$899.99 Kongfu English App Has 3,000 Downloads, for $2.7 Million!

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Kongfu English. You know, the app that costs a whopping $899.99 on iTunes? Yeah… it was also the app that made folks on Sina Weibo laugh really hard at the absurd price tag. We also had our fair share of fun laughs at it too. But guess what, the makers of Kongfu English are having the last laugh because the money is right in their bank account!

After that post broke loose, I actually had a chat with one of the co-founders of Kongfu English, Chris Lonsdale. Chris is from New Zealand but has stayed in China and Hong Kong for over 25 years. He is currently residing in Hong Kong and can speak Cantonese fluently. Trust me, this guy speaks real solid Chinese. Our chat on Skype was 99% in Chinese — not too bad for a laowai! And that gave me a little more confidence about his Kongfu English app.

The first question that I asked Chris was the price. He sorta saw that coming was confident that $899.99 is fair value. He argued that buying his app would actually be more cost effective as compared to getting a English tutor. For about 10,000 RMB (US$1571), a keen English learner in China can get weekly lessonsfor 6 months (about 18 lessons in total), which he says wouldn’t be that useful.

He said that learning a new language requires time and a lot of repetition to absorb a new verb or phrase. A teacher can only repeat X amount of times before she becomes impatient and decides to give his/her student a thrash down. To make matters worst, the student only gets to speak in English just once a week, which doesn’t help him/her to pick up the language fast.

But an app can repeat countless times and will still obey you like a loyal pet. Plus, you can learn English at your own time and pace. You can learn while on the move or while you’re in the bathroom — which is the perfect “repetition formula” which Chris says is crucial when trying to pick up a new language. Bottomline is, the “teacher” has to be by your side whenever you need her.

According to his experience, Chris claims that most of his users can converse in English within six months. That’s quite an achievement. Chris explains that his team has spent three years developing the app. His company was first established in 2007 where the focus was more on B2B sales. They sold language learning solutions to companies like Kraft, Rockwell, and Ericsson. It was only in September of last year that Kongfu English was first made available to consumers on iTunes. And through the year, Kongfu English has racked up 3,000 downloads which amounts to about $2.7 million in revenue. Not too bad for a company which is just four years old.

Chris credits the success to his team and the quality of the content within the app. In the near future, he plans to roll out Kongfu English Gateway — an app that helps Chinese learn basic English at no cost and also to get a feel of what would be expected for the full version of Kongfu English. Kongfu English Gateway will be available on Android too. This will certainly be a good move that could help calm down the souls of those who got scared by Kongfu English’s hefty $899.99 price tag.