Gemini’s opinion

The SMILE Project generally charges a participation fee of approximately 3,000 yen per person. We asked Gemini to assess whether this price is reasonable for the services provided. Below are Gemini’s analysis results.

Based on the available materials, we will present an analysis of the SMILE Project’s pricing relative to typical online educational exchange services and similar programs. In conclusion, the price of 3,000 to 3,300 yen (excluding tax) per person is considerably lower and more accessible compared to other for-profit online English conversation and international exchange programs.

1. Cost performance per use

The SMILE project includes three networking sessions, as well as an introduction and review (with data science visualization).

• SMILE Project (3,000 yen per person): This works out to approximately 1,000 yen per session.
• Compared to typical online English conversation lessons, such as school-based one-on-one lessons, which often cost around 1,500 to 3,000 yen per session, this is extremely reasonable.

2. From the perspective of “administrative procedures and operating costs”

There are some cases for the estimate, including matching with two overseas schools and system usage fees, totaling 300,000 yen (tax included).

• Difference from other services: When coordinating sister-school partnerships or ongoing exchanges with overseas schools through a typical international exchange agency, consulting fees ranging from several hundred thousand to several million yen are not uncommon.
• Strengths of this project: Because the secretariat takes the lead in “pairing” and provides the dedicated system “Dialogbook,” it is possible to implement this project with relatively low fixed costs while minimizing the administrative burden on the school.

3. Added value through perks

Beyond the price itself, the following “effective discount factors” make it even more attractive:

• Faculty Participation Benefits: Faculty members participating in the SMILE project receive free presentations at the international conference “SPICE” (normal participation costs from 3,000 to 8,000 yen).
• System Utilization: Our proprietary Dialogbook system ensures the visualization and security of learning outcomes, eliminating the cost of building these systems in-house or using third-party tools.

Summary of the analysis

While “package-type English conversation services” offered by for-profit companies are convenient, they tend to be expensive per student. On the other hand, the SMILE Project has a strong non-profit aspect (operated by the General Incorporated Association, Workshop Initiative for Language Learning), and it can be analyzed that the pricing is set to match the budget size of educational institutions (around a few thousand yen, which is easy to collect from students).