My product.App for iPhone and Android
Lilu: an app to learn Chinese from video
Lilu is my own app. You watch short clips by Chinese creators with a transcript underneath and pinyin over every word. Tap a word to see what it means, and it goes into your word list. On iPhone and Android.
// The Lilu clip feed, with a pinyin transcript under each clip.
Scrolling a feed is already a habit. In Lilu it works for you: you hear real speech and see how every word is written and said.
What I did: came up with the product, built the app for iPhone and Android, set up subscriptions, made the app's website and shipped Lilu to the App Store and Google Play.
in revenue in the first month
01 / Challenge
Chinese takes years, and motivation runs out first
Textbooks and flashcards get boring fast, and real speech from clips is hard: you don't know the words, you can't read fast enough, and there's no dictionary at hand.
I bet on a habit people already have, short videos. If a clip also explains every word, learning fits between other things: open it, listen, tap.
What had to be solved
- Real speech
Clips by real creators, so you hear how people actually talk.
- A word without a pause
A transcript under the video with pinyin over every word, so you can understand a word without stopping the clip.
- What to build
A feed of short clips and a vocabulary that builds itself. Simplified characters, mainland Mandarin, iPhone and Android.
02 / What I did
Watch a clip, tap a word
A feed of short videos inside the app. A transcript under each clip, pinyin over every word. A tap on a word shows its meaning and saves it to your vocabulary.
- Clip feed
Short clips by Chinese creators in Mandarin, simplified characters.
- Pinyin transcript
Pinyin over every word, a tap for the meaning.
- Your word list
Words you tap are saved; search works by characters, pinyin or meaning.
- Your pace
Slow playback to 0.6x, a daily goal, home screen and lock screen widgets.
- iPhone and Android
One app for both platforms, subscriptions inside the app.
03 / The product
The website and the app
The Lilu website on the left, the clip feed with a transcript on a phone on the right.
04 / What came of it
Lilu is on the App Store and Google Play
- September 24, 2026
Lilu launched on the App Store.
- 2 stores
The App Store and Google Play.
- $1,075 in revenue in the first month
It's my own product.
The intro and sample clips are free; the full feed is a subscription.
This was my mobile app development service, from $1,500.
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