SC

Strategy Canon

Duolingo: sourced choices

49 product and go-to-market choices, oldest first. Back to the case study

  1. 2011-11-27Product · Private beta Duolingo opened a private beta on November 27, 2011 and released publicly on June 19, 2012. DL16
  2. 2012Product · Learning by translating The first product had learners translate real web content as they practised, with the translations sold to publishers. DL2
  3. 2012Product · Streak at launch Duolingo launched with a streak, first tied to a daily experience-points goal. DL28
  4. 2012Go_To_Market · Translation buyers Learner translations were sold to CNN and BuzzFeed; the business found only two customers and rivals undercut prices. DL2
  5. 2012-06Go_To_Market · Free with no ads Duolingo launched promising no ads, subscriptions or in-app purchases; early employees threatened to quit if it charged users. DL3
  6. 2012-11Product · Full iPhone app Two interns built a full iOS app rather than a companion app; it became the top education app within a week and Apple's iPhone App of the Year for 2013. DL2
  7. 2013Product · Translation retired By the end of 2013 Duolingo shut down the translation service; an engineer said teaching through translation conflicted with teaching the language well. DL2
  8. 2013Go_To_Market · No marketing budget Gotthilf was hired to grow Duolingo with no budget and never turned on paid ads. DL27
  9. 2013Go_To_Market · Brazil and Latin America Gotthilf began as a consultant growing Duolingo in Brazil, then Chile and Argentina. DL27
  10. 2013-05Product · Android app An Android app followed in May 2013. DL16
  11. 2016Go_To_Market · Ad test Before Plus, Duolingo tested a small ad at the end of a lesson to see whether it reduced use. DL21
  12. 2017-04-21Go_To_Market · Duolingo Plus Duolingo Plus launched on Android at $9.99 a month for ad-free and offline lessons, with learning content kept free. DL21
  13. 2018Product · Leagues test Weekly leaderboards were first tested in 2018 with five leagues, later expanded to ten. DL41
  14. 2018-04Product · Badges Badges failed as a minimal test and, after a two to three month redesign, became what Gotthilf called probably the most successful experiment. DL5
  15. 2018-04Go_To_Market · PR launches abroad Growth launched Duolingo through press in Japan, China, India, Korea and Turkey, insisting that coverage linked to the app. DL5
  16. 2018-04Go_To_Market · Use before sign-up Letting people try lessons before signing up raised conversion. DL5
  17. 2019Product · One-lesson streak About November 2019 Duolingo separated the streak from the daily XP goal so one lesson extended it; the test raised day-14 retention 3.3% and daily active learners 1%. DL40
  18. 2020-05Product · Online English test The Duolingo English Test is taken online at home in 25 to 35 minutes, against two to three hours at a test centre for TOEFL or IELTS. DL13
  19. 2020-05Go_To_Market · DET price The English test cost $49 against more than $200 for TOEFL or IELTS. DL13
  20. 2020-05-19Go_To_Market · DET acceptance About 1,000 programs began accepting the test during the pandemic, taking the total to about 2,000; by 2025 it was over 6,100. DL13
  21. 2021Go_To_Market · European ad spend Sensor Tower estimated Duolingo's digital ad spend in Europe at about $100 thousand in 2021, against over $20 million for Babbel in Germany and the UK. DL46
  22. 2021-05Go_To_Market · Convenience features Plus sold convenience: no ads, offline lessons, streak repair, unlimited hearts and test-outs; von Ahn rejected paying to learn faster. DL3
  23. 2021-05Go_To_Market · Geographic pricing Von Ahn preferred to charge heavy users in rich countries and not users on low-end phones in India. DL3
  24. 2021-06Product · BirdBrain student model A model called BirdBrain predicts the probability that any learner answers any exercise correctly, trained on over half a billion daily exercises. DL4
  25. 2021-07-28Go_To_Market · IPO Duolingo listed on Nasdaq at $102 a share. DL17
  26. 2021-07-30Go_To_Market · Top-grossing while free At the IPO von Ahn wrote that the app had become the top-grossing education app on Google Play and the App Store while all learning content stayed free. DL42
  27. 2021-09Go_To_Market · TikTok owl A social media coordinator took over the dormant TikTok account in Q3 2021 and built it to 8.2 million followers with an unruly owl mascot. DL14
  28. 2022Product · Efficacy study A company-funded study found learners completing beginning Spanish or French courses (median 112 hours) reached reading and listening levels of fourth-semester university students. DL19
  29. 2022-01Product · Streak Freeze Letting learners hold two Streak Freezes raised daily active learners 0.38%; new streak animations raised new users' seven-day retention 1.7%. DL24
  30. 2022-08Product · Path redesign The course interface was redesigned in August 2022. DL16
  31. 2022-08-27Product · New subjects Duolingo added math (announced August 2022), music (October 2023) and chess (April 2025). DL16
  32. 2023Product · Leaderboards Weekly competitive leagues, copied from FarmVille 2, raised learning time 17% and tripled highly engaged learners. DL1
  33. 2023Go_To_Market · Referral program A referral program offering free Super Duolingo raised new users by only 3%. DL1
  34. 2023-03-14Product · Duolingo Max Duolingo Max added GPT-4 Roleplay conversations and Explain My Answer, first for Spanish and French on iOS. DL12
  35. 2023-03-14Go_To_Market · Max price Max cost $29.99 a month or $167.99 a year. DL12
  36. 2023-10Go_To_Market · Effectiveness messaging A weekly social post and PR pitches carried evidence that Duolingo worked, alongside a weekly mission post. DL27
  37. 2023-10Go_To_Market · Mission on the paywall Adding that paying makes language learning accessible to millions improved paid conversion. DL27
  38. 2024-04Go_To_Market · Word of mouth share About 90% of user growth came from word of mouth, according to the VP of Engineering. DL15
  39. 2024-11Product · Three-minute lessons Lessons were cut to a few minutes so they could be done while waiting for a bus. DL6
  40. 2024-11Product · Notification timing A model trained over years chooses when to send each learner a reminder. DL6
  41. 2024-11Go_To_Market · No paid acquisition Von Ahn said paying about $30 per user made no sense while the company earned nothing, which forced the focus onto retention. DL6
  42. 2024-11Go_To_Market · Owl-driven users Von Ahn said about 15% of users came from the owl's social media presence. DL6
  43. 2024-12Product · One-lesson streak The streak was changed from an XP goal to one lesson a day; a later test that made extending even easier attracted the least engaged users and was not kept. DL28
  44. 2025Go_To_Market · Family plan and app stores Super offered a family plan for up to six; 62% of 2025 revenue came through Apple's App Store and 20% through Google Play. DL22
  45. 2025-04Product · AI-built courses Using generative AI, Duolingo launched 148 new language courses, more than doubling its catalogue. DL10
  46. 2025-11Go_To_Market · Luckin Coffee partnership Duolingo ran a Luckin Coffee partnership in China in 2025. DL11
  47. 2026-02-26Product · Video Call to Super AI Video Call conversation practice moved into the cheaper Super tier as part of the 2026 plan. DL23
  48. 2026-02-26Go_To_Market · Growth over bookings The 2026 plan reduced friction in the free experience and gave up over $50 million of bookings to improve retention, targeting 100 million DAUs by 2028. DL23
  49. 2026-08-05Go_To_Market · Creators and Streak Revival Creators supplied about two thirds of social impressions in key markets, and a June 2026 Streak Revival campaign brought back 15.4 million learners' streaks. DL8