Company Performance Metrics
- Andreas Schroeter: Co-FounderPast Role: wywy, Co-founder and COO
Patrick Uecker: Co-FounderPast Role: Bab.la, Managing Director
bab.la is a wiki-style language portal, offering online language learning products in 24 different languages.
The company was founded in May 2007 and went online in July the same year. Initially it featured one product, an English-German dictionary. Since then the company has grown into 24 languages and a large product range (37 dictionaries,
language quizzes, language games, vocabulary lessons, language forum etc)
bab.la's wiki-style approach motivates users to participate. Users, aptly named 'language lovers', can enter new translation suggestions, create their own quizzes or vocabulary lessons, rate and comment on other user suggestions or share bab.la's content via widgets on their own websites. Because of this approach bab.la's vocabulary lessons product was recently awarded the prestigious Comenius Edumedia Seal.
In 2007, the company was shortlisted as 'Start-up of the Year' by Deutsche Startups (leading German start-up blog). In 2008, Wirtschaftswoche (leading German business magazine) included bab.la in their 25 most promising start-ups list. In 2009, the company was nominated as 'Business Idea of the Year' by Internet World (German IT & technology magazine).
The company continues to grow along the two dimensions 'products' and 'languages'.
