

How NEI doubled their subscriber base after switching to Agora for live language lessons.
- Education / Enterprise Collaboration
- Live virtual lessons

How NEI doubled their subscriber base after switching to Agora for live language lessons.
- Education / Enterprise Collaboration
- Live virtual lessons
Problem
UX issues from unreliable and inflexible RTC provider
Solution
Agora’s reliable and fully customizable real-time video, streaming, and recording
Results
2x increase in subscriber base
105k+ successful virtual lessons
Boost in user satisfaction

About NEI
Improving global employee communication skills
In this interconnected world, companies that seek to expand globally must be prepared to invest in their employees’ communication skills. Founded as the Native English Institute, NEI initially focused on helping global companies improve English in their workforce and evolved to include soft skills with language training.
Straddling the intersection of edtech and enterprise collaboration, NEI has created a data-driven approach to help employees learn skills faster with relevant content recommended by machine learning. Students are matched with a TESL-certified teacher for live 1:1 lessons each week in a virtual classroom.
The Problem
Dropped connections and user confusion
Prior to Agora, NEI was using a different video communication service for live lessons. “We had frequently disrupted sessions, or lessons that couldn’t be conducted because of connection drops,” says Frith Maier, founder of NEI. The legacy technology also required an additional login, and the classroom interface was confusing. Students often couldn’t find their lesson recordings and downtime was a major problem.
It was critical for NEI to have a trustworthy, user-friendly experience where students and teachers could interact. Uninterrupted global connection was crucial, as well as seamless recording and storage of sessions in each participant’s individual virtual classroom. After a thorough search, NEI chose Agora to build an improved virtual classroom experience.
Problems with previous RTC provider
The Solution
Intuitive experience for students and teachers
Agora’s products allowed NEI to customize the classroom experience to meet their specific needs. Now the NEI platform is intuitive for students and teachers while providing reliable video connection to users across the globe.
Interactive Live Streaming allows participants in Japan to have clear and engaging 1:1 lessons with teachers in California or Turkey. Cloud Recording provides secure and logical file management, so students can revisit the recorded lesson on any device with the same full-sound bandwidth capture.
“It was really a win right down the line. With Agora, we gave our learners the best, fastest, most engaging learning experience they could have.”
Frith Maier, Founder, NEI
Agora Products
Why NEI chose Agora

“The platform is not only intuitive for the student, but also for our teachers. Now, they can focus on doing what they do best, which is teaching, not spending their time trying to manage a bunch of unnecessary technological steps.”
Frith Maier, Founder, NEI
Results and ROI
Doubled subscriber base and held 105,000+ successful lessons
After just one year with Agora, NEI doubled their subscriber base and enabled 105,000+ individual lessons. Agora’s intelligent global network allows NEI to reliably live stream their lessons 24 hours a day, seven days a week. NEI counts among its clients several of the world’s largest corporations.
Students have also found the Agora-powered classroom and video archive a significant step up from previous technology. A recent survey found students overwhelmingly preferred the Agora classroom and video archive to the prior provider.
Confident in their technology, NEI is looking to scale by transitioning to an open platform, providing NEI’s successful method to independent teaching businesses. They chose Agora not only because it works for NEI’s thousands of subscribers, but because they know it will scale to work for tens of thousands in the future.
Results after implementing Agora
2x increase in subscriber base
105k+ successful virtual lessons
Boost in user satisfaction

“After just one year with Agora, NEI doubled their subscriber base and enabled 105,000 individual lessons. Agora’s intelligent global network allows NEI to reliably live stream lessons 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 90% of our students report liking NEI Video with Agora better.“
– Frith Maier, Founder, NEI

“After just one year with Agora, NEI doubled their subscriber base and enabled 105,000 individual lessons. Agora’s intelligent global network allows NEI to reliably live stream lessons 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 90% of our students report liking NEI Video with Agora better.“
– Frith Maier, Founder, NEI
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