How Does Verbling Work? – Revenue Model and Its Features

According to the Globe Newswire, the online language learning industry is expected to reach $44.9 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 19.5 % during the forecast period of 2024-2031. This industry growth is driven by factors such as the increasing globalization of businesses, and migration of individuals to different countries for studies or employment opportunities resulting in the need for individuals to communicate in multiple languages. 

This has led to more and more individuals interested in learning a foreign language. Moreover, technological advancements have made language learning more accessible, effective, and convenient, leading to a surge in the demand for online language learning platforms. Considering the demand, many online language learning platforms have risen in popularity and Verbling is one of them. 

If you are an aspiring education entrepreneur and want to enter the online learning industry by launching a platform similar to Verbling, then you must gain more information about it. Through this blog, let’s know about Verbling, its revenue model, its success story, and how you can build your own online language learning platform like Verbling. 

What is Verbling?

Verbling is an online language-learning platform that connects tutors with language-learning enthusiasts. Verbling envisioned reducing the gap between learners and native language speakers through this online platform. They aimed to empower people to become fluent in foreign languages all over the world.

Success Story Of Verbling

Verbling was founded in 2011 by Standford University friends Jake Jolis, Mikael Bernstein, and Gustav Rydstedt. Initially, this platform was established as Verbling Friends where users interested in learning each other’s languages were connected through video chat. In 2011, Verbling was listed as one of the five startups to watch by Gigaom. 

Verbling was backed by Y Combinator in the starting, later in 2012, the company raised $1 million in funding and moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to San Francisco, California. 

In 2015, Verbling raised $2.7 million in series A round funding for expansion. ACE Ventures (Geneva), Amir Banifatemi, Andrew Crichton, Adam Sharp, and Bullpen Capital are some of the popular investors of Verbling. 

Next, in 2016, the company started a new venture called Verbling Enterprise,  an online platform offering language learning lessons for employees of the company. 

Verbling launched its iOS and Android mobile apps in 2017. In Jan 2020, Verbling was acquired by the Busuu which surpassed 100 million users landmark after the acquisition. 

Now at present, Verbling’s estimated annual revenue is around $135.1 million per year and more than 10,000 qualified tutors provide live lessons 24/7 to over a million learners in 70+ languages. 

How Does Verbling Work?

Let’s understand the workflow of Verbling for all different user types including learners, tutors, and the admin. 

Workflow of Learners on Verbling: 

• Firstly, learners search and choose from qualified teachers listed on the platform depending on their learning needs.  
• After they have found a teacher, they can select a time that suits their requirements and add it to their calendar. 
• Learners can know the teacher and discuss their goals with them through messaging.
• Learners can now purchase 1, 5, 10, or more lessons with a teacher.
• After the successful payment, the learners can schedule the session by visiting the dashboard. 
• Learners and teachers will see a notification in their chat history showcasing the message that the class has been scheduled along with the class time. 
• Later, the learners can join the session via the dashboard by clicking on the ‘Join Lesson’ button when the tutor starts the session. 

Workflow of Tutors on Verbling: 

• First, interested tutors should create an account with Verbling and go to the teacher application and follow the detailed instructions. The Verbling team gets back to teachers within 15 business days. 
• After being listed on the platform, the tutors should create an attractive and professional profile to attract potential learners.
• Next, by utilizing Verbling’s messaging system the tutors should interact with students to determine their level of understanding, proficiency, and style of learning. 
• Verbling has an automated booking system enabling learners to book sessions at any available hour in their schedule with a 12-hour notice. 
• After the session is completed, Verbling applies a commission rate and adds tutors’ shares to their earnings page. 
• Tutors can cash out their earnings using payment methods such as Paypal, Wise Payoneer, or Verbling Credit. These earnings can be cashed out anytime. However, new earnings are unlocked and can be cashed out every Sunday or Monday depending on the time zone. 

Admin Roles and Responsibilities On a Platform Like Verbling: 

• Admin approves or disapproves the requests shared by the tutors on the platform.
• Manages the users, session orders, payment processing, session scheduling, and booking on the platform.
• Decides the percentage of commission to be charged from the tutor. 
• Manages the content, branding, and themes of the platform.
• Access and analyze the revenue reports & analytics and make informed business decisions. 
• Effectively promotes and market the platform.

Key Features of Verbling

Verbling streamlines the user experience by offering numerous advanced features on its platform. Let’s explore the key features of Verbling.

