社群語言學習應用軟體的商業模式

The sharing economy is without a doubt the hottest Internet trend of the recent years. Services like UBER or airbnb allow people worldwide to share and monetize their unused resources like spare rooms or their cars.
This IMBA thesis introduces a business plan for a language assistance app called Linqapp that takes advantage of both the sharing economy as well as the growing interconnectedness of people in our modern society.
Instead of sharing tangible resources like spare rooms or cars, the app that is introduced in this thesis lets people share a resource that anybody possesses: their own language skills.
Language learners can use the app to solve any kind of language related problem by posting a question that may contain pictures or audio clips. These questions are relayed to native speakers that instantly answer these questions using their mobile phones and therefore create value for the question asker.

1. Introduction 1
2. Business Description 3
2.1. Company Summary 3
2.2. General Business Description 3
2.2.1. The Problem 3
2.2.2. The Opportunity 4
2.2.3. Linqapp’s Mission 4
2.2.4. Basic Nature of Business Operation 4
2.3. Business Models 5
2.3.1. In-App-Purchases 5
2.3.2. Targeted Advertising 6
2.3.3. Language Services Platform 7
3. Services 9
3.1. Community-Based Instant Language Assistance 9
3.1.1. Asking for Language Assistance 10
3.1.2. Credit Point System 11
3.1.3. Providing Language Assistance 12
3.1.4. Social Community and Language Exchange Functions 13
3.1.5. Incentivizing Community Participation by Gamification 16
3.2. Value-Added Paid-For Language Services 19
3.2.1. Document Translations 19
3.2.2. On-The-Spot Interpreting 22
3.2.3. Customer Benefits: What Will Make Users Offer and Purchase Language Services on Linqapp 23
3.2.4. Addressing Potential Customer Concerns 25
4. Market Strategies 28
4.1. Market Analysis 28
4.1.1. Primary Market: Language Learning Industry 28
4.1.2. Secondary Market: Language Service Industry 29
4.2. Competitor Analysis 30
4.2.1. Flitto 30
4.2.2. Waygo 31
4.2.3. Gengo 31
4.2.4. Google Translate 32
4.3. Competitive Position 33
4.4. Marketing Strategy 34
4.4.1. Cooperations 34
4.4.2. Social/Viral Marketing 35
4.4.3. Direct Advertising 35
5. Development & Operations Plan 37
5.1. Developing a Mobile Based Language Assistance App 37
5.1.1. Android Version 37
5.1.2. iOS Version 38
5.2. Building a Language Learning Community & Growing Userbase 38
5.3. Developing a Platform for Paid Language Services 38
5.3.1. Android & iOS Version 39
5.3.2. Web Version 39
5.4. Personnel Requirements 39
5.5. Development Budget 40