English Learning App CAKE to Merge with HYBE EDU, Expands Global Language Education Business
English Learning App CAKE to Merge with HYBE EDU, Expands Global Language Education Business
English Learning App CAKE to Merge with HYBE EDU, Expands Global Language Education Business
- Language learning edutech company CAKE will merge with Korean language education company HYBE EDU
- English learning app CAKE exceeds 100 million downloads in 25 countries; expanding its language learning business and positioning itself as a leader in the edutech market
2022.03.30
Language learning edutech company CAKE, a subsidiary of SNOW, announced through corporate disclosure that it will merge with HYBE EDU, a subsidiary of HYBE.
NAVER is preemptively responding to the global language learning market’s rapidly changing landscape with this merger, to ensure sustainable growth.
CAKE was launched by SNOW—whose parent company is NAVER—as an English learning app in 2018, before spinning the service off as a subsidiary in October 2020. Only after four years since the service was launched, users from all over the world in markets such as Asia (including Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand), the Middle East (including the United Arab Emirates and Iraq), South America (including Mexico and Brazil), as well as Europe (including France and Italy) are using the app to study English
Select original lessons and free-to-access clips of everyday English expressions performed by native speakers are popular among CAKE app users. CAKE is also receiving positive reviews for its interactive listening and speaking practice features, in addition to various video and audio content. The app continues to earn high ratings, with scores of 4.9 on the Apple App Store and 4.8 on Google Play.
CAKE currently has over 100 million app downloads, with more than 10 million monthly active users (MAU). Based on its MAU, the app is the world's second-largest language learning service provider after Duolingo.
CAKE plans to widen its service scope and venture into the K-pop artist intellectual property (IP) language learning business which engages K-pop artists to create various educational content—an industry pioneered by HYBE EDU. It also aims to buckle down on its Korean language education business by launching a version for Korean within this year.
HYBE EDU creates and distributes innovative and effective educational content so that fans all over the world can learn the language and culture of the artists they love.
HYBE EDU’s ‘Learn! KOREAN with BTS’ was published in 2020 has sold over 300,000 copies in more than 30 countries and regions around the world and is used as an official textbook for Korean language courses at nine universities in seven countries, including the University of Sheffield in the UK, Middlebury College in the US, and EDHEC Business School in France. The company also recently collaborated with YG Entertainment to publish ‘BLACKPINK IN YOUR KOREAN’, a set of textbooks using K-pop girl group Blackpink’s IP made for learning Korean in English and Japanese.
“Through this merger, we can now combine HYBE EDU’s unique language learning approach driven by popular artist IPs with our expertise in providing fast-growing services in the global English learning market” said Lee Chung-hee, CEO of CAKE. “CAKE also aims to become the go-to service for global users who want to learn English or Korean, and for anyone who wants to learn a foreign language.”
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