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Just when you think you can start with the recap post of the year TechCrunch reports that the online language learning community Livemocha has secured another $8 Million USD in series B funding.

This sums up to a total of $14 Million USD in funding and should help Livemocha in its fight for the crown against Rosetta Stone TOTALe.

According to the TechCrunch article Livemocha claims to have over 4.8 million registered members from over 200 countries and, more importantly, a rising number of members who pay for the premium content. Infact it is said that

[...] revenues are growing rapidly.

Like the first time Maveron, a Seattle-based investment fund co-funded by Starbucks CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz, is handing out most of that money to Livemocha. Makes sense: Starbucks -> Coffee -> LiveMOCHA . At least it is obvious that Maveron still sees some more potential in Livemocha.

It is further said that Livemocha will use this money for new partnership deals but mostly for the development of the product.

Conclusion: Livemocha is getting a lot of press of being the No 1 competitor of Rosetta Stone. Being the competitor of the market leader is of course always a struggle. Your product is always compared, where are the weaknesses etc. Especially if you offer your product for a much lower price like Livemocha does.

What are the “weaknesses” of Livemocha?

First of all most of the 30 languages Livemocha is currently offering are translated by the community by crowdsourcing. Competitors like Busuu and Babbel (and of course Rosetta Stone) only offer in house developed content or content of partners which they claim is more professional and offers a consistent quality. But on the other hand Livemocha is offering those translated courses for free.

Secondly Livemocha is displaying advertisement on their website to generate revenue. When Babbel decided to go premium only a couple of weeks ago they claimed that displaying ads on a language learning site is disruptive for the learning process. But then again, the premium products of Livemocha are ad free.

Last but not least: missing features. Rosetta Stone is famous for its automatic voice recognition and in the TOTALe program you have live sessions with a real tutor included. The last option is already in the planning at Livemocha for a long time and I think already operating in “stealth mode”. And who knows, maybe some of the $8 million USD are now going into a voice recognition program?

Maybe the most important thing about this funding: Livemocha and therefore the whole business idea of a language learning community service on the internet seems to be solid and attracting investors. This will have positive effects for the smaller communities on their search for outside funding, I am sure.