Understand any stock in simple English
Enter a ticker to learn what the company does and how it makes money.
Preply is an online marketplace where learners book one-on-one live lessons with human language tutors and pay per lesson or by subscription.
Preply is an online marketplace for learning languages with real people. You go to its website or app, browse thousands of tutors, and book a live one-on-one lesson—usually over video—in English, Spanish, French, German, or dozens of other languages. The tutors set their own hourly rates, and Preply handles the scheduling, messaging, video classroom, and payments. It is a two-sided market: learners want a convenient, affordable teacher, and tutors want a steady stream of students without the hassle of running their own small business.
The company makes money by taking a commission on each lesson. When a learner pays a tutor, Preply keeps a slice, so it earns more as more lessons are booked and as tutors charge higher rates. That model means Preply does not employ the tutors—they are independent contractors—which keeps costs flexible but also means quality control is a constant challenge. Learners choose Preply over a local language school or a free app because they get a real human who can correct their pronunciation and adapt to their goals, often at a lower price than a traditional tutor. Tutors choose it because Preply brings them customers they could not easily find on their own. Preply was founded in Ukraine in 2012 and later moved its headquarters to the United States, with major operations in Kyiv and Barcelona. The company has raised significant venture capital and has grown into one of the larger online language-learning marketplaces, competing with platforms like Cambly (a smaller rival) and, indirectly, with apps such as Duolingo that teach languages through software rather than people. Its biggest vulnerability is the same as any marketplace: it must keep both learners and tutors happy, and it faces pressure from cheaper AI tools that can now hold a basic conversation. Preply's bet is that many people still want a human on the other side of the screen.
As a private company, Preply does not publish detailed financials, but its growth has come from expanding beyond English into many languages and from building tools that help tutors manage their schedules and lessons. It has also pushed into corporate language training, selling lesson packages to companies that want to upskill their employees. The core idea remains simple: match a learner who wants to speak better with a tutor who wants to teach, take a cut of each lesson, and let the marketplace do the rest.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026