the secrets of the application that everyone is talking about

Reading time: 3 min reserved for playful and addictive subscribers, this learning service has invaded smartphones of budding polyglots, who no longer hesitate to pay for their English, Spanish or Mandarin lessons. © Mounting Capital – 41 million users learn a language on Duolingo save save back on Daolingo Backup Receive the Applications Alerts “Hey it’s Duo, do you have 5 minutes for your English lesson?” It is 10 pm, a conducive schedule so that Duolingo sends its users to the smartphone of its users a final message signed by the mascot of this application of modern languages, a little green owl. Neither one nor two, we then abandon what we were doing to embark on a series of exercises, whether texts with holes or words to translate. It must be said that the “Duolingonaut” knows only too much the punishment incurred in the event of a lazy: to lose the experiences acquired, and start from zero … on the Internet forums and social networks, many are those to exhibit their “series” (“Streaks”, in English) and thus exceeding 200, even 300 days of consecutive use of the application. Difficult in any case to escape the owl, which drowns its followers under the notifications, without tiring. Homemade algorithm knows how to compose dozens of messages as sassy as different, and personalized according to the level of language reached. Up to 17 billion dollars in stock market valuation! Make fun and addictive a language learning usually boring, when it is not intimidating: it is not the thinnest feat of this American application, created in 2011 by a Guatemalan teacher, Luis Von Ahn, with one of his students, the Swiss-American Severin Hacker. In less than fifteen years, the service has supplanted the pioneers of the sector, such as German Babbel, and monopolizes 90% of the market for language courses in digital format. According to the 2024 results, presented at the end of February, there are now 41 million users to learn a language among the quarantine available daily, especially in the United States, Germany, Brazil, China, India and France. The investors are also under the spell, and this winter has prompted the valuation of the company, listed since 2021, at a summit of $ 17 billion. This “Edtech” (for Education Technology), which already has a thousand employees, seems to have a boulevard in front of it: even though digital weighs only a quarter of the language learning market, the entire cake should reach $ 52 billion in 2032, according to the Business Research. Free at start -up, the application managed to convince 9.5 million of its users to switch to a paid format. To get rid of pubs, which punctuate each end of the lesson, or avoid multiplying the occasional options of options. But also to access more elaborate exercises, such as video conversations with artificial intelligence (count from 6.99 euros to 13.99 euros per month depending on the versions). In 2024, these subscriptions weighed for 81% of the $ 748 million in revenues received by the company. Definitely determined to disrupt its sector, the company has also created its own ability test in English, DET (Duolingo English Test). Already recognized by more than 5,600 institutions around the world (including Edhec, Neoma or Sciences Po in France), it costs about three times less than the famous Toefl. And already reports 6% of turnover, $ 45 million, almost as many pubs! “It is not in five minutes a day on a smartphone that we are really progressing” unnecessary to specify that young people constitute the privileged customers of the service. By playing these fun exercises, this target completes its viewing of TV series in the original language. The connection peaks recorded by Duolingo also seem to be linked to the news of the small screen. As at the end of 2024, when the Korean language took advantage of the broadcast on Netflix of the second season of the Korean series “Squid Game”. As for the Mandarin boom, recorded across the Atlantic, it probably owes a lot to the threats of the Trump administration to close the local language version of the Chinese application Tiktok. But can budding polyglots really trust the application? “In appearance, it is rather a good surprise, because there is an effort of design and scripting, judge Pascal Marquet, dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences within the University of Strasbourg. Except that learning a language, it requires immersion and a strong investment. It is not in five minutes a day on a smartphone that you are really progressing. ” In the long run, the little owl therefore takes the risk of disappointing its fans. It is not the only shadow on the board. “The limit of this type of business is that English speakers have not really needed to learn a foreign language,” recalls a professional in the sector. To feed its growth, Duolingo will therefore have to be able to export, to cover as many countries as possible. For the time being, English (50%of students), Spanish (20%) and French (10%) concentrate most of the learning. As popular as it may be, the application will also have to deal with the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its ever more powerful and bilingual conversational robots, like Chatgpt. This is why Duolingo is diversifying, and now offers math and music lessons (3 million daily active users). In the meantime, this has not prevented its main leaders from taking advantage of the high course of action. According to documents published in February by the SEC, the gendarme of the American Stock Exchange, the co -founders Luis Von Ahn and Severin Hacker sold respectively for 3.48 million and more than $ 4 million in titles. Ditto for technical, commercial, legal and financial directors, all of whom have pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their laptop had undoubtedly sounded: “Hey is duo, do not forget to touch the jackpot”. Key shifts41 million active users each day 9.5 million paying subscribers748 million dollars in turnover in 2024 receive our latest news each morning, the news to remember on the financial markets. (tagstotranslate) Applications

Credit-Read More

Read More full article