Seeking Japanese-learning business ideas

3 comments

1. A lot of input-heavy learners resort to piracy not (just) because we’re cheap but because distribution agreements play keep-away with the kind of content we need.

   A really good example is when a game is originally written in Japanese, has voice acting in Japanese, distributes the Japanese voices worldwide, but has a region-lock preventing you from *reading* any dialog in Japanese unless you’re in Japan or get a cracked copy.

   Next there’s the technical problem of “okay, now, how do I study from this?” It’s convenient to be able to copy words into a dictionary, and lines or screenshots into spaced-repetition software. Well, we mod games to do exactly that.

   In general technical problems have already been solved. There are *lots* of computer nerds learning Japanese, the tech is very good. There aren’t as many services trying to solve the business and rights problems – basically just Lingopie. (And the pirates running Animelon)

   And a problem with Lingopie is that they force you to use *their* spaced repetition, which is not as good as JPDB.io.

   If *that’s* something you could put together: video, game, manga, literature distribution with a world-class spaced-repetition algorithm your business would actually help people reach proficiency.

   Unfortunately, there’s a problem with that business model: only a tiny fraction of people are willing and able to put in the hours. And those people are generally *not* working high-paying jobs and can afford premium services. You can’t move enough money to have a place at the negotiating table with publishers, so it will be an extreme uphill battle for Japanese. (Lingopie has better content in its European languages – because Europeans *understand* multilingualism much better than Japanese do.)

   So here’s what you should do instead, if you want to be financially successful

   – make yet another Rosetta Stone knockoff
   – gamify it heavily
   – artificially slow people down (ideally you want them to take 1-3 years per JLPT level)
   – make truthy claims about a scientific language-learning breakthrough
   – gacha lootcrate vocabulary packs or somesuch
   – don’t get disappeared by Duo’s white van

2. As someone who’s currently running a service for people learning Japanese (https://jpdb.io) my advice to you would be: don’t. There’s no money to be made here. (Unless you want to do this as a hobby and not as a serious business.)

   But if you really insist here are a few things you might consider doing to actually make money (which is what the successful players are doing):

   * Pick another language. Japanese is probably *the* language with most resources out there (quantity and quality wise), considering how many tech people want to learn it and instead of doing that create yet another app/website. (Just look at how often a new app/website is posted to this subreddit.)
   * Ideally pick multiple popular languages which many “normal” (as in: non-tech) people want to learn. (You can then chuck Japanese in there as an extra.)
   * Only target beginners. They’re the most numerous group, and unlike more advanced learners they don’t already have a routine so there’s a chance they’ll use your thing.
   * Don’t even try to get anyone to fluency. Getting there is long and hard and takes a lot of work. And most people hate work. Instead sell them on the *idea* of fluency, and let them spin their wheels as beginners.
   * Gamify everything.
   * Optimize for user friendliness and make the process of using your thing fun and addictive, even at the cost of slowing down your users’ progress.
   * A/B test everything to increase user retention and engagement.
   * Have good marketing.

   Even then you’re in for a tough time, because the market is already absolutely crowded with players which are a lot bigger than you and have deeper pockets than you, and who have figured all of this stuff out already.

3. There are no apps I know that teach Japanese with music, which is a shame because I think most of us have learned English reading lyrics.