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by Bernhard Niesner
Welcome McGraw-Hill Education to busuu!
Today we are announcing an important agreement: McGraw-Hill Education (MHE) has joined forces with busuu, receiving a € 6m minority investment from this global education company! Many of you might be familiar with the McGraw-Hill Education brand and might have used or are using their books and learning materials within your studies at school or
McGraw-Hill Education Acquires Equity Stake in busuu, Global Mobile Language Learning Platform
McGraw-Hill Education to market and distribute busuu to B2B customers around the world and explore adding adaptive capabilities to busuu NEW YORK and LONDON – JULY 15, 2015 – McGraw-Hill Education, a learning science company, today announced that it has taken a €6 million (approximately $6.5 million) minority equity stake in busuu, the world’s largest
We are 2.000.000!
Today is a very important day for busuu.com – we have more than 2.000.000 users! This number shows that the busuu.com baby is growing fast! Only five months ago we crossed the 1.000.000 user landmark – a lot of things have happened since then: We have been awarded with a “highly commended” in the Best
A look back at 2010 and a warm welcome to 2011!
Last year is already history as 2011 has started with a lot of positive energy! Nevertheless, we believe it’s still worth taking a closer look at all the stuff that happened with busuu.com in 2010. January We announced a strategic partnership with the renowned language learning brand PONS, the second biggest publisher in Germany; we
Happy New Year with 10% off promotion and our new MyBusuu Study Guide!
Dear members of busuu.com! The whole busuu.com team wishes you a Happy New Year, Feliz año nuevo, Bonne année, С Новым Годом, Feliz ano novo, ein Frohes neues Jahr and Felice anno nuovo! We are absolutely convinced that 2011 will be the year when you will boost your language skills! In order to make your
busuu.com gets a new home
As our little baby busuu.com is growing quickly, we moved last week to our new shiny offices right next to the beautiful Retiro Park in the heart of Madrid! Of course we inaugurated our new premises with an office warming party with all our friends and the whole busuu.com team! We all had a great
The language Busuu
Did you know where the name of our website busuu.com comes from? Busuu is actually a language from Cameroon in Africa, spoken by only 8 people! It was first “discovered” by the French professor of linguistics Roland Breton in the year 1986. According to his and more recent research, the language, with the ISO 639
busuu.com nominated as 'Best Website Application 2010' and 'Best Learning Start-Up 2010'
We are very proud to announce that busuu.com has been nominated twice for the highly prestigious TechCrunch Europe ‘The Europas Awards‘! TechCrunch is Europe´s most important and respected tech blog. We are very pleased about these nominations, especially as busuu.com was already nominated in two categories at last year´s Europas Awards! Additionally, this nomination continues
busuu.com launches seven iPhone applications to learn languages on-the-go
Here at busuu.com, we are very excited to announce that you can now learn languages on the go! We have launched seven new iPhone applications for free download on the iTunes App Store. Our new iPhone applications enable you to learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and English directly from your iPhone (including the
Back to school promotion on busuu.com – 10% off on all our premium memberships!
Now that the holidays are almost over, it is the perfect time to start learning languages again with busuu.com! To make your return to school, university or work easier, busuu.com is offering you a very special ‘Back to School’ promotion! Until the end of September, you can enjoy a 10% discount on all of our
Learn to speak Russian for free with busuu.com!
Привет (that’s ‘hello’ in Russian)! Spoken by more than 280 million people, Russian is the largest native language in Europe and the 8th most important language in the world. In addition, we received a lot of requests from our users to add this language to the courses we offer. So, we’re very excited to launch
busuu.com adds Russian online course!
We are happy to announce the launch of our interactive language course in Russian completely for free. From now you can learn Russian on busuu.com! You can now get access to more than 150 learning units from A1 to B2 and practice your language skills with Russian native speakers! In order to start with your
Try out our new language learning game!
Imagine you could improve your language skills and challenge your busuu.com friends at the same time to see who is best at memorising vocabulary? Believe it or not…it is now possible on busuu.com! If you want to see for yourself, check out our great new language learning game! Playing this game is simple and fun: you play against
New PONS grammar guides now available on busuu.com
busuu.com is exited to say that we have extended our existing partnership with the renowned publisher PONS! We now offer English grammar guides to our French and Italian speaking users. The guides are completely online and fully integrated into our existing learning material. They contain detailed English grammar explanations in French and in Italian. The
New sounds for the vocabulary review
We are planning to update our existing sounds for the vocabulary review (some of you might have heard them already several thousand times! 😉 and therefore we would love to hear your opinion! Please let us know which sounds you like best for the correct and the wrong answers! Thanks for your participation! Which sounds
busuu.com and the future of e-learning
This week Bernhard, one of the Co-Founders of busuu.com was invited to hold a keynote speech at the conference “Future Learningscapes – a 21st century Challenge” organized by the University of Greenwich close to London. Bernhard shared his experience of managing Europe´s leading online community for learning languages and gave his thoughts about how future
busuu.com offers new Travel Course
busuu.com now offers you a brand new Travel Course to help you to get ready for your holidays! This interactive course contains all of the essential words and expressions you need to know when you travel abroad. It also includes new exclusive features such as role plays plus a very useful PDF with survival phrases to carry around. This course
busuu.com named Red Herring Top 100 European Innovator
We are very proud to announce that busuu.com has been officially elected as the Red Herring 100 European Winner 2010! The award was received during the official awards ceremony in Paris today. Established in 1996, Red Herring 100 lists are regarded as an invaluable instrument to discover and advocate the most promising private ventures from
Earn more busuu-berries for excellent writing exercises and helpful corrections!
