In China, 3 Americans have created an Uber for English lessons

Yoli offers Chinese speakers one-on-one English classes in an on-demand system similar to Uber's, reports Tech in Asia

Fifteen minutes is not a long time. It’s a short ride on the metro, a long article on Medium, or – if you’re one of those freakishly productive workout people – a high intensity ab workout. It’s also the length of an English class on Yoli.

“Since we’re on mobile and we’re on WeChat, we wanted to try 15 minutes,” says Drew Kirchhoff, co-founder of Yoli, an education startup based in Beijing. “A lot of people weren’t believers – they thought it was too short. They thought we were crazy.”

Yoli offers Chinese speakers one-on-one English classes in an on-demand system similar to Uber’s. When a student requests an English class, any teacher can claim it if they’re available. The entire service is conducted through WeChat, from automated student-teacher matching to classes, where teachers and students exchange written and audio messages. For each 15 minute session, Yoli teachers earn US $4.

Yoli’s 15-minute classes occupy a unique space between traditional online courses and free-talk sessions where students and teachers converse freely without a set structure. To spare teachers the hassle of planning every lesson, Yoli provides a curriculum and enough course material for 180 classes. For students, there’s even less preparation. There’s no need to schedule anything in advance – they just have to take out their phone and participate.

WeChat only
 

Yoli is one of the few companies that runs almost entirely inside WeChat, the messaging app that dominates social media in China. The company doesn’t have an office. Its staff – which includes teachers, customer service, and developers – works remotely. Payments are processed through WeChat’s mobile wallet.

WeChat has over 800 million users, 60 percent of which use the app more than 10 times a day. 

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here