Duolingo, the popular language learning app, has managed to turn a free app into a thriving $7.7 billion business through a combination of growth strategies and clever use of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite being available for free in the Apple App Store, Duolingo generates an impressive $500 million in revenue annually, making it the top education app for most of the past decade.
One of the key factors behind Duolingo’s success is its unique approach to gamification. By incorporating gaming elements into its language lessons, Duolingo is able to hook users like an addictive video game, keeping them engaged and coming back for more. This strategy has helped the app attract a large user base, with millions of people around the world using Duolingo to learn new languages.
In addition to gamification, Duolingo also leverages AI-enhanced experiments to tailor its offering to different subsets of users. By analyzing user behavior and preferences, Duolingo is able to personalize the learning experience for each individual, making the app both effective and engaging.
Despite being free to use, Duolingo has managed to achieve a valuation of $7.7 billion by implementing a freemium model. While most users do not pay for the app, a small percentage of users choose to purchase premium features, such as ad-free experiences or additional lessons. By offering optional paid upgrades, Duolingo is able to generate significant revenue while still keeping the app accessible to a wide audience.
Overall, Duolingo’s success is a testament to the power of innovative business models and technology in the education sector. By combining gamification, AI, and a freemium model, Duolingo has managed to create a profitable business that provides valuable language learning tools to millions of users worldwide.
Watch the video by The Wall Street Journal
Video “How Duolingo Turned a Free App Into a $7.7B Business | WSJ The Economics Of” was uploaded on 08/14/2024 to Youtube Channel The Wall Street Journal
Capitalists just don't understand why Duolingo isn't charging more money.
i wonder if they will survive in the world of AI
Yeah they have a good app because there were real designers who researched, tested and iterated lol
I highly recommend the app to integrate dictionary, example sentences/passages, and grammar/word use explanations/analysis. even Allow users to bookmark vocabulary. I am sure 100% you will go up exponentially in value.
This is well timed and so inspiring. I'm building a language learning app for a school project and I could learn a thing or two
I hate than fn bird so much 😂
Spanish or vanish 😂
Looks like they are more into optimizing for people clicking stuff on their app instead of optimizing for actually learning the languages effectively
The only reason why I stopped using Duolingo is because the leaderboards can be daunting and stressful. It should be an optional feature, in my opinion or should be improved.
While it's true that businesses need to be self-sufficient, educational platforms could explore alternative funding methods like corporate social responsibility initiatives, instead of leaning on their user base, which often comprises students not yet earning an income.
You don't use only duolingo to learn a language. Mix it with Anki or some other program to gain max effectiveness.
Duolingo is one of my favorite app. Very well thought out and great user experience. I do not pay though. I probably should 😀
I used both Duo lingo and Lingoni (created by a German company), and feel that good things about Duo lingo is the responses to the needs. At the lower level, learner's needs are mostly around the find-grained language issues, such as memorizing words, prononciation, spellings, basic sentence patterns etc. One depends on one's own first langauge ability to control the communication. so if you work longer enough on Duo lingo, you will acquire basic language for interpersonal communication, which is a very good things for beginners and lower intermediate learners. However, if you move on you will find context, and frequent high quality interaction is crucial for activating learner's latent knowledge gained from explicit and isolated sentence learning. In this aspect, Linguoni is trying to do. However, Lingoni is hard to learn if you approach the intermediate, or even lower intermediate level when the website does not respond to learner's needs, and depend too much on the instructor's own imagination of what learners are like. so their learning materials are often biased both in level control or interactivity or even without interactivity with the learners. So generally speaking, Duo Linguo is more market oriented than Linguoni. Another problem with Linguoni is its technical aspect. The website has a lot of bugs and mistakes in exercises, which though do not create too much a problem, yet affects the confidence of learners on this website.
In this digital age, it has become you vs the everything else. Keep yourself focused and don't get swayed by some lines of code. Human brain is supposed to evolve as it doing for the last 5-6 million years, not degenerate.
This video is more of how Duolingo is incorporating data scientists and benefiting from data-driven decisions, which I find it super cool and motivating.
Currently on 238 days streak 😅
Nothing is FREE
Just saw a Duolingo ad before this video
Just remembered to complete my 56th Day of learning French in Duolingo
No mention on the effectiveness of Duolingo as a language learning method…
8% are paying customers but what percent of lessons are done by paying customers? It must be much higher than 8% since five 'lives' do not last long.
I start my morning by sending in my work report for the previous day. Next, I complete my Duolingo lesson, freeing myself from the guilt of not doing it for the rest of the day. I can assure you, their marketing is effective—I’m currently on a 57-day streak.
how? they sell user data to many
I hope Wall Street Journal didn't lose their streak while making this video…
Huge reason they’re so recognisable and loved is cause of the massive marketing they do, and how much of a meme the owl is.
Given the size of its userbase, perhaps Duolingo should be advertising WSJ, not the other way around 😅😉
alright a good channel recommendation
Fine. I'll redownload it.
Thank you for the recording. I really appreciate this company.
I wish I could continue learning languages
It's totally irrelated that your video title and your content. I still can't figure out how can it be $7.7B. Confusion from a daily Super Duolingo user.
This market value is amazing! It is the amount that can make you financially free.
Business is scary. No-one is on your side.
or.. reinforcement learning
Speakly is better
7:14 That is a terrifying quote for our future.
it has become painful to use after new changes. had to stop using it
please stay free
Owl will help you !
this thing is great the thinking is genius it is rare to find this type of well built app in the market
I only use "Babbel" it's a language app by a German company.. also very good.
By making the app annoying af to use unless you pay for it…
What Duolingo app really need is extra categories for learning grammatics and verb-conjugation-training. Also the vocabulary training is pretty bad. I stopped doing the next levels, because I realized to really learn the language I have to work on that first. So I just keep repeating levels to do the monthly challenge.
Company goes public, starts downward trend of being worse with every change. Every time.
Company goes public, starts downward trend of being worse with every change. Every time.
The screen time you shouldn’t feel bad about: https://on.wsj.com/3YLDwbe