$60B D2C language learning market to double by 2025, led by digital delivering 3X growth.

The Global Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) Language Learning market will nearly double by 2025, reaching $115B and led by digital, delivering 3X growth in just five years.

Education Intelligence Unit

calendar image
May 11, 2021

Digital Language Learning is accelerating rapidly, increasing access, reducing cost and leveraging technology to drive higher levels of language proficiency at scale. Beyond tens of millions of new 'mobile first' language learners, digital is serving a much needed on-ramp and enabler for both online and offline tutoring.

Believe it or not, 1 in 4 people on earth are active language learners. That’s more than all the students in the world enrolled from K-12 to Higher Education. Arguably, it’s the world’s largest cohort of learners, and as a cohort, they’re really only just discovering digital.

Approximately 1.8 billion of us are actively striving and studying for work or pleasure to achieve proficiency at an additional language. Over 6,000 languages are spoken around the the world, each and every one of them reminding us of the beauty and diversity of humanity. Language is the foundation of education, collective intelligence, culture, empathy and relationships, and learning an additional language inspires the explorer in us all.

Mandarin, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese and Japanese; for travel, for life, career or family, the list of languages we are learning is long. But the overwhelming majority of language learners are seeking to learn English as a second language – we estimate a little over 1.4 billion.

142 countries include English as a mandatory element of their national education curriculum. This is driving increased demand for language learning in the 1.8 billion people enrolled in formal early childhood, K-12 and tertiary institutions around the world.

There are 142 countries (green) in the world where English is a mandatory element of the national education curriculum according to a recent study. In addition, there are 41 countries (blue) in which English language is a possible elective subject or is offered in many but not all schools (often as the most popular option to fulfil a ‘foreign language’ requirement).

Even in predominately English-speaking (but still highly multilingual) markets such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, English language learning is very strong for international higher education and travel-based learners.

Ready to get started?

Get a personalized walkthrough of HolonIQ's Global Intelligence Platform.

We estimate the D2C language learning market will almost double in size by 2025 in this 'mid-COVID' upgrade and outlook. Offline will further digitize and follow a U-shaped recovery; Mobile-first and online tutoring will accelerate and triple in size over the next five years.

Forcing ourselves to form a ‘mid-COVID’ point of view, we have fundamentally upgraded our outlook for D2C language learning. This may seem counter-intuitive given the widespread damage to offline and in-person providers COVID has driven, however we are optimistic on the mid to long-term economic recovery and remain convinced of the long-term demand for ‘blended’ in-person, campus-based and generally ‘face to face’ and ‘peer-to-peer’ English language learning. As hard as it is to imagine right now, under a positive recovery scenario, we see demand for offline language learning exceeding 2019 levels by 2024 and regaining ground rapidly, albeit having undergone a digital transformation to protect against another disruption and become more relevant and impactful for learners.

'D2C' Digital English is the primary growth driver, set to achieve a 25% CAGR.

With hundreds of millions of learners, the ‘mobile-first’ cohort are pioneering new techniques in behavioral learning, nudges, games and leveraging artificial intelligence in education. Meanwhile marketplaces and other platforms are replicating and scaling the fragmentation of peer-to-peer language tutoring using synchronous video.

No items found.
No items found.

Latest Insights

Global Insights from HolonIQ’s Intelligence Unit. Powered by our Global Impact Intelligence Platform.

Newsletter
Newsletter
2024 Back to School
2024 Back to School
North America EdTech 200
North America EdTech 200
2024 Paris HE Summit
2024 Paris HE Summit
2024 San Juan Speaker
2024 San Juan Speaker
Indices
Indices
Cities
Cities
2023 Back to School Featured Speaker
2023 Back to School Featured Speaker
New York
New York
2023
2023
Webinar
Webinar
Economics
Economics
Draft
Draft
Platform
Platform
2022
2022
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation
MedTech
MedTech
Global Impact Summits
Global Impact Summits
Impact 3000
Impact 3000
Nuclear
Nuclear
Mobility
Mobility
Electric Vehicles
Electric Vehicles
2021
2021
2020
2020
Sub Saharan Africa
Sub Saharan Africa
Nordic Baltic
Nordic Baltic
North America
North America
South Asia
South Asia
East Asia
East Asia
ANZ
ANZ
Market Sizing
Market Sizing
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Blockchain
Blockchain
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
Regions
Regions
Markets
Markets
Mobile
Mobile
Client Report
Client Report
Publishers
Publishers
Labor Markets
Labor Markets
Global Landscape
Global Landscape
10 Charts Series
10 Charts Series
R&D
R&D
LMS
LMS
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Executive Panel
Executive Panel
Language Learning
Language Learning
Russia
Russia
Israel
Israel
Germany
Germany
France
France
Media and Press
Media and Press
Climate Tech
Climate Tech
MENA
MENA
South Korea
South Korea
Japan
Japan
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Health Tech
Health Tech
Global EdTech 1000
Global EdTech 1000
Unicorns
Unicorns
MOOCs
MOOCs
Global Giants
Global Giants
Client Note
Client Note
Capital Markets
Capital Markets
Advanced Technology
Advanced Technology
OPM
OPM
International Education
International Education
India
India
China
China
Canada
Canada
Venture Capital
Venture Capital
Bootcamps
Bootcamps
Online learning
Online learning
Notes
Notes
Europe
Europe
Asia
Asia
Africa
Africa
LATAM
LATAM
Brazil
Brazil
Robotics
Robotics
Education in 2030
Education in 2030
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence
SDG 17
SDG 17
SDG 16
SDG 16
SDG 15
SDG 15
SDG 14
SDG 14
SDG 13
SDG 13
SDG 12
SDG 12
SDG 11
SDG 11
SDG 10
SDG 10
SDG 9
SDG 9
SDG 8
SDG 8
SDG 7
SDG 7
SDG 6
SDG 6
SDG 5
SDG 5
SDG 4
SDG 4
SDG 3
SDG 3
SDG 2
SDG 2
SDG 1
SDG 1
Climate Tech 1000
Climate Tech 1000

Sign Up for our Newsletters

We provide you with relevant and up-to-date insights on the global impact economy. Choose out of our newsletters and you will find trending topics in your inbox.

Weekly Newsletter

Climate Technology

Weekly Newsletter

Education Technology

Weekly Newsletter

Health Technology

Weekly Newsletter

Higher Education

Daily Newsletter

Chart of the Day

Daily Newsletter

Impact Capital Markets