Tencent partners with education startup Age of Learning to bring popular English learning app, ABCmouse, to China

Tencent, the China’s web giant, has partnered with education startup Age of Learning, to bring the popular ABCMouse English learning app to China. ABCMouse is an expert-designed immersive language learning app that provides Chinese children with an essential foundation for English conversational fluency and literacy.

Founded in 2007 and based in Los Angeles, Age of Learning blends educational expertise, innovative technology, and insightful creativity to bring learning to life. Its flagship product, ABCmouse, is the leading and most comprehensive digital early learning academy resource for children ages 2–8. The program provides young learners, their families, and teachers with highly engaging and effective learning activities that build a strong foundation for academic success.

The new ABCmouse program was developed through an innovative partnership between the leading digital children’s education company in the U.S. and one of largest Internet companies in the world. Age of Learning’s team of child development and language learning experts created the ABCmouse English learning curriculum, currently comprised of more than 5,000 engaging learning activities organized into hundreds of lessons and a structured learning path, based on extensive research on second-language acquisition. Tencent has expertly integrated this curriculum into a new ABCmouse mobile application and website, and is responsible for product development, marketing, sales, and customer support.

Closely collaborating with Age of Learning, Tencent localized the ABCmouse program for China, including integration of ABCmouse with QQ, China’s leading instant messaging platform serving 783 million monthly active users, and with WeChat / Weixin, China’s leading social network and content platform serving more than 1 billion monthly active users. This integration makes it easy for parents and other family members to follow and participate in their child’s English language learning. As part of the extensive localization effort, ABC Mouse, the animated mouse who guides children through the English learning program, was redesigned specifically for the China market.

“Online education is very important for Tencent,” said Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and President of Tencent’s Social Network Group. “Age of Learning is the market leader in the United States and an ideal partner, with deep expertise and a ten-year track record of success creating effective learning experiences for millions of children.”

The ABCmouse English learning curriculum is designed for children between the ages of 3 and 8, teaching English as a second language in the same natural sequence as their native language: listening and understanding, speaking, phonics and reading, and then writing. Lessons include engaging instructional animations featuring an English teacher and six children in an international school setting, along with more than 5,000 interactive English learning activities including games, songs, puzzles, art activities, and books. Speech recognition technology has also been incorporated into the newly designed product, prompting children to record their voices as they become confident and proficient in speaking English words, phrases and sentences. The immediate feedback provided by the system helps children develop excellent English pronunciation and supports comprehensive vocabulary acquisition.

“Our goal at Age of Learning is to help children build a strong foundation for success in school and in life. For children in many countries, English fluency is an essential part of that foundation,” said Doug Dohring, Founder and CEO of Age of Learning. “We’re extremely pleased to partner with Tencent to bring our unique ABCmouse English learning curriculum to China.”

The new ABCmouse English learning program is available on all major platforms, including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, and computers. The new ABCMouse app is accessible at abcmouse.qq.com and from all major app stores in China.