How much would you charge per hour to speak to a random stranger in English?

4 points by charlie0077 5 years ago | 13 comments

There are a lot of people(most of them kids) in Asia are trying to practice English. And I just learned that a typical 1v1 chatting service may cost more than $30 per hour. I built a quick MVP to offer these people a more affordable option, the idea is basically this: creating a marketplace that native speakers(instructors) and learners can meet and match. You can kind of consider it as "Uber of speaking English". I am trying to figure out what would be a good price suggestion that I should have in the website. Currently I am thinking around $25 per hour.

The website is: app.lingwu.ai BTW, if you want to earn some part time money, or just chat with people from the other countries, try signing up!!

gus_massa 5 years ago |

Perhaps you should change the title. This looks more like a promotion of your site than a question. It is fine to post your stuff here, but if it looks like you are trying to disguise it, someone will complain.

How much do you get from the call?

There is no landing page. If I go to your site, it is only a signup form. No way I'm creating an account without at least a few nice graphics.

Can I select between British English and American English?

Can I filter by topics? Can I select someone to talk about movies, or about books, or about cooking? (Is this a common feature in other sites?)

How do you prevent abuse from the users? How do you prevent that this is trnasformed into a webcam porn site?

charlie0077 5 years ago | |

Hi, thanks for all your comments.

All the things you mentioned totally make sense. I do have a landing page. This is to quickly see the other people's thoughts and validate the idea.

Eventually it would be topic based and/or algorithm driven. But for now, it would be manual, it just takes time and effort to build everything. I am doing this for free and for fun.

I have not thought about the abuse issue, looks like a pretty big and valid concern.

gus_massa 5 years ago | | |

I found that if I remove app from the link you posted, I go to the landing page. Perhaps you should add some decoration to the signin page, and a link to the main page.

LoSpietato 5 years ago |

Turn on a English radio broadcast it is free and you learn every day English like a native speaker

charlie0077 5 years ago | |

A lot of people in Asian countries can read, listen, write, but not able to speak. They don't have the environment to practice.

verdverm 5 years ago |

Could you offer a spectrum or market (where I can set my price) and see what happens?

ignoranceprior 5 years ago |

I might sign up, are there any "customers" currently?

sarcasmatwork 5 years ago |

charlie0077 5 years ago | |

hmm, thanks for the input

sarcasmatwork 5 years ago | | |

Not trying to be a dick, but being honest. Saturated market imho. Free apps out there already where both parties get to learn. HelloTalk is an example.

db48x 5 years ago |

Personally I'd be so annoyed by random strangers calling me that it would take at least $1000/hr to make me sign up. Good luck though.

charlie0077 5 years ago | |

Hmm, thanks for the info. Just to clarify, it will be appointment based, and you will go to a meeting link similar to zoom meeting. They will never call you directly, neither do they know your contact info. You can cancel the appointment anytime if you don't like talking to that person.

db48x 5 years ago | | |

That sounds like an entirely reasonable way to do it.