Language learning app Babbel has launched its course booking platform, Travel Babbel, in its native German market.
This is a toe-in-the-waters of language trip booking for online educator Babbel since it acquired German online agency LingoVentura in 2018.
A spokesperson for Babbel confirmed that in the future, Lingoventura traffic will be redirected to Babbel Travel.
“Lingoventura will remain a ground for conversion optimisation and testing for now, but will ultimately redirect to Babbel Travel,” they said.
The sizeable Babbel customer base of “millions” will be actively targeted: at the time of the LingoVentura acquisition, CEO Markus Witte said he hoped that Babbel would help build the marketplace rather than cannibalise it.
“Moving into this new market, it is important for us to keep with our philosophy of strengthening the already-existing language learning market instead of trying to disrupt it,” he said at the time in a statement.
“The language travel sector isn’t as digital as it could be,” confirmed a company spokesperson.
“Our aim is to open it up to the Babbel customer base demographic – which is people who are interested in languages but also modern, digital solutions. And with a growing demand for integrated solutions, linking the two in due course is on the radar.”
“Linking the two in due course is on the radar”
According to German press sources, Babbel will however not launch Travel Babbel in the US, where US head Julie Hanson said, “This would create a completely new offer for which there is still no demand.”
The Travel Babbel site lists the names of the language school partners with which it works, and it is currently listing schools in 35 countries, offering nine language options.
The spokesperson confirmed that new iterations would be launched after testing in the German consumer market: “it’s likely to be the European languages like French and Italian first”.
