Meet Revyzea French startup developing a mobile application for iOS and Android at the intersection of education and society. In many ways, Revyze looks like TikTok. But it is focused specifically on educational content for teenagers.
“We talked to kids who were in 30 or 35 different high schools,” co-founder Florent Sciberras told me. “We asked them: ‘What do you think about school and what is the best way to learn?’ And they told us that no one had ever asked them those questions. “
In retrospect, the answer was quite simple and obvious. They say they would rather learn from their friends than their teachers. “They talk” because they talk like us and they are like us,” Sciberras said.
And that’s probably why educational videos are so popular on YouTube and TikTok – the hashtag #LearnOnTikTok, for example, is very popular.
But there is a problem with mainstream social platforms. They are not specifically designed for education. If you watch an interesting video on TikTok, the social app may suggest something completely different as you move on to the next video. Finally, you move from math to cat jumping, physics to magic…
Revyze aims to be the TikTok of education – a community support app with a focus on secondary education. Basically, Revyze wants to bundle educational videos from TikTok – a huge social platform – so that they get the attention they deserve.
At first, the Revyze team focused on the French baccalaureate program, an exam that you must pass at the end of high school. They built a quick version of the app, set up a Discord community to spread the word, and shared a few videos on TikTok and Instagram.
In just a few weeks, Revyze amassed 35,000 downloads. They reached #2 in the App Store’s top free apps – right behind Doctolib.
Image credits: Revyze
This summer, Revyze raised $2 million in seed money (€2 million) from over a hundred business angels, such as Nate Blecharczyk, Jean-Charles Samuelian, Charles Gorintin, Mathilde Collin, Lenny Rachitzky, Thomas France, Julia Bijaoui, Roxanne Varza, Arion (Jacques Attali foundation), Olivier Dacourt, Varsha Rao and others. firstminute Capital, Kima Ventures, AirAngels, Nomad Capital and Ligature VC also invested.
Now the company wants to turn this small experiment into a big educational/social app. “Our goal is to reach 500,000 users by the end of the year and expand to the US within 6 to 12 months,” co-founder Guillaume Perrot told me.
Building the community behind the app
So how does Revyze feel? When you open the app, you’ll get a TikTok-like video feed. These videos fill the entire screen, and you can skip to the next video with a simple swipe. There is a three-minute limit on video length.
On the second tab, you can explore the video library in more detail. You can choose a topic, such as math or literature, and even choose a chapter in the syllabus. Revyze started with French high school students in their senior year and is gradually expanding to other classes.
And because we are talking about educational content, Revyze pays close attention to the videos uploaded to the app. When a user submits a video, it is not immediately visible on the platform.
Perrot said: “The video is endorsed by us and the community. “We want to make sure it’s high-quality, accurate, and not off-topic content. Eventually, there will be a peer-to-peer moderation system and then we’ll add a bit of machine learning.”
What do you get when you post on Revyze? A warm fuzzy feeling. In more technical terms, you accumulate rewards just like on Stack Overflow. These bonus points are called EDUs. You get 20 points for posting a video and one point when someone thanks you for the video.
Some teens post videos because explaining a concept is the best way to make sure they fully understand it. Others want to climb the leaderboard.
In the long run, if web3 is more than just a fad, Revyze could also turn EDU into a currency to reward the community for their contributions. But that’s not the next item on the roadmap.
Next, Revyze will expand to more countries and more education systems. There are also plenty of opportunities when it comes to personalizing apps for each user.
Revyze plans to sort the videos by algorithm so that they match your level and learning style – an algorithm that focuses on learning outcomes rather than watch time. This way, users will waste less time skipping videos so they find the right content.
“We are not a social network,” says Sciberras. “Our goal is that you should spend as little time as possible in the app learning as much as possible.”
Image credits: Revyze
