects to grow this market even further.

Feedback

“The whole team has been really helpful. Besides the app distribution service, we also benefited a lot from AppInChina’s market insights. Those insights helped us better plan out our marketing strategy and succeed in the market.”

“AppInChina makes the whole process a lot easier because there is a dedicated account manager working on this for us. So when there is an issue, this person doesn’t just work as a simple uploader or translator, but we have a relationship and they understand our business, so they always have useful resources and insights for us when we need to who can do research for us when we have a new goal or something we want to try.”

—Chenxi She, China Country Manager at Busuu