Age of Learning, Inc., the leading edtech company for young learners and creator of ABCmouse Early Learning Academy, and Rakuten Group, Inc., Japan’s leading e-commerce company and a global leader in internet services that empower individuals, communities, businesses, and society, announced they have agreed to form the joint venture Age of Learning Japan Co., Ltd. Building on Age of Learning and Rakuten’s existing relationship, the new company will accelerate the growth of ABCmouse English, known as “Rakuten ABCmouse” in Japan, to serve families across the country.
Designed by Age of Learning’s language learning experts and grounded in learning science, ABCmouse English teaches English to young children through engaging interactive activities. The program, which uses a unique, research-proven approach to language learning, helps children build English communication skills with 260 sequenced lessons and more than 6,000 original videos, games, books, and songs. Key features of ABCmouse English include:
- An innovative application of speech recognition technology that enables children to improve pronunciation by comparing to a native speaker and working to better their performance
- A user-friendly parent dashboard that makes it easy to track children’s progress in acquiring specific skills so that parents can monitor and guide their children without themselves speaking English
- An intuitive interface that enables children to navigate through the curriculum entirely on their own
- A rewards system that motivates children to progress through structured lessons and enjoy playing English teaching games and puzzles
“Rakuten’s unmatched connections with families will enable our joint venture to help children across the country learn English. Japan is a top strategic international market for us and an important pillar of our global expansion,” said Paul Candland, CEO, Age of Learning.
“ABCmouse English offers unmatched curriculum quality for preschool to elementary aged learners, and our new joint venture illustrates our commitment to bringing this world-class learning resource to as many families across Japan as possible,” said Koji Ando, Rakuten Group Managing Executive Officer and Senior Vice President of Rakuten’s Investment & Incubation Company.
ABCmouse English is one of the newest additions to Age of Learning’s growing suite of educational products. Age of Learning’s research-proven early learning methodologies have made ABCmouse Early Learning Academy the leading digital early learning program for families in the U.S.
Source: Businesswire
