I disagree. It has a market. A small market, relatively speaking. But it's there.
From what I can see, the largest gap is lack of support for other languages.
To the OP: Seems obvious that you should know off the top of your head which western countries have the highest population of people learning Chinese as a second language. Why not order that list descending and then build sites in those native languages, one by one?
To answer your question, the obvious answer to me seems to be Network, Network, Network.
I've read some of the stuff you've posted here before and I remember (i think) about you having some University deals. Those are great. And I'm sure you'd agree that signing those deals is entirely about relationships and not about egalitarian ethos of the best way to educate. So make those relationships.
And another big thing, naturally, is corporate training. Chinese is now the most valuable second-language for American executives. And I'm sure it ranks high for European executives.
But a larger point is that I think to really get a toehold there would require a more comprehensive approach to learning the language. My guess is that an educator designing a corporate training program isn't going to want to design a program for 6-figure executives a'la carte.
So I would find a way to get my product in bed with complimentary products. And this, too, is about networking and relationships.
I think you're right that traditional marketing is not really going to work for you. As a casual observer, this market seems rather inelastic. And as far as I know, it's not as if you're just trying to snag share from a weaker product. You have to instead compete with the beliefs of people who are making decisions about how to teach Chinese. You have to compete with their beliefs about what works best.
I know this isn't the advice if you were going for. But really all you can do is be the best damn front man for your company that you've ever seen or even imagined. That is a skill you can sharpen, and it's a role that is every bit as valuable to a software company as the programmers themselves.
And one last thought in my grab-bag of a post... Have you thought about social integration somehow? Maybe like head-to-head competition between 2 friends, giving them symbols to draw and a countdown and a score? Random, but I thought of it when i was watching the video. And that video is the best thing on your site, by the way. Watching it is what convinced me that your product and concept isn't complete crap. Without that video I'd have up-voted the parent to this post and called it a day.
The number of people seriously studying Chinese outside China is tiny. Unless you can sell the product within the educational system, there's no market for it.
There are other issues with the demo (drawing characters on a laptop mousepad is very painful and slow compared to practicing on paper). But even the perfect app would struggle given the tiny market, and the fact that drilling characters with flash cards is a pretty good substitute.
I'm in my second year of studying Chinese and endlessly drilling hanzi, so I think I am somewhere in the target market for this thing.
Before posting I did a quick search and saw that Chinese was said to have about 200 Million "second language" speakers.
Clearly those aren't people inside China?
That was the extent of my "market research" and haven't claimed any authority on the subject, but my feeling was that the audience here would be smaller, but focused. If I'm serious about learning Chinese it's going to require such an investment of time that I wouldn't be shy about throwing some money at the problem if the CW held that this would be a good way to learn.
The demo impressed me. And in my head I made the connection to learning how to type.. I can learn just as well on a typewriter, but PC software can give me feedback and instruction that wouldn't be possible on a typewriter without an instructor watching over my shoulder.
Hey idlewords, since you are indeed in our target market and you didn't dig Skritter, would you mind sharing why exactly? Perhaps you could give us some information about how to make it better. Feel free to email me personally (george at skritter.com) or post here. And no need for censoring your response to polite banter. Maybe you just don't think it's a worthwhile service at all, but if you had some specific ideas, we'd be keen to hear 'em!
The basic problem is that it takes forever to draw any character using a laptop trackpad. If I could trace with finger on trackpad, or draw with my finger on a mobile device, I would consider evaluating the app further. But the massive slowness and discomfort of the input method is what throws me. It's like trying to write your signature with a mouse.
You should try to bundle or partner with a tablet maker like Wacom. Or get bulk discounts of their cheap 'bamboo' tablets and sell a package on your website.
We just finished getting the reseller license for this, actually, and plan to do exactly that once we can set the billing page up to support it. We do want to encourage people to buy and use them, because it makes them much better, so we were planning on selling them as cheaply as allowed; good idea?
Hey encoderer, thanks for spending the time to reply in such detail. I guess our demo video IS useful for something other than distracting people from our conversion actions!
That last bit about the gaming aspect has been a thought we've been entertaining for a while. We've actually thought about implementing it as a facebook app so that you can challenge people in facebook to character-offs. That would be sweet, but Nick hates the idea of programming a Facebook app. We'll see if I can't wear him down. :)
From what I can see, the largest gap is lack of support for other languages.
To the OP: Seems obvious that you should know off the top of your head which western countries have the highest population of people learning Chinese as a second language. Why not order that list descending and then build sites in those native languages, one by one?
To answer your question, the obvious answer to me seems to be Network, Network, Network.
I've read some of the stuff you've posted here before and I remember (i think) about you having some University deals. Those are great. And I'm sure you'd agree that signing those deals is entirely about relationships and not about egalitarian ethos of the best way to educate. So make those relationships.
And another big thing, naturally, is corporate training. Chinese is now the most valuable second-language for American executives. And I'm sure it ranks high for European executives.
But a larger point is that I think to really get a toehold there would require a more comprehensive approach to learning the language. My guess is that an educator designing a corporate training program isn't going to want to design a program for 6-figure executives a'la carte.
So I would find a way to get my product in bed with complimentary products. And this, too, is about networking and relationships.
I think you're right that traditional marketing is not really going to work for you. As a casual observer, this market seems rather inelastic. And as far as I know, it's not as if you're just trying to snag share from a weaker product. You have to instead compete with the beliefs of people who are making decisions about how to teach Chinese. You have to compete with their beliefs about what works best.
I know this isn't the advice if you were going for. But really all you can do is be the best damn front man for your company that you've ever seen or even imagined. That is a skill you can sharpen, and it's a role that is every bit as valuable to a software company as the programmers themselves.
And one last thought in my grab-bag of a post... Have you thought about social integration somehow? Maybe like head-to-head competition between 2 friends, giving them symbols to draw and a countdown and a score? Random, but I thought of it when i was watching the video. And that video is the best thing on your site, by the way. Watching it is what convinced me that your product and concept isn't complete crap. Without that video I'd have up-voted the parent to this post and called it a day.