The South American country is the fifth regional market where Babbel will be setting up and launching live classes.
New language acquisition has been on the rise in Latin America in the aftermath of the pandemic. With this momentum, the German language acquisition platform, Babbel, announced its «strategic expansion» into Chile, the fifth in a region where it already has a presence in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, according to the Diario Financiero.
The firm was founded in Berlin 16 years ago and is the first online language acquisition platform in the world. It has ventured into the B2B market, developing partnerships with prestigious companies such as Ferrero, Airbnb and McDonald’s through its Babbel for Business program.
Fifth regional market
Over the past few years, Chile has become a Latin American digital hub: prominent multinational companies such as Mercado Libre Microsoft, Google, Huawei, AWS and Oracle have opted for Chile. Foreign global services companies can access a series of incentives to set up in the country, including tax credits and benefits, among others.
«Babbel has achieved important goals and is currently expanding its presence in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. Its new target is Chile, a market full of potential,» the company announced.
Digital Maturity
According to a recent study conducted by the company’s research team, Chile’s adult Internet user population is 14 million, of which 45% (6 million) have studied languages in the last 12 months, while the remaining 55% (8 million) plan to start learning a language during the next six months.
«These findings point to a significant growth opportunity within the Chilean market,» the company commented.
With this momentum, Babbel moved its Latin American operations center from Europe to the United States. This change ensures a dedicated approach for the Latin American market, led by Zoe Zhang, the company’s Latam Manager.
«The main goal is to expand Babbel’s presence in the region and teach language to more students throughout Latin America,» she said.
Zhang explained that «we are delighted to include Chile as one of our active markets. Meanwhile, interest in online language acquisition, particularly English, has been on the rise in Latin America, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.»
She added that «after consolidating our presence in the US and European countries, we are excited to focus on the immense potential of Latin America. We hope to encourage Latin Americans to communicate on an international level and join us on our mission to foster mutual understanding through language,» she concluded.
Another new feature that Babbel will be launching in Chile is Babbel Live, with live classes. «According to Babbel user behavior data, Spanish-speaking Latino students predominantly study English (56%), followed by French (14%) and German (11%). Curiously, they do not seem to show much interest in the neighboring language: only 4% learn Brazilian Portuguese,» the company concluded.
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