As COVID-19 continues, the time people spend at home has increased. In the traditional sense, at home, the mainstream was to relax or enjoy consumptive culture, but at home after COVID-19, the culture of utilizing increased leisure time to focus on self-development has become the mainstream.
In the beginning, one-way non-face-to-face education such as reading or online lectures was popular. However, people wanted live education where they could communicate, and as a result, two-way non-face-to-face education where educators and students communicate began to become active.
Chachafriends (CEO Cha Young-eun) operates a piano education channel with 180,000 subscribers called ‘Chacha and Piano Play’ under the slogan ‘Let’s make it easy and fun for anyone to learn the piano’, and offers online lessons ‘Piarino’. Piareno)’ service. In addition, we are working on music education through music-related goods such as ‘music diaries’ and ‘score files’ and customized sheet music.
At the Pangyo Techno Valley Startup Campus, we met Cha Cha Friends CEO Cha Young-eun and heard about ‘Piarino,’ a non-face-to-face piano lesson platform through video.
Q1. About Us
CEO Cha Young-eun: Cha Cha Friends opened a YouTube channel in 2017 and officially launched an online matching service in 2020. We are offering one-on-one online piano lessons called ‘Piarino’ at a much more reasonable price than existing offline lesson fees. Pialino is an online lesson platform that allows anyone to learn piano in an easy and fun way. It provides education similar to actual lessons with a quality that goes beyond simple internet lectures.
Q2. Features of the online lesson platform ‘Piarino’
CEO Cha Young-eun: Most online lectures are taught to a large number of people using already-made videos, but Piarino has moved online lessons into private lessons. Piarino is focused on customization for students. A teacher is assigned based on the student’s ability and desired lesson direction, and online lessons are provided. Lessons are conducted through open chat, and not only students and teachers, but also the manager who manages the lesson participates to monitor the class. Piarino allows lessons by matching teachers and students online one-on-one, and lesson videos just for you can be viewed to your heart’s content without restrictions on time and space.
Currently, various age groups are looking for the online lesson service Pialino. Juniors aged 7 to 13 are currently taking online lessons instead of going to academies due to the COVID-19 issue. In addition, there are office workers, housewives, and seniors who have difficulty setting aside time, and the satisfaction level is particularly high among customers living in rural areas or overseas. Major students who have limitations in what they can learn at school or who want to experience a variety of lesson styles are also using ‘Piarino’.
ChaCha Friends understands the needs of students through a preliminary survey and assigns a teacher according to the desired lesson style. In addition, the manager maintains continuous service quality by providing periodic feedback and monitoring the entire process.
Q3. The opportunity to start a business
CEO Cha Young-eun: I started the ‘Cha Cha and Piano Play’ YouTube channel in 2017. This is a channel that uploads piano-related videos, including piano sheet music and performance videos, and there have been many inquiries about private piano lessons. While we were thinking about ways to meet these needs, the demand for online classes increased with the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020. Accordingly, we launched Pialino, an online lesson service that meets the demand and trend.
Q4. Plan to add additional instruments
CEO Cha Young-eun: This year, I want to focus on piano. We plan to focus on areas such as jazz classes and practical music, and starting next year, we want to gradually add instruments that are in high demand, such as guitars and drums.
Q5. Overseas market export plan
CEO Cha Young-eun: There is actually a lot of demand for lessons from foreigners. Currently, foreign students are taking the course through the translation system, and this demand from foreigners has helped them gain confidence in entering overseas markets. Current targets are the US, China, Japan and European countries.
This year, we plan to enter Japan with jazz pianist Jimin Dorothy, and next year we plan to enter the Western world, the home of jazz and classical music.
Q6. Reasons for settling in Pangyo
CEO Cha Young-eun: When running a startup in the early stages, there are more difficulties than you can imagine, such as office space, recruiting issues, and patents. When such early startups move into Pangyo, they can receive support from various organizations. It is also very helpful to be able to obtain useful information from representatives of other companies that I have met through participating in various programs.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
→ Go to ‘Asia Innovation Hub Pangyo Techno Valley 2021’ news