About Duolingo

Duolingo, Inc. (Duolingo) is a technology company. The company's products are powered by sophisticated data analytics and AI and delivered with art, animation, and design to make it easier for learners to stay motivated, master new material, and achieve their learning goals. The company's flagship app has organically become the world's most popular way to learn languages and the top-grossing Education app in the app stores. For many, Duolingo has become synonymous with language learning: for example, on Google, people search for the term 'Duolingo' approximately eighteen times more often than 'learn Spanish'. The company is particularly proud that its learners come from the entire socioeconomic spectrum, ranging from billionaires and celebrities to recently resettled refugees, a rare instance in which more money does not imply better access to a high quality educational platform. The company started with a focus on teaching languages because of the profound impact learning a new language can have on people's lives, as well as the large market opportunity. As of December 31, 2023, Duolingo offered courses in over 40 languages to more than 85 million monthly active users. To provide perspective on the company's reach, in the United States ('U.S'), the number of people learning a language using Duolingo is greater than the number of K-12 students taking a foreign language class in school, 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. The hardest part of learning something new is staying motivated, so the company builds gamification features into its platform to motivate the company's learners, and the company runs thousands of A/B tests to optimize each feature for maximum engagement. The company's obsession with user experience has yielded affinity and loyalty in the company's learners, which in turn has helped the company cultivates millions of brand advocates who tell their friends and families about the company's products. The company's brand has become part of pop culture, appearing in internet memes and in sketches on late night comedy shows. As an example, #duolingo on TikTok has over four billion views, and the company's official account has been highlighted by numerous press outlets. All of this has allowed the company to grow its business organically, primarily relying on word-of-mouth virality rather than paid user acquisition. The company's millions of learners complete over a billion exercises every day, creating the world's largest learning dataset. This data powers the high volume A/B testing and novel AI that the company uses to continually improve how well the company teaches. The company intentionally does not put its learning content behind a paywall. Anyone can download the Duolingo App, use it for as long as they like, and complete as many of the company's courses as they choose, all without paying anything. Learners who use Duolingo for free see an ad at the end of each lesson, whereas learners who purchase the company's paid subscription enjoy an ad-free experience and access to additional features. As of December 31, 2023, approximately 8% of the company's monthly active users were paid subscribers. The company's paid subscriber penetration has increased significantly since the company launched its paid subscription in 2017 and, combined with the company's user growth, has driven strong revenue growth each year since. The company's freemium business model, which means allowing users to access its content for free and charging a subscription for additional features, is core to the company's success because it enables significant user scale. The company's growth and competitive differentiation have been driven by two mutually-reinforcing flywheels: the company's learning flywheel and the company's investment flywheel. Learning flywheel: The greater the scale of the company's learner base, the more the company can use insights from data analytics to improve both engagement and efficacy. The more engaging the company's products are, and the more effectively the company teaches, the more the company's learners tell their friends about Duolingo and the more the company continues to grow its learner base. Investment flywheel: The scale of the company's learner base and word-of-mouth growth allow the company to focus its capital investments on product innovation and data analytics, as opposed to relying on brand or performance marketing. The more learners use Duolingo and convert into paid subscribers, the more the company is able to invest in creating an even more delightful, engaging and effective learning experience. In turn, this increases the company's popularity and user scale, as well as the effectiveness of the company's data analytics and AI systems, further widening the company's data moat. In 2016, the company launched the Duolingo English Test, an online, on-demand assessment of English proficiency. Every year, millions of people around the world seek to demonstrate English proficiency for a variety of reasons, including university admissions, work visas, and job applications. 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 the successful completion of these high stakes assessments. As of December 2023, over 4,000 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 in the U.S. 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 a math course that motivates both children and adults to sharpen their mental math skills in the company's standards-aligned curriculum. In 2023, the company also launched a new music course that's designed to teach basic music literacy, including how to read music notes and play simple songs with an on-screen keyboard. The Math and Music courses have both been integrated into the Duolingo App. New products will leverage the company's scalable technology platform and benefit from the company's core competencies in product development, gamification and use of advanced data-driven analytics to deliver quantifiable efficacy. Expanding the scope of the company's platform to additional learning subjects will further expand the company's addressable market. In the year ended December 31, 2023, the company derived 59% of its revenue and 60% of its total bookings from the Apple App Store; and 20% of its revenue and 20% of its total bookings from the Google Play Store. The company generates advertising revenue from the sale of display and video advertising delivered through advertising impressions. Technology Platform The company utilizes the latest in AI, 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 over 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 and leads to compounding growth of core business metrics like DAUs and paid subscribers. 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 learn 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 App (including the company's Math and Music courses), Duolingo ABC, 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 App The Duolingo App is the world's most popular way to learn languages. Accessible for free, as of December 2023 it offers courses in over 40 languages to more than 85 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. As of November of 2023, both Math and Music courses were integrated into the Duolingo App and are available on iOS devices. Super Duolingo While all of Duolingo's course content 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 Max Duolingo Max is a premium subscription tier launched in 2023 and offered to a portion of the company's user base and priced higher than Super Duolingo. It gives learners access to the existing features of Super Duolingo in addition to incremental features and exercises powered by generative AI technology. Duolingo English Test: AI-Driven Language Assessment Launched in 2016, the Duolingo English Test is an online, on-demand, high-stakes (e.g., used for university admissions) 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. Sales & Marketing 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 and Duolingo memes created by the company's community. 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. The company complements and accelerates its organic user growth with strategic and targeted paid user acquisition. Intellectual Property The company owns several trademarks that have been registered, or for which registration applications are pending, in the U.S., 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 copyrights (both registered and unregistered) 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 ('EEA') the company is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 ('GDPR') and in the United Kingdom ('U.K.') the company is subject to the U.K. GDPR. Research and Development The company's research and development expenses were $194.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2023. History Duolingo, Inc. was founded in 2011. The company was incorporated in 2011.