Shanbay

Shanbay is a mobile English-learning platform founded and led by CEO Wang Jie . In FreeS Fund's portfolio, it sits alongside Onion Math as an example of an online education company that scaled primarily through organic, word-of-mouth user growth—reaching 50 million users with customer acquisition costs well below industry norms . The product is built around adaptive learning: it schedules vocabulary review based on individual familiarity curves and memory patterns, and includes social features like word-battle games against WeChat contacts .

During the pandemic, Shanbay saw mixed effects. Its exam-prep business suffered as English test registrations were postponed, but its general English and coding education segments grew substantially . The company also joined peer efforts in early 2020, offering 30 days of free reading and listening membership to users in Hubei province . FreeS Fund, which invested in Shanbay, has categorized it as part of a cluster of "highly internet-native" education companies distinguished by strong user experience, fragmentation of study time, and automation .