They idea of Duolingo was born as their founders knew that they wanted to use technology to teach. Then, not being English-born speakers they decided that they wanted to create a language education program. They knew that the outreach of developing the technology to teach one person could also teach a lot more people.
Did you know Duolingo has over 55 Million monthly active users
In early 2012, they got $3 million in funding by investors to launch the app. Before launching, there was 500,000 user waitlist waiting for the app. From the get-go, the app was a success and it focused on growing a free user base until 2017 when they had about 10 million active users. Up until 2017, Duolingo made no money!
Founders Luis Von Ahn and Severin Hacker wanted to keep the app free and they did so by applying a strategy that Spotify and Dating apps use, which was that after every lesson users would have to see an ad. Additionally, they created the subscription model that didn’t have ads and that users who bought it could also access other premium features.
What made Duolingo special is that its founders focused on making education an entertaining place rather than a regular boring class. They did this by creating an app that feels like a game, creating streaks for all consecutive days that users complete a lesson.
In 2021 the company went public at a valuation of 3.6 Billion dollars and today is the #1 education app in the world.
Technology is the biggest asset to create any type of education program as what works few, also works for many! You now have the opportunity to think for a profitable education business yourself. Let us know, what education program would you launch?
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We hope to see you on the next one,
Unvanquished Digest