One Seattle-area company is more than a little happy about Amazon Web Services opening a new South American computing region: Livemocha, an online language-learning service that counts about a quarter of its more than 11 million members in Brazil alone.

Livemocha runs its Web-based software on AWS, but previously, the closest region for South American markets was still in the U.S. And that meant a distinct difference in quality. The more static elements of the site, like logos and other images, were hosted locally. But the main Web experience—the core of Livemocha’s product—had to make too many hops to get to the end user.

“When I’m in Brazil and I’m using Livemocha, it’s kind of painful in comparison to what it’s…  read more

São Paulo – September 7, 2011– Abril Educação (BM&F Bovespa: ABRE11), one of the largest and most respected education companies in Brazil, and Livemocha™, the world’s largest language learning community, announced a partnership in which Abril Educação becomes the exclusive representative of Livemocha in Brazil. This partnership combines Livemocha’s powerful social language learning methodology with Abril Educação’s expert skill in serving the existing education marketplace in Brazil. The two companies will work together to deliver affordable and engaging language learning to the sizeable Brazilian market.

Under the terms of the agreement, Abril Educação – a BM&FBovespa-listed company and controlled by Grupo Abril, one of the largest and most influential media corporations in Latin America – will promote Livemocha to consumers…  read more