Having learnt Cantonese for most of his life, Matthew Ho, co-founder of nativetongue, knows just how difficult learning a language can be, and it’s this experience that led him to develop an interactive app to teach basic language skills.

Ho says the idea had been developing for a while, but it wasn’t until he took part in the first Australian startup weekend in Melbourne last year, that he turned it into something he could pitch.

“There was an opportunity to pitch the night before the weekend,” says Ho.

“I went around the office where I was working and asked people what they thought. On the Friday night, you pitch the idea, and it was judged the best pitch.”

By Saturday afternoon, Ho had recruited his team, researched the customer base and had a product in the making.

Nativetongue now offer language apps in Spanish, English and Chinese. They have been downloaded more than 50,000 times across the iOS, Android and Kindle platforms.

Mandarin Madness is the most popular nativetongue language app (Image: supplied)

The Chinese app has been the most successful. It ranked number 2 in the education section on the Apple App Store last year. Promoting an app presents unique challenges though, says Ho; “it’s really difficult to market an app.”.

He lists app store optimisation (like SEO for your app description), social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and getting listed on app discovery sites as the most effective ways to get the word out.

“We tried SEM and mobile marketing but it wasn’t that effective.”

Nativetounge has been self-funded this far. Ho says the team would like to get some funding, as it would mean they could recruit a designer and another developer.

“We didn’t have designers (when building the apps), so just used people we found through friends of friends. Deviant Art was another good place to look.”

More than 1.2 billion people in the world are currently learning a language. It’s a huge market and one Ho wants to tap into. Expect to see an expanded range of languages coming soon.

Ho’s advice on marketing an app:

• Test your copy. The words “learn” and “mandarin” were most effective in the headline with the Mandarin Madness app;
• Get on app discovery sites. There are plenty of these sites out there. Nativetongue can be found on app directories like Famigo, AppBrain, and AppShrink;
• Customer service is important. As a founder you need to respond to every comment, says Ho. Make sure you learn from your customers what works and what doesn’t.