Cambly is an online English language learning and teaching platform that was co-founded by Kevin Law and Sameer Shariff in 2012. Its headquarter is in San Francisco, California.
The platform provides on-demand access to English tutors via video chats. These tutors at Cambly are native English speakers from United States, Canada, UK, Australia, and other English-speaking countries. The platform is created for users to learn English, practice/ improve English conversation, or prepare for IELTS or TOEFL exams. It allows users to connect with an online English teacher in a matter of seconds. In this article, we’ll explore Cambly business model in-depth and also get our answers to “How does Cambly work?” and “How does Cambly make money?”
In this post, we'll cover:
Cambly Business model
Let’s explore the Cambly business model using its business model canvas that covers Cambly’s key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, cost structures, and key resources. Through all these key points, our curious readers will get to know the exact answer to “How does Cambly work?”. Later, we’ll move on to its revenue model to know “How does Cambly make money?”. We’ll also try to understand “How it helps people to earn money through its revenue model”.
Key Partners for Cambly business model
The company mainly focuses on providing English lessons under special categories called, “Cambly Kids” and “Cambly for Organizations” to Kids and Organizations respectively.
The Cambly Kids program helps children to learn English at an early age from kid-friendly English tutors. The company claims that in their 1-on-1 lessons through video calling, the child gets the maximum speaking time and the maximum chance to develop English fluency. This program of Cambly is certified by the kidSAFE Seal Program which simply shows that it is 100% safe and children friendly.
Cambly for Organizations helps organizations or teams to learn proficient English skills for their professional development through private English tutoring from any device.
Additional to this, tutors and brand ambassadors of Cambly are the key partners.
Cambly business model Key Activities
Key activities of Cambly include teaching English online to Kids and organizations. It provides revenue opportunities to native Englishenglish speakers through their Tutor with Cambly program. The platform also runs a “Become a Cambly Ammabssador” program to allow influencers to earn money every time someone from their network tries Cambly. They (Camble ambassadors) can earn money through referrals.
Key Resources functioning in Cambly business model
Key resources of Cambly include teachers, students, and the Cambly ambassadors.
Value Propositions
The platform provides a safe, open, and friendly environment to practice English. Here are some of the rules to be followed during their class:
- The user has to respect everyone they meet on video chats with respect and kindness. The same goes for the tutor too. Cambly has a zero-tolerance policy for any one- student or tutor- who mistreats another.
- The tutor as well as the student has to be fully and respectfully dressed up.
- The lessons should take place in a quiet place without any excessive background noise on both ends.
- Before sharing the experience video, the student must ask the tutor’s permission. If the video is shared without taking permission, the user will be asked to remove it.
- As the platform is strictly a learning environment, no one is allowed to drink alcohol, smoke, eat, or use any offensive substance.
- External contact info must not be shared for the privacy and safety of both student and tutor.
- The platform follows a no-solicitation policy.
Customer Relationship
In cambly, the main customer relationship exists between the tutor and the student. The company provides children-friendly tutors to kids and for professionals, they have tutors that match with the working field of the learner. It helps in making a customer-tutor relationship more understandable and interesting.
In case the user has some issue, he/she can contact Cambly through the customer service contact page or social media pages. They are quick in responding to messages.
Who are Cambly’s investors?
As per the report published by Crunchbase, Cambly is currently funded by a total of 10 investors with no one as a lead investor. Here is the list of all its investors:
- ACME Capital
- Monashees
- Shervin Pishevar
- Investo
- Cherubic Ventures
- Y Combinator
- Avichal Garg
- Cherubic Ventures
- Nimble Ventures
The most recent of them includes ACME Capital and Monashess.
How does Cambly work?
The work of Cambly is a bit different from most other ESL teaching companies. Its work is completely done through its chatting platform. The student simply needs to have an English conversation with a native English teacher via the app. It provides a video chat feature through which both ends interact with each other to help the student improve his/her conversational skills.
Learning English is a difficult task for many students who cannot find a place to practice with other humans. Cambly provides a platform to learn English confidently from native English speakers. It offers a safe, low-pressure environment to students allowing them to learn from mistakes.
To work as a teacher at Cambly, one must have a computer at home that has video chat features with high Internet connectivity, a webcam, and a mic. Cambly pays its teachers per minute. While they are having chats with students, the platform keeps track and pays them 17 cents for each minute. Payment is made on a weekly basis using Paypal payments as long as the tutor has made at least $20.
In the Cambly kids program, the payment is a little more than the traditional Cambly. The company pays $12/hour or $0.20/min and there is absolutely no deduction.
To join Cambly as a tutor, there is no requirement for a bachelor’s degree or tutoring experience to work with Cambly Kids. Only a passion to work with children is required in the candidate. The platform allows tutors to chat directly with parents using a messaging tool. This tool includes built-in translation to assist with any language barrier.
Using Camblly is very easy. The student just needs to sign up for Cambly’s user account and choose a course according to the requirement.
Here are a few features of Cambly:
- Students can go for a 1-to-1 video chat with the tutor
- There are 24/7 on-demand sessions for both students and teachers
- The length of the time period spent with the tutor depends on the package purchased on Cambly.
- Every lesson in Cambly is recorded and can be reviewed by the student anytime after the class.
- The Cambly platform has an online chatting feature that allows the student and tutor to type in their native language and have it automatically translated in each other’s native language if they are stuck somewhere.
How does Cambly make money?
To answer the question, “How does Cambly make money?”, one has to understand the Subscription-based revenue model.
Today, most of the subscription-based products and services run successfully while others tend to fail. It is simple and attractive to any customer as they simply have to sign up, put in their credit card, and enjoy the services while the company gets paid every month through its subscribers.
This is not at all a new business model but has been in existence since the 17th century. But in past few years, a surge is being observed in its usage. There is hardly any industry that is not following this Subscription-based revenue model as it benefits both customers and companies. Cambly generates money revenue by charging customers a recurring fee that has to be processed by customers at regular intervals. This revenue business model is built on establishing a long-term relationship with the customers. When this relationship is built with the company and the customer, the customer willingly pays regularly for access to the company’s product or services. It is also called recurring revenue.
Here are the 5 steps from profitwell.com that explains the subscription revenue cycle :
- Acquire your customers
- Deliver consistent, high-quality service/products
- Look for opportunities to upsell or cross-sell
- Work to retain users and reduce finance
- Rinse and Repeat
These are the 5 golden rules of running a high-quality and successful Subscription-based business revenue model. They ensure sustainability and keeps your subscriber connected.
Want to delve into business similar to Cambly?
Building a subscription model is not easy but works wonders if done properly. Whether you are providing a product or a service, a subscription revenue model can help build a sustainable customer-client relationship and you’ll have to spend less time searching for new customers. Building a subscription business with the right strategies can help you stand out in the market.
If you are willing to launch a subscription-based teaching service platform similar to Cambly, Contact us today, Ncrypted Technologies has the right solution developed by our talent pool. We offer customized and innovative features as per your requirement to let to launch a successful subscription-based ESL teaching platform.
