Duolingo Stock

Duolingo, Inc. (Duolingo) operates as a technology company.

With over 800 million downloads as of December 31, 2022, the company’s flagship app had organically become the world’s most popular way to learn languages and the top-grossing Education app in the App Stores.

As of December 31, 2022, Duolingo offered courses in over 40 languages to more than 60 million monthly active users. To put the company’s scale in context, there are more people in the United States learning languages on Duolingo than there are foreign language learners in all United States high schools combined, and there are more people learning certain languages on Duolingo, like Irish and Hawaiian, than there are native speakers of those languages worldwide.

Duolingo is the learning product built for the mobile generation: bite-sized, on-demand and fun. In 2016, the company launched the Duolingo English Test, an online, on-demand assessment of English proficiency. The company developed the Duolingo English Test because language assessment has lacked innovation, with the most popular English proficiency tests still administered in physical testing centers and usually costing hundreds of dollars per test. By offering a more accessible, online option that is both rigorous and accurate, the company provides greater opportunities for aspiring students and professionals dependent on successful completion of these high stakes assessments. As of December 2022, over 3,800 higher education programs around the world accept the Duolingo English Test results as proof of English proficiency for international student admissions. These include the top 25 undergraduate programs ranked by international enrollment, as well as top schools, such as Yale, Stanford, MIT, Duke and Columbia.

In 2020, the company launched Duolingo ABC, an app for young children that teaches early literacy skills. In 2022, the company launched Duolingo Math, an app where students can focus on elementary math, which covers classroom topics, or adults can focus on brain training, which strengthens mental math skills.

Technology Platform

The company utilizes the latest in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics, along with a relentless focus on A/B testing, to fuel the company’s differentiated learning experience.

Highlights of the company’s technology platform include:

Large Data Moat: With almost a billion exercises completed every day on the company’s platform, the company has built the world's largest collection of language-learning data. The company leverages this data by developing novel AI models at the intersection of machine learning, natural language processing, and cognitive science, which enable personalized instruction and power new product features that drive both engagement and efficacy.

Robust Testing Framework: The foundation of the company’s product strategy is its relentless focus on improving learner engagement through A/B testing, and the company runs hundreds of A/B tests on new product features each quarter. Experiments can be as simple as changing the text or color of a button, or as complex as adding a major new feature like Leaderboards. The velocity of the company’s A/B testing capabilities is a core competency that allows the company to optimize the Duolingo learning experience at a rapid pace.

Advanced Data Analytics and Machine Learning Capabilities: The company’s machine learning capabilities allow the company to leverage its data to optimize the learning experience. One example of this is the company’s machine learning tools that evaluate every learner’s answer to every exercise every day and learns to predict the probability that any learner will answer any given exercise correctly. The company uses these tools to adaptively construct lessons where each exercise is ‘just right’ in terms of difficulty for each learner. And the company’s expertise in AI and machine learning also allow the company to effectively and efficiently integrate external AI models to improve the company’s products.

Shared Infrastructure: Products across the company’s platform, like its flagship Duolingo language learning app, Duolingo ABC, Duolingo Math and the Duolingo English Test, share a singular technology infrastructure, which allows the company to leverage operational efficiencies in implementing new features for each. With the company’s shared infrastructure, the company is able to innovate at a higher velocity.

Strict Data Protection and Privacy Standards: The company is committed to abiding by the strictest privacy standards and does not sell personal data to outside parties.

Solutions

The Duolingo Language Learning App

The Duolingo language learning app is the world’s most popular way to learn languages. Accessible for free, as of December 2022 it offered courses in over 40 languages to more than 60 million monthly active users. It is also the top-grossing app globally in the Education category on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. Duolingo can also be accessed by desktop computers via a web browser at https://duolingo.com.

Super Duolingo

While all course content on Duolingo can be accessed for free, the company’s subscription offering, Super Duolingo, offers learners additional features to enhance their learning experience. In 2021, the company launched a family plan, which includes up to six subscribers under one annual plan.

Duolingo English Test: AI-Driven Language Assessment

Launched in 2016, the Duolingo English Test is an online, on-demand, high-stakes English proficiency assessment. Anyone with a computer, webcam, and reliable internet connection can take the test from anywhere, at any time. The test is ‘computer adaptive,’ meaning it gets harder or easier depending on the performance of the test taker, and can be completed in less than an hour.

Duolingo For Schools

Duolingo for Schools is a free, web-based tool that aims to make it easier for teachers to use the Duolingo platform in a structured learning environment, like a classroom. With Duolingo for Schools, teachers can create a dashboard for a class, assign specific Duolingo content to students and track students’ progress through the content.

Duolingo ABC

Introduced in 2020, Duolingo ABC is a free app that teaches young children early literacy skills. Developed by learning experts, Duolingo ABC is aligned with the Common Core State Standards, and is designed based on recommendations by the National Reading Panel.

Duolingo Math

Launched in 2022, Duolingo Math is a free app where students can focus on elementary math, which covers classroom topics, or adults can focus on brain training, which strengthens mental math skills.

Sales and Marketing

The key elements of the company’s sales and marketing strategy include:

Brand Campaigns: The company’s brand marketing increases awareness of Duolingo through online and offline campaigns that drive press, social sharing, and more word-of-mouth virality. Investments in the company’s brand enable it to drive long-term growth by attracting new learners to the company’s platform and keeping existing learners engaged. The company leverages its iconic brand on social media platforms to drive organic new user growth and engagement with entertaining content, instead of promotional content, that takes advantage of viral trends.

Owned Media Marketing: The company’s owned media marketing engages its learner community, creating millions of brand advocates who drive word-of-mouth virality by sharing their love of Duolingo within their networks. The company sends its learners personalized emails and push notifications that provide progress reports, lesson reminders, and sometimes a simple message of positivity to encourage them to remain engaged.

Paid Acquisition: The company complements and accelerates its organic user growth with strategic and targeted paid user acquisition. The company’s performance marketing strategy is focused on targeting high quality user segments around the world that are more likely to retain well as users and/or subscribe.

Geographic Expansion: In markets where the company’s organic awareness is relatively low and opportunity for growth is strong, the company hires experienced local marketing managers and engages in localized social media and influencer-led campaigns, app store optimization, and paid advertising to generate interest in the company’s products and drive new learner growth.

Intellectual Property

The company owns several trademarks that have been registered, or for which registration applications are pending, in the United States, as well as in a number of foreign jurisdictions. These trademarks include, among others, the word marks ‘Duolingo’ and Duolingo in Chinese, and certain logos used in connection with the company’s business, including its mascot Duo.

The company has registered several domain names, including www.duolingo.com, and the company owns several registered copyrights covering logos and characters used in the company’s business, including Duo.

In addition to the described trademark and domain name protection, Duolingo has filed two patent applications directed to proprietary techniques the company developed for generating language proficiency test questions and evaluating language proficiency as part of an on-going program to identify and protect innovations developed by the company.

Government Regulation

In the European Economic Area, the company is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679. In the U.K., the company is subject to the U.K. GDPR (the U.K. General Data Protection Regulation and the U.K. Data Protection Act 2018).

Research and Development

The company’s research and development expenses were $150.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2022.

History

Duolingo, Inc. was founded in 2011. The company was incorporated in 2011.