www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Business / Technology

Skills app helping to bridge cultural divide

By Emma Gonzalez (China Daily) Updated: 2016-04-05 10:10

Sophie Su feels like a bridge connecting two very different worlds.

Born in Australia, the young entrepreneur has always considered she belonged to two separate communities, because of her Chinese heritage.

But now, having already spent half her life in China, she has created an app which she said it's an excellent way of helping to bring those two different groups of people closer together.

"My foreign friends always asked me to introduce them to locals because they wanted to be more immersed in the culture and because they wanted to do business here," said Su.

"At the same time, my Chinese friends were after the exact same thing."

So aware of the lack of tools to break the cultural barriers, she not only created a tool to do it, but realized at the same time she had found a way for expats to monetize and share their skills and experiences with locals.

Her app, Pingo Space, has two different interfaces depending on whether it is used by an expat or a local.

Closely resembling Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Taobao marketplace, expats can build their own portals by adding pictures and information to their profiles, similar to creating their own stores.

Chinese customers can use the platform to buy services and write reviews.

Every transaction is carried out using the online payment service WeChat Wallet, a service offered by Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The app, which is named Ping Xing Guo in Chinese and translated into Pingo Space, allows foreigners to share what are considered less-conventional skills.

"I realized there were many foreigners in Beijing who had good skills, like playing piano, cooking or dancing, but they were sadly only teaching English here," explained co-founder Su.

Its parent company, Ping Xing Shi Kong Technology Co started developing the app in 2014 with the help of an initial angel investment of $500,000, raised with the help of Su's husband and co-founder Weng Yunkai, a foreign-language education entrepreneur.

Last year, the company received an undisclosed second round of investment from education mogul Michael Yu, chairman of New Oriental Education & Technology Group.

Bruce Pan, who previously worked for Chinese search engine Baidu Inc, and Gordon Feng, a former employee of tech group Microsoft Corp, also joined the founding team and helped the couple with product design.

Despite language teaching still being the most sought-after service, the platform offers a broader range of skills and abilities, which currently include those as diverse as ballet, American football, skydiving and beer brewing.

Lamiya Safarova, a student from Azerbaijan, uses the app to teach English as well as help Chinese students deal with their applications for studying abroad.

"I can teach English but I also think I might have other skills that I could teach others," said Safarova.

"I am fluent in Turkish and Russian. I can teach business people conversational skills in those languages too."

For the app to be successful, it is crucial that expats set their own prices and have complete control over their work.

Su, who has spent eight years in the education industry, complains that intermediaries in the education industry usually charge disproportionate costs to introduce teachers and students.

"In the education industry, there is a 300 percent markup but Pingo Space only charges expats 5 yuan for every transaction done on the app," said Su.

Pingo Space calculates that if an expat teaches two hours per week, with the average cost of a lesson at 298 yuan in the platform, the earnings would allow them to pay a monthly rent of 3,000 yuan.

It already has around 100 foreigners registered on the platform offering services to around 500 local residents.

With more than 1 million expats living in China, mainly concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, however, there is still huge scope for growth.

It now expects to expand into Shanghai and Guangzhou within the next six months, boosting its customer base to 100,000 Chinese users and 400 foreigners.

Hot Topics

Editor's Picks
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 超矿碰人人超人人看 | 午夜香港三级a三级三点 | 国产一级视频久久 | 亚洲精品免费在线观看 | 成人区在线观看免费视频 | 日本亚洲欧美高清专区vr专区 | 成人在线高清 | 午夜成人影视 | 一级黄片毛片 | 三级午夜三级三点在看 | 大量愉拍情侣在线视频 | 大量真实偷拍情侣视频野战 | 欧美一级高清视频在线播放 | 国产欧美另类久久久品 | 国产一区亚洲二区 | 日韩亚洲欧美一区二区三区 | 亚洲精品久久一区影院 | 欧美亚洲影院 | 成年人在线网站 | bt天堂国产亚洲欧美在线 | 日韩免费一级a毛片在线播放一级 | 久久精品国产精品亚洲人人 | 国产人做人爱免费视频 | 2019天天操天天干天天透 | 贵州美女一级纯黄大片 | 精品国产一区二区三区久久影院 | 性欧美精品孕妇 | 99久久99这里只有免费费精品 | 性生话一级国产片 | 做爰成人五级在线视频| 亚洲男人的天堂在线 | 久久精品免费观看视频 | 亚洲在线精品 | 成人免费手机在线看网站 | 在线免费观看欧美 | 色夜视频 | 一级毛片播放 | 日韩精品一区二区三区视频 | 亚洲成人免费 | 亚洲第一狼人区 | 欧美做a一级视频免费观看 欧美做爱毛片 |