How Does Duolingo Make Money? Discover What They Don’t Want You to Know!

How Does Duolingo Make Money

If you’re a language learning enthusiast, it’s hard to miss Duolingo, a popular app for learning a new language. The app boasts over 300 million users worldwide, making it one of the most popular language learning platforms. However, the question that often comes to mind is how Duolingo makes money?

Duolingo operates on a freemium model, meaning it’s free to use, but the company generates revenue through its premium features. For example, Duolingo offers a paid subscription called Duolingo Plus, which provides users an ad-free experience, offline access, and an option to practice specific skills. While most of Duolingo’s users opt for the free version, the company generates a sizable revenue through Duolingo Plus subscriptions.

Duolingo also earns money through its language proficiency certification program, Duolingo Certificates. These certificates are recognized by over 500 institutions, including universities and governments, and the company charges a fee for each certificate. This brings in revenue for the company and validates the proficiency and effectiveness of Duolingo’s language courses. Duolingo’s innovative business model has proven successful, allowing the company to continue providing high-quality language education to millions of users worldwide.

The Freemium Model

Duolingo is primarily a free app that offers language learning services to users. However, the app also offers a premium subscription with additional features. This is known as the freemium business model aimed at converting free users into paying customers. The following are the main ways in which Duolingo makes money:

Duolingo Plus

Duolingo Plus is the app’s premium version that offers users additional features such as ad-free service, an offline mode, and unlimited mistakes without incurring any penalties. The subscription comes in monthly and yearly packages, costing $9.99/month or $79.99/year. Duolingo generates a lot of revenue since users are willing to pay for a less disruptive learning experience.

Crowdsourcing

Duolingo has created a platform that allows language learners to practice and hone their language skills by translating content for businesses. In this way, Duolingo can monetize its large user base by offering businesses a cost-effective means of translating their content into different languages. Duolingo has collaborated with major companies like CNN and Buzzfeed to provide this service.

Gamification

One of the most effective ways Duolingo makes money is through gamification. Duolingo uses a points-based system and a variety of rewards to make learning feel like a fun game. In addition, the app employs interactive puzzles, quizzes, and other games to keep users engaged while learning new languages. This fun and engaging experience encourages users to stay on the app longer and even pay for the premium version.

Advertising 

In addition to the above ways of making money, the free version of Duolingo is ad-supported. This means businesses that want to promote their products or services can advertise on the app and reach a wide global audience. 

Overall, the freemium business model has proved highly profitable for Duolingo. By offering a free basic service and enticing users with premium features, Duolingo has made learning languages fun, accessible, and profitable.

In-App Purchases

Another significant way Duolingo earns money is through in-app purchases. Although the standard version of Duolingo is free, users will be prompted with various upgrade options within the app.

Most of Duolingo’s in-app purchases are related to subscribing to Duolingo Plus, which disables ads in the app and provides offline course access. Duolingo offers a 7-day free trial, and users are automatically charged at the end of that period if they don’t cancel their subscription.

In addition to Duolingo Plus, users can purchase virtual coins and streak freezes. Virtual coins can be used to purchase power-ups within the app, while streak freezes enable users to keep their streak even if they miss a daily goal.

It’s also worth noting that in-app purchases are a small fraction of Duolingo’s overall revenue, reportedly just 5-10%. However, this still amounts to millions of dollars per year.

Duolingo offers a slew of in-app purchases, and although it may be tempting to purchase them all, it’s important to understand what each one offers and if it’s worth the cost.

Duolingo is a language learning platform widely known for its gamification features that make learning fun and engaging for its users. But have you ever wondered how Duolingo makes money? As an avid platform user, I was curious to know more about this, so I researched.

One of the ways that Duolingo makes money is through their Duolingo Plus subscription service. Duolingo Plus offers users an ad-free experience, offline access to lessons, and other features for a monthly fee. According to the company’s website, the subscription costs $6.99 monthly, or $83.88 annually.

In addition to its subscription service, Duolingo also generates revenue through its partnerships with companies and organizations. For example, Duolingo has partnered with companies in the past, such as Uber, to offer language learning courses to their employees. As a result, these partnerships have allowed Duolingo to expand its reach and offer its language courses to a wider audience.

Another way that Duolingo makes money is through its language certification program, which allows users to take a proficiency test to demonstrate their language skills. Depending on the language, these tests cost between $49 and $99.

While these are some of the main ways that Duolingo earns money, it’s worth noting that the company has also received funding from investors. The company has raised over $183 million, which has helped it continue to grow and develop its platform.

In summary, Duolingo generates revenue through its Duolingo Plus subscription service, partnerships with companies and organizations, language certification program, and funding from investors. By utilizing these various methods, Duolingo has continued to provide its language learning courses to millions of users worldwide.


Posted

in

by

Tags: