STARTUP PROFILE

M Mandarin

Updated: 10/2019

M Mandarin

China / Beijing , China

Website

Series A 12/2018

Pitch

Using an app containing hundreds of interactive comics, M Mandarin helps foreigners learn Mandarin through other languages and by immersing them in virtual real-life situations.

Why

More people learning Chinese

More than 150m foreigners around the world are learning Mandarin.

Outdated textbooks

Many textbooks that learners use to learn Mandarin are outdated and boring.

Market

150m

The number of foreigners learning Mandarin at the end of 2018: Confucius Institute Headquarters.

Product

M Mandarin's app allows users to learn Mandarin through interactive comics. Users can read original comic stories, click each word, phrase and dialogue to learn authentic Mandarin pronunciations and check the explanation in seven different languages, dub for the comics and participate in discussions in its community.

Business Model

M Mandarin employs both B2B and B2C models. It sells textbooks and customized online courses to business clients. For individual users, it profits from paid online courses and paid comics. Users could subscribe or use top up “beans" - M Mandarin's virtual currency - to unlock certain number of comics.

Price

Yearly membership costs $64.99 and unlocks access to all comics. Quarterly membership costs $12.99 for 100 episodes of comics and a monthly membership costing $6.99 buys 30 episodes of comics.

Users who do not buy memberships can use top up beans to unlock comics. The top up beans can be bought with real money, earned through activities like downloading the app, signing in daily and dubbing for comics, .

Learning materials

M Mandarin designs its courses according to the standards of both the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and China's Mandarin proficiency test, HSK (Hanyu Shuipin Kaoshi).

The comics, created by M Mandarin's team, are suitable for beginners and intermediate-level learners. Users could click each Mandarin word, phrase and dialogue in comics for further explanations.

M Mandarin app is able to teach Mandarin using English, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Russian and Spanish. The interactive comics can be easily switched among the languages.

Every comics episode includes Mandarin grammar and culture videos to help students learn more about China.

Target customers

M Mandarin targets mainly non-Chinese speakers aged 14–40. Its business customers are mainly overseas primary schools, middle schools and universities offering Mandarin courses.

Market strategy

M Mandarin relies on TCSL (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language) teachers, instead of online ads, to acquire new users. To expand its user base, the company also works with Confucius Institute Headquarters, a public educational organization under China's Ministry of Education, aiming to promote Chinese language and culture across the globe. It also cooperates with Mandarin proficiency competitions for foreigners, such as Chinese Bridge.

Founders

Dou Xiaojing

CEO and founder

Investors

Shengyin Incubation

China

Journey

All
Products and Services
Expansion
Fundings
The Launch

LAUNCH 2016

2016

LAUNCH

2016 - M Mandarin's parent company was founded.

The Launch

October, Funnybean Technology, parent company of M Mandarin, was founded.

GROWTH 2017

2017

GROWTH

2017 - Launched app; added dubbing feature; offered online video courses; 100,000 users.

Products and Services

June, M Mandarin app launched.
September, added a dubbing feature for users to dub the comics on the platform.
November, offered online teaching courses enabling users to follow teachers through videos.
Expansion

November, Number of users worldwide reached over 100,000.

GROWTH 2018

2018

GROWTH

2018 - Added subscription models; launched paid online courses; raised series A funding; added self assessment feature; partnered Confucius Institute Headquarters; over 800 comics; 200,000 users.

Products and Services
May, added subscription model.
- Users could pay for membership to unlock comics.
May, added the dictionary feature.
- Users could click every word in the comics to get explanations.
June, added the test feature enabling users to self assess their proficiency.
October, launched paid online courses.
December, supported Arabic.
Expansion

December, became one of the first 17 partners of Confucius Institute Headquarters, supervisor of the Confucius Institute program.
December, launched over 800 original comics and had over 200,000 registered users.
Fundings
Q4, raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Shengyin Incubation.
- The money would be used for marketing.

TODAY

Today

M Mandarin has over 300,000 registered users from 176 countries, including about 100,000 monthly active users. It has launched more than 900 online courses.

FUTURE

Future

M Mandarin is preparing to launch mock tests on its platform to help its users prepare for the HSK examination.

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