Skills app helping to bridge cultural divide

Sophie Su feels like a bridge connecting two very different worlds. Born in Australia, the young entrepreneur has always considered she belonged to two communities because of her Chinese heritage.

But now, having already spent half her life in China, she has created an app that she says is an excellent way of helping to bring these two groups of people closer together.

"My foreign friends always ask me to introduce them to locals because they want to be more immersed in the culture and because they want to do business here," Su says. "At the same time, my Chinese friends were after the exact same thing."

Aware of the lack of tools to break the cultural barriers, she not only created one, but also realized she had found a way for expatriates to monetize and share their skills and experiences with locals.

Pingo Space, Su's app, has two interfaces depending on whether it is used by an expat or local Chinese. Expats can build profiles by adding pictures and information, while Chinese can use the platform to buy services and write reviews.

Every transaction is carried out using WeChat Wallet, the online payment service offered by Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The app allows foreigners to share what are considered less conventional skills. "I realized there are many foreigners in Beijing who have good skills, like playing piano, cooking or dancing, but they were only teaching English here," Su says.

Parent company Ping Xing Shi Kong Technology Co started developing the app in 2014 with the help of an initial angel investment of $500,000, raised with the help of Su's husband and co-founder Weng Yunkai, a foreign-language education entrepreneur.

Last year, the company received an undisclosed second round of investment from education mogul Michael Yu, chairman of New Oriental Education and Technology Group.

Bruce Pan, who previously worked for Chinese search engine Baidu Inc, and Gordon Feng, a former employee of Microsoft Corp, also joined the founding team and helped the couple with product design.

Despite language teaching still being the most sought-after service, the platform offers a broader range of skills and abilities, including ballet, American football, skydiving and beer brewing.

Lamiya Safarova, a student from Azerbaijan, uses the app to teach English as well as help Chinese students deal with applications to study abroad.

"I can teach English, but I also think I have other skills that I could teach," Safarova says. "I'm fluent in Turkish and Russian. I can teach businesspeople conversational skills in those languages, too."

For the app to be successful, Su says it is crucial that expats set their own prices and have complete control over their work.

Su, who has spent eight years in the education industry, complains that intermediaries usually charge disproportionate costs to introduce teachers and students. "In the industry, there is a 300 percent mark-up, but Pingo Space only charges 5 yuan for every transaction via the app."

Pingo Space calculates that if an expat teaches two hours a week, with the average cost of a lesson 298 yuan ($45; 40 euros), their earnings would allow them to pay a monthly rent of 3,000 yuan.

It already has around 100 foreigners registered on the platform offering services to about 500 local residents.

With more than 1 million expats living in China, mainly concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai, and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, there is still huge scope for growth.

The company expects to expand to Shanghai and Guangzhou in the next six months, boosting its customer base to 100,000 Chinese users and 400 foreigners.

emmagonzalez@chinadaily.com.cn