You can now earn additional busuu-berries for excellent writing excercises or very helpful text corrections of other users’ exercises. So, how does it work? Writing exercises If your writing exercise is given a four- or five-star rating by at least three other users, you will receive five bonus busuu-berries! So try to write as well
Happy birthday busuuuuu!
This is a very special week for busuu.com: we’re celebrating our 2nd birthday! Exactly two years ago, busuu.com was launched. Starting as just a simple idea, our community has grown significantly and very quickly. Here are some of our impressive numbers: More than 450,000 users from all over the world have signed up with us
busuu.com has reached more than 400.000 users!
This week, the busuu.com community is over 400.000 users! This leads busuu.com as the biggest European language learning community. You can now learn more than 150 different languages with our native speakers from all around the world. To learn one of these languages, connect with native speakers directly on the busuutalk or join a group whose
Easter surprises on busuu.com
From today on you can take advantage of our 10% off Special Easter Promotion to become a Premium Member on busuu.com. Simply use the promotion code OST2010 while upgrading your account and you will get 10% off on all our Premium Memberships. As a Premium Member you get access to additional tools and features such
New groups feature on busuu.com
We have just launched a new groups feature on busuu.com! From now on you can join groups in order to discuss different topics with native speakers and thereby improve your language skills. Whether you are interested in Spanish for Tapas, delicious French recipes or you just want to discuss how we can reduce the negative
busuu.com wins Innovators' Pitch at CeBIT
We are very happy to announce that busuu.com just won the Innovators’ Pitch at CeBIT! The CeBIT fair is the world’s foremost tradeshow for the digital industry, celebrated every year in Hanover, Germany. The Innovators’ Pitch is organized every year by BITKOM, Germany´s Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media. This very prestigious
busuu.com adds Portuguese online course and receives substantial funding!
Today we from busuu.com have two reasons to celebrate: First, we are happy to announce that we have closed our first financing round with an Austrian business angel. The important six-figure investment will be used to further expand our language learning platform and grow our international user base. This is an important step in the
Improved navigation on busuu.com!
We have improved our navigation within the vocabulary learning part – now it´s even simpler to browse through our language learning material! Please have a look at the new navigation short-cuts: This is how it works: To go to the following image, press the right arrow To go to the previous image, press the left
busuu.com among the top 5 in the BBVA Open Talent Competition
We are very glad to announce that busuu.com has been ranked number 5 out of more than 400 projects within the Spanish BBVA Open Talent Competition. This prestigious competition rewards innovative internet start-ups. We have received more than 6,000 votes and therefore we want to thank you all for your amazing support! To see the results of the voting,
New review types and customizable tests available on busuu.com
We are continuously improving our language learning platform and today we have launched some great new functionalities. First of all, we have added two new review types to our exams. Apart from the 5 existing ways to test your language skills you will now find a review type where you have to create a word out of several letters (like in Scrabble). Additionally, there
busuu.com partners with leading European language learning publisher PONS
Today is a very important day in the history of busuu.com – we are pleased to announce a new partnership with PONS, one of Europe´s leading language learning publishers! PONS, based in Stuttgart and belonging to Germany´s second largest publishing house Klett Group, develops for already more than 30 years language learning material and dictionaries. PONS
busuu.com nominated for the BBVA Open Talent Competition
busuu.com has been selected to participate in the prestigious Spanish BBVA Open Talent Competition. This competition is organized by BBVA, the second biggest bank in Spain and it rewards innovative internet start-ups. Therefore we need your support – please vote for us by clicking the “Vote” button below or following this link. The voting ends
Update: busuu.com collaborates with NGO in Cameroon
As you probably already know, in September 2009 we won the European Language Label for innovative projects in language learning. The award was compensated with 1,500 EUR, which we donated to the Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child. The money was used to construct a classroom for underprivileged children. The work has now been
busuu.com collaborates with IE Business School
busuu.com is proud to announce a new partnership agreement with IE Business School based in Madrid. From today, all new MBA students will receive a six-month premium membership with busuu.com sponsored by IE Business School. This collaboration is a very important milestone for our young company! Since our launch in May 2008, busuu.com is now able to provide a high standard and awarded language learning system
Are you still looking for the perfect Christmas present?
Christmas is coming soon and you are still searching for the perfect Christmas present? For sure some of your friends are currently learning a new language and would also love to improve their skills with busuu.com! Why don´t you surprise them with a 3 months premium language course as a Christmas present? You just have
Connect busuu.com with facebook!
