Duolingo
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 |
| Type | Public |
| Industry | Education |
| Official website | https://duolingo.com/ |
Duolingo is a publicly owned, American language-learning website founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker.[1] On July 28, 2021, the company began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.[2] As of Q3 2024, the app has over 37 million daily active users and 8.6 million paid subscribers, with a net income of $23.4 million.[3]
Consumer impact summary[edit | edit source]
Freedom[edit | edit source]
Users can delete their Duolingo account through the app settings and request their account data through the "Duolingo Data Vault". Users can also allow or deny the collection of optional information through the settings, such as location and anonymous speech data.
Privacy[edit | edit source]
According to the privacy policy, if a Duolingo Max user utilizes artificial-intelligence (AI) features, a copy of their text or audio data will be shared with vendors such as OpenAI.[4] This is also similar for non-AI features, as Duolingo "may also collect and analyze your speech to help [it] understand the effectiveness of [its] lessons and to improve the product," though the data is anonymized.
It is also mentioned that when completing a lesson, a video of a user's lesson "will be logged by a service called FullStory." This service records usage patterns, device specs, and learning activity, and is only disabled by default for child users. Opting out requires going to FullStory's website.
The policy states the app works with third-party advertising networks to personalize advertising, such as with Google, Meta, OAuth, and Unity. Personalized advertising can be disabled in the app's settings.
The Exodus Privacy project lists as many as 13 tracking, advertising and analytics service libraries being present in the Android version of the app.[5] The app does not work for more than about one lesson without internet access, hence turning off internet access is not an option to prevent data exfiltration. The F-Droid version of Tracker Control can help with blocking some of the traffic to these services without impacting the functionality of the app.
Business model[edit | edit source]
Duolingo relies on in-app advertising and paid memberships for revenue. The company also sells merchandise on their website.
Market control[edit | edit source]
Duolingo is the most popular language learning application, with it having 60% market control as of 2025.[6]
Incidents[edit | edit source]
Data breach (2023)[edit | edit source]
In January 2023, the data of 2.6 million users was posted to an online hacking forum for $1,500.[7] The data was scraped from a vulnerable API, with email addresses, usernames, languages spoken, and real names being included.[8] A spokesperson for Duolingo stressed that "these records were obtained by data scraping public profile information" and "no data breach or hack has occurred".[9]
Paywalled content (2023)[edit | edit source]
On March 14, 2023, a new subscription service was released called "Duolingo Max", that promised highly personalized language learning with ChatGPT-4 integration.[10] In September 2024, a new feature was added to the subscription that allowed users to interact with a character named Lily.[11] This subscription feature would show on the "learning path"[12] for all users, regardless of their subscription status.
On September 3, 2024, users alleged they could not make a lesson have "legendary" status unless they paid for the "Duolingo Max" subscription to access the video-call lessons.[13] At the time, the subscription was $30 per month and to get a legendary status for a lesson, each attempt would be 100 gems for free users[14] (not including Super Duolingo users).[15] Some users were able to fix the behavior, though the "go to legendary" button would still not bring users to a skipped or new level.[16]
Implications[edit | edit source]
According to Duolingo's mission statement, the goal of Duolingo is to make language learning "universally available."[17] It states, "We created Duolingo so that everyone could have a chance. Free language education – no hidden fees, no premium content, just free."[18] It goes on to say, "We believe true equality is when spending more can't buy you a better education."
Pay to win pattern[edit | edit source]
Recently, some of the timed learning games inside the app are impossible to complete in the time allowed, even for a native speaker of the language. In order to win, the user needs to pay for a subscription to buy more time. This also means that the learning high scores can essentially be bought.
Products[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Our Mission". Duolingo Press Room. Archived from the original on 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ "Duolingo Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering". Duolingo Press Room. 2021-07-27. Archived from the original on 2025-01-24. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ "Financials". Duolingo Press Room. Archived from the original on 2025-01-24. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ "Privacy Policy". Duolingo. 2024-09-11. Archived from the original on 2025-01-24. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ "Report for com.duolingo 6.22.3". exodus. 2025-03-25. Archived from the original on 2025-03-26. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ Curry, David (2025-02-27). "Language Learning App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)". Business of Apps. Archived from the original on 2025-01-12. Retrieved 2025-03-15.
- ↑ Abrams, Lawrence (2023-08-22). "Scraped data of 2.6 million Duolingo users released on hacking forum". Bleeping Computer. Archived from the original on 2025-03-09. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ "Pwned websites". haveibeenpwned.com. Archived from the original on 2025-03-09. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ Greig, Jonathan (2023-01-23). "DuoLingo investigating dark web post offering data from 2.6 million accounts". The Record. Archived from the original on 2025-03-07. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ Duolingo Team (2023-03-14). "Duolingo Max Uses OpenAI's GPT-4 For New Learning Features". Duolingo Blog. Archived from the original on 2025-03-04. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ Duolingo Team (2024-09-24). "Duolingo's Video Call Offers Realistic Conversation Practice". Duolingo Blog. Archived from the original on 2025-03-06. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ Munson, Holly; Yu, Anton; Rajgarhia, Ananya; Noh, Aj (2022-05-06). "The Science Behind Duolingo's Home Screen Redesign". Duolingo Blog. Archived from the original on 2025-03-02. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ u/ChasingKilts (2024-09-03). "How am I supposed to legendary?". Reddit. Archived from the original on 2025-03-26. Retrieved 2025-03-27.
- ↑ u/Bluerious518 (2024-09-03). "Bluerious518 comments on How am I supposed to legendary?". Reddit. Archived from the original on 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-03-27.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ Fanelli, Jay (2022-06-08). "Super Duolingo Is Duolingo's New Premium Product". Duolingo Blog. Archived from the original on 2025-01-24. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ u/haa888 (2025-01-13). "haa888 comments on How am I supposed to legendary?". Reddit. Archived from the original on 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-03-27.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ "Investor Relations". Duolingo Investors. Archived from the original on 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ "About Us". Duolingo. Archived from the original on 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
- ↑ Jump up to: 19.0 19.1 "Duolingo is bringing language, math, and music under one roof!". Duolingo Blog. 2023-10-11. Archived from the original on 2025-01-20. Retrieved 2025-03-14.