WEBVTT - Spanish Language Learning Grows in the US 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.360 You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:05.840 Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:08.520 Hey, never too late to be talking about a new 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:09.240 year's resolution. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.520 Yeah, maybe things like eating better, getting more sleep, working out, 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.120 more munched on our popcorn. Yeah, the hate Popcorn's okay. 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.520 Maybe the new year's resolution for you, Carol is learning 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:19.480 another language. 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.200 Yeah, I could kind of brush up on my Spanish. 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.759 You have so much spare time, Yeah, exactly, I can multitask. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:26.279 Well. 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:28.240 There are plenty of online platforms out there to help 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.680 you do that. Among them, though, is Babel, the Berlin 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.600 based company that does exactly that helps you learn a 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:34.120 new language. 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.120 Well, we've got back with us Julie Hansen, the US 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.000 CEO of Babel. It's a role that she's had since 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.839 twenty seventeen. We should note Julie also the former COO 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.040 and president of Business Insider. It's a role that she 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.320 served in when Axel Springer bought bi back in what 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.479 twenty fifteen, value the company for four hundred and fifty million. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.319 Julie joins us on Zoom from New York. Julie, good 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.440 to have you with us this afternoon. How are you. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:58.880 Good. Thanks for having me Sam and Carol. 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.040 Yeah, well, thanks so much for coming back here. So 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:03.120 I kind of made this joke about having so much 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.440 spare time there. But at the same time, the whole 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.600 point of the app based companies that help you learn 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.480 another language is that you kind of do them when 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:15.440 you do have a few minutes. Talk to us a 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.320 little bit about how you differentiate Babel in a marketplace 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:23.640 that has Rosetta Stone, it has duo Lingo. There's, you know, 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.200 so many options out there for people to learn another language. 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.760 You're right there are, and it is a great New 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.960 Year's resolution. So I love that Carol is on it 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:40.479 and trying one thing. You know, we do say that 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:42.720 with Babel you only need like ten to fifteen minutes 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.679 a day, and that's actually really important because you'll do 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.600 better learning consistently versus binge learning. I think it's probably 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.240 like studying for a test in college. You want to 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.680 keep going with a daily habit versus one giant study session. 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:03.000 But Babel is very much about learning efficacy. You know, 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:08.400 we are about getting you conversational. It's not comparable to 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.160 college in that sense. We understand that our users want 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.840 to learn a language to speak it and use it 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:19.079 in their lives, not to not to pass a test necessarily. 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.160 So that's the focus. We use a lot of human intelligence, 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.359 augmented by some artificial intelligence. But the role of teachers 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.519 in creating our product has been super important over the years, 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.120 and we now have teachers actually giving live lessons in 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:35.280 our Babbel Live product. 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.160 So I think that's a quick way to think about Babbel. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.120 What about from the perspective of a business that needs 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.560 its employees to brush up on a new language or 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.640 learn learn a new language, Because there's a business side 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.040 of this too, in terms of where the revenue comes from, 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.040 at least here in the US. You'r us CEO, of course, 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:55.760 what is what is personal use of it versus business 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:56.639 and enterprise use? 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.920 Absolutely the fastest growing portion in our business is the 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.720 B to B business, the business use, and that's. 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:06.000 Very interesting in the US. 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.880 It's quite different from the use case we see in Europe. 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:14.160 So in the US we really have one main use 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:18.360 case or two languages together make up a main use case. 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:23.520 So English speakers learning Spanish, Spanish speakers learning English. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:24.720 You know, we have many. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.760 Different industries that we serve, but we're clearly seeing a 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.760 trend toward those industries that have a large proportion of 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.080 Spanish speaking workers in them. So that can be anything 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:40.760 from healthcare even to like manufacturing and construction, and it's 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.280 interesting and baseball, by the way, we have something like 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:47.480 eight MLB teams working with us, and it's bilateral. You know, 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:52.720 we find workers learning English, managers learning Spanish. To generalize, 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.680 there can be a mix of those two, of course, 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.760 but that's the general trends and that definitely ties in 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.920 with the trends we see in the US in consumer 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.040 where Spanish is by far our biggest language. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.720 Are you seeing this added at all as a workplace perk? 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.760 Like companies that are saying, you know, come work for 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:16.479 us because we believe in continuing education and we'll pay 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:18.640 for you, like for example here at Bloomberg. You know, 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:20.880 now we have virtual physical therapy that's new this year. 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:21.800 I think we could talk about that. 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:23.120 I hope I don't get in trouble for Doug about 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:24.640 I think it's a pretty cool. I think it's a 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.560 pretty cool new thing. But would an HR department ever say, 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.080 you know, we want to attract and retain talent. One 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.719 way we can do that is by offering babble. Do 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:33.599 any companies do that. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.800 Yeah, absolutely, maybe a little more so in Europe than here. 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.640 But it's a good use case of both cases. For example, 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.480 we work with a major ad agency that has a 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.960 large international program where they move their people around and 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.320 they bought a large license to prep people for those trips. 