We are glad to announce that you can now connect your busuu.com account with your facebook account! You probably all know facebook – with more than 300 million users, this website is the largest social network worldwide. Once you register for free you can upload photos, add friends and thereby stay connected with people from all over the
busuu.com collaborates with NGO in Cameroon
As you probably know, busuu.com won last week an European Award for Innovation in Language Learning. The price is compensated with 1,500 EUR and we decided to donate this money to the Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child (CAPEC). We chose Cameroon for the destination, as our website has its name
Mission accomplished – Silbo Gomero is declared as cultural heritage by the UNESCO
GREAT NEWS – the UNESCO yesterday officially declared the nearly extinct whistled language Silbo Gomero from the Spanish Canary Islands as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity! This means, that our campaign to rescue this nearly extinct whistled language has been successfully accomplished! Remember, in September 2008, as part of our committment for having been selected
busuu.com wins the European Language Label for innovative projects in language learning
We are happy to announce that busuu.com has been awarded with the European Language Label! This prestigious award is co-ordinated by the European Commission and awared every year by the individual Member States of the European Union. busuu.com has received this prize here in Spain (please find here the official award notification in Spanish). The award recognizes “new initiatives in the field of teaching
busuu.com partners with leading travel guide tripwolf.com
We are very glad to announce a new partnership with the worldwide leading travel guide tripwolf.com. tripwolf is a free social travel guide for individual travellers. The site combines professional editorial travel tips from well-known publishers like footprint or Marco Polo with traveller generated content. Thousands of users share their travel experiences and travel help with this worldwide community of travellers. Users can add personal blog
Free Italian courses now available on busuu.com!
We are happy to announce that from now on you can learn Italian on busuu.com! We now offer an interactive language course in Italian completely for free! Italian is a roman language spoken by more than 60 million people in Italy and another 10 million people around the world. The country has one of the largest
Get your berries!
We have implemented a new system to motivate you even more with your language learning: busuu-berries, Stars and Badges! We will now reward your language learning efforts and your help to others with some sweet berries! You will get busuu-berries each time you do a learning unit or correct a writing exercise on www.busuu.com. Depending
Back to school promotion
Holidays are unfortunately over for most of us… so now is the perfect time to start again with your language classes at busuu.com! In order to ease the start, we offer you a special promotion: From now on until the end of September, you are granted a 15% discount on all our Premium Memberships! In
busuu.com at the E-Teachers conference about Communities and the Power of Crowdsourcing
Last week we had the pleasure to be invited by Kirsten Winkler, one of the leading bloggers and opinion leaders of this newly born online language learning industry, to present our ideas about Communities and the Power of Crowdsourcing within a web conference. A part from busuu.com, the founders of other great websites like Languages Out There, Wiziq and Italki also shared their
Blog and video contest
Our “busuu.com story contest” is now over. A lot of people sent us funny stories, posted nice entries about language learning on their blog or even uploaded amazing videos about busuu.com on YouTube! It was impressive to see a lot of people from our language learning community participating in this contest. Just to name a
Tips to learn a new language online (part3)
Here is the third installment of our blog series on language learning tips. 3. Practice language actively Whenever possible, speak the language aloud rather than reciting it silently to yourself. In doing this you can gain confidence in you pronounciation and in your language skills. Say vocabulary words out loud e.g. while doing a busuu.com
busuu.com named as AlwaysOn Global 250 Winner!
It´s a pleasure to announce that busuu.com has been named as AlwaysON Global 250 Winner! The AO Global 250 list is elaborated every year and represents the best of emerging innovators and disrupters from all the technology sectors. In their own words: “With the 2009 AO 250, we sought to find the companies upon which
busuu.com nominated for the European TechCrunch Awards – please vote for us!
It´s a pleasure to announce that busuu.com has been nominated twice for Europe´s most important Start-Up competition – the European Tech Crunch Awards! We have been nominated in two different categories: Best Bootstrapped Start-Up (meaning that we have not received any big external financing so far) Best Web Application Now we need your support –
Happy Birthday busuuuuuu!
Exactly one year ago, our language learning community busuu.com was launched! It´s amazing how quickly time flies and we are very proud of the development of our little baby during the last year… By now, more than 100,000 users from over 200 countries have joined our strongly growing community and every day, thousands of users
busuu.com in Top 3 of best website of the year award!
busuu.com has been nominated as Top 3 candidate for the Spanish Award “Premios de Internet” to become the best website of the year! This award is organized by the Spanish Association of Internet users since 1997 and it recognizes websites which have significantly contributed to the development and good use of internet. More than 560
busuu.com case at Instituto de Empresa Business School
Today, the two Co-Founders of busuu.com, Adrian & Bernhard, visited Instituto de Empresa Business School to listen to the final presentations of the MBA students who were working on busuu.com as final case within their marketing class. It was a pleasure for us to be invited by this prestigious university which according to the Financial
Track your studies with your Individual Progress Report
We are very happy to announce the launch of a very exciting feature we have been developing for quite some time – the Individual Progress Report! We all know it so well – language learning can be a tedious task and if we don´t “kick” ourselves from time to time we tend to forget about