• Easy-to-use design of Verbling makes it easy for users to use and navigate through the platform. 
• Intuitive dashboards offered by Verbling for tutors and students make the user experience seamless and provide all important functionalities in one place. 
• Multi-currency and multi-lingual functionality provide convenience and flexibility to Verbling users. Moreover, with these functionalities, Verbling can cater to a global audience effectively. 
• Easy sign-up with minimum details makes it easy for users to register themselves on the platform. This also increases user retention and conversion.
• Search filters provided on Verbling, streamline the tutor searching process for the learners. Additionally, they can narrow down their search by applying different filter criteria to quickly find what they are looking for on the platform. 
• Calendar availability functionality makes it easy for learners to know the availability of tutors, and seamlessly book sessions on time that suit their requirements. 
• Effective communication tools like video chat, instant messaging, and more offered by Verbling make it easy for learners and tutors to communicate and collaborate with each other. 
• Reviews and ratings are essential for building credibility in the industry. Verbling enables learners to leave their feedback for the tutors after completing the session. 
• Discussion forum facilitates collaboration among peers, and tutors & learners. Learners can easily discuss their queries and concerns in the discussion forum offered by Verbling.
• Class packages can be offered to learners on Verbling which consist of groups of 5, 10, and 20 sessions offering convenience for both learners and tutors. 
• Multiple payment options streamline the payment process on the Verbling and enable learners to easily make payments.

How Verbling Earns Money? 

It is very crucial to understand how an online learning platform generates revenue. There are multiple channels to generate revenue and ensure the sustainable growth of your business. But first, let’s gain insights into Verbling’s revenue model. 

Revenue Model of Verbling 

• Commissions: The primary revenue stream of Verbling is commissions. It charges a 15% commission on tutor’s hourly rates. When students book sessions, they pay through the Verbling platform, and the commission charge is deducted before passing the remaining funds to the teacher. 

Other prominent revenue streams for an online tutoring platform include: 

• Subscriptions: A monthly or yearly subscription fee can be charged from users to access the platform.
• Advertisement Fees: Advertisements can be displayed on the platform in return for an advertisement fee. 
• Sponsored Listing: Tutors can be prominently displayed on the platform increasing their reach among learners by charging a listing fee. 

Plan a sustainable revenue model while keeping your future financial goals and aspirations in mind. You can also incorporate multiple revenue channels on your online learning platform for maximum profitability. 

The tremendous success of Verbling in the industry is an inspiration for education entrepreneurs to start their own online language learning platforms. Moreover, considering the industry growth, this indeed is the right time to launch an online language learning platform. Aspiring education entrepreneurs should research more about Verbling, and find the gaps and areas of improvement that need to be addressed. Creating a platform that focuses on these gaps and improvements can help you offer a unique online language-learning platform for learners. 

Launching an Online Language Learning Platform Like Verbling

Launching an online language learning platform from scratch without any technical background and no knowledge about the industry is a difficult task. Aspiring entrepreneurs can consider a well-known and reliable software option i.e. ready-made software to launch their online language learning platform effortlessly. Ready-made software solutions are easy to use and launch your online platform in quick time and cost-effectively. 

Moreover, ready-made software are tried and tested solution with negligible chances of any errors or bugs. Our advanced software– Yo!Coach, is designed specifically to help education entrepreneurs successfully enter the online education industry without much hassle. Let’s know more about it. 

Yo!Coach: An Advanced Ready-Made Software To Launch Your Online Language Learning Platform 

Yo!Coach is one of the best online language learning software available in the industry. It is ready-made software that makes it easy for entrepreneurs to launch their marketplace in the industry without any coding or technical knowledge. This software offers all the essential features required to successfully launch and run an online language learning platform. Additionally, it is customizable, hence, if you have any specific feature requirements you can get them easily implemented by Yo!Coach team. 

Yo!Coach has served more than 1000 clients worldwide in around 40+ countries. This software is capable enough to support 15+ online learning niches and 15+ business models. Moreover, Yo!Coach is rated 4 out of 5 on many software advising platforms. Plus, it comes with 10+ pre-integrated APIs that enhance the capabilities of your online learning platform from the beginning. 

Key Features Of Yo!Coach: 

• Pre-integrated with video conferencing tools like Lessonspace, AtomChat, and more.
• Collaborative tools such as virtual whiteboard, screen sharing & recording, discussion forum, and more.
• Intuitive and user-friendly interfaces
• Calendar availability for seamless booking and scheduling of sessions
• Multiple payment gateways and options to streamline the payment process
• Ratings and reviews
• Marketing-specific features 
• Robust admin features including user management, commission management, content management, and more
• Access to insights about revenue, sales, orders, top-performing subjects and tutors to make strategic business decisions.

Other Specifications of Yo!Coach

• Lifetime license
• One-time purchase
• Self-hosted 
• Customizable and scalable
• Diverse session types – One-on-one, group, pre-recorded, live courses, and more
• GDPR compliant 
• Multi-lingual and Multi-currency
• Industry experience
• Personalized demo
• 1 year of free technical support

Conclusion

The online language learning industry is growing and presents lucrative opportunities for aspiring education entrepreneurs. Building and launching your online language learning platform requires vast planning and execution. To build an online learning platform similar to Verbling you need something extra that others are missing out on. Yo!Coach can help you build an advanced and feature-rich online language-learning platform with out-of-the-box capabilities.