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.680 So and that's but that's kind of a it's a 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.600 it's a perk for them. So yes, that is a 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.279 use case. But honestly, I'm a little more excited about 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:02.920 the use case where I feel we can really make 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.919 a difference, which is around safety. You know, in a 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.679 lot of our B to B situations, we have workers 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:14.360 in say meat packing or manufacturing or warehouses, and there 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:18.359 are safety issues if they can't communicate with their teammates 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:23.000 or their managers. So, you know, making the chance for 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.720 bibble to improve the safety of people's jobs but also 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:31.040 their career prospects, their earning potential, that's really exciting. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:32.480 Hey, do you ever worry? 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:33.039 It's so funny. 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.119 We had a conversation with our Rachel Metz, who covers 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.400 all things AI and all the stuff that's going on. 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:42.440 You are you worried them at all about chatbots kind 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:43.840 of replacing some of what you do. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:44.760 And I'm like even amazed. 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.600 On my phone, you know, I can type something in 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.719 it translates it right away, and it just sends it 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:51.960 off to whomever. So I do think about that that 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.039 is potentially a threat. 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:54.480 To what you do. 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:56.880 So I'm curious does it keep you up at night 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.279 or how are you thinking about that and how it 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:00.960 applies to kind of what you do or maybe how 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:02.400 you guys adapt to that. 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.160 There's kind of fringy use cases where that can erode 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.760 the need to learn a language if you're just using 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.800 it for those sort of transactional interactions. 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.200 Our learners, generally speaking, want to communicate. They want to 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:20.280 learn a language. 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.560 To speak to someone, to take that trip because their 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.040 mother in law speaks a different language, whatever it is. 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.800 And you know, people already five years ago people went 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.600 traveling and held up the phone, you know. 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.760 To use as a live translator. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.200 So that use case, I think is already well established 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.479 and we don't worry that much about that. It's the 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.479 it's you know, our purpose as a corporation is creating 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:48.159 mutual understanding through language. So you know, mutual understanding is 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.640 really much deeper than quick translation. 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:52.640 Well, speaking of AI, Carol brought it up. Are you 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.240 using and integrating AI tools at all and the way 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.320 that you develop courses, the way that teachers develop courses 0:06:58.320 --> 0:06:59.960 and then deploy that for people to learn. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:03.120 We are, and which is very exciting. 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:05.880 We've actually had a machine learning and AI and the 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.160 product for a long time now. 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:09.760 One of the key concepts that. 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.320 You find in our product and in language learning in 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.440 general is this notion of space repetition, where we bring 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:17.400 things back to you and remind you of what you've 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.880 already learned. And so there's quite a bit of machine 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.360 learning in the product that does that. Just to use 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:27.200 one example, and we see possibly we have we're in 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:32.920 the works direct features where a consumer can interact directly 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.120 with the AI and have a conversation and get training 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:41.240 that way. So yeah, we think that AI is fantastic 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.760 augmented by HI you know, the human intelligence. Those two 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.040 go together really nicely. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.640 So how do you think that will change the way 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.440 the business is run in terms of margins or in 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.080 terms of you know, how you guys are able to 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.040 run the business. Does it have like does it does 0:07:58.040 --> 0:07:59.480 it have an effect on the bottom line? 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.600 I hope so, because otherwise, I mean, it's expensive to 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.160 use AI. So if we only add costs and don't 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.200 figure out how to be more efficient with it, we 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.320 will have a problem. We actually have initiatives across the 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:17.360 whole organization to use AI and to come up with 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:19.720 use cases and experiments, et cetera. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.960 So everything from marketing, copywriting. 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:28.120 To you know, deep feature development in the product we're 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.440 embracing AI, but. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.640 We don't really have any I think we will. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.040 We expect there to be cost savings that come out 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.640 of this, but we're starting really more with the efficiency, 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.880 productivity and like you know, use user experience as the 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:43.720 primary goals. 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.000 All right, Julie, where we started? So I am curious 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.040 New Year resolutions. Do you find a jump in people 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.600 on your platform at the beginning of the year because 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:53.720 they're like, yeah, I think I want to I want 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:55.160 to lose some weight, and I want to learn a 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.520 new language. Just give us an idea. We've about thirty 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:58.839 forty seconds left. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.280 January is the biggest month of the year every year. 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.600 It's super important and people tend to subscribe in January 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.360 and then they really use it. So our job is 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.280 to keep them going throughout the year. But absolutely, and 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.400 you think about a January sets you up for your 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:15.679 spring and summer travel. 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:17.079 So it's very important. 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.040 All right, So what's the weakest month. 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:20.880 I'm curious now that we went down this path. 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:22.199 Just got about fifteen seconds. 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.320 The dead of summer, you know, especially in Europe where 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.240 everyone's traveling, like they're getting the payoff for all that 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:30.880 work they've done to learn the language. 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.120 In the summertime, I want to drink the margarite. 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.839 Rather than learn the language of Like I said, they 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:37.440 go hand in hand. You've got to be on the 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.880 ground in that country to actually learn the language as well. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:41.760 Like you know, that's a big part of the education. 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.240 I totally agree, you immerse yourself in it. Yeah, but 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.439 this is a good starting place. Julie, thank you so much. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:50.000 Happy New Year. Julie Hanson, us CEO of Babbel, jenningsand 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:50.560 Zoom in New York. 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:51.440 Great to check back with her.