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The language learning application Drops by game developer Planb Labs, established in Estonia by Hungarian founders, was named Google Play's best app of 2018.
Language learning app founded in Estonia named Google Play's best application of 2018
5th February 2019, 16:25
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With the number of downloads surpassing 10 million, Drops was named Google's app of the year as the revenue of Planb Labs, a company registered in Estonia, increased fivefold, CNBC said. The developer's revenue grew from €335,000 in 2017 to €1.7 million in 2018.
The company's shareholders include Hungarian founders Daniel Farkas and Mark Aron Szulyovszky, but also Tallinn-based gaming accelerator GameFounders.
“They came when GameFounders started in 2012 and were among the first ones. They have seen organic growth so far and have not raised any funds other than our initial investment,” GameFounders founding member Kadri Ugand told BNS.
Ugand added that the company faced some setbacks at first and its initial application failed.
“It did not go the way they had hoped; the original team fell apart. But the founder, Daniel Farkas, really believed in it, kept working on it and sustaining it until he finally succeeded,” she said.
Planb Labs has an international team and the company does not effectively have an office.
They have a total of 14 people in the team and are looking for their first employee in Estonia, Ugand said.
Drops offers a playful and visual way to learn vocabulary in nearly 30 languages.
“Drops focuses on vocabulary because we want to do one thing really well – we don't offer a whole menu of language knowledge, such as grammar," Farkas told CNBC. "We do not believe an app is able to get you to fluency – acquiring all of that knowledge is best done by practicing with a teacher. And we are not filling the teacher's role."