Success Stories of the VZ-networks and Babbel
Were you a student or in school back in the late 2000s?
If so, you probably remember SchülerVZ and StudiVZ — the German-language answer to Facebook. Both social networks were born at Humboldt University in Berlin. In October 2005, Dennis Bemmann, Ehssan Dariani, and Michael Brehm launched StudiVZ, a network for university students that quickly grew to tens of millions of members. In February 2007, they followed it up with SchülerVZ, a version for school pupils, which also attracted millions. But as more and more users migrated to Facebook, both platforms slowly faded away. In 2022, StudiVZ finally shut down for good.
Another Humboldt-born success story is Babbel, the popular paid language-learning platform. Founded in 2007 by Markus Witte under the name Lesson Nine GmbH, Babbel went online in early 2008. At first, it was ad-supported, but by 2012 the company had shifted to a subscription-based model. In 2013, Babbel set its sights on the U.S. market and acquired American competitor PlaySay, establishing a strong foothold across the Atlantic. Over the years, Babbel expanded its offerings, saw a surge in users during the Covid-19 pandemic, and is now preparing for an IPO. Today, the company generates hundreds of millions in revenue and operates out of both Berlin-Mitte and New York City.
