Small Business Technology

How Does Duolingo Make Money?

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr
Advertiser Disclosure

This article may contain references to products or services from one or more of our advertisers or partners. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products or services. Nonetheless, our opinions are our own.


What is Duolingo?

Duolingo is a language learning platform for the PC or mobile device. They currently have 28 languages available to learn for free. The overarching mission of the company is to provide the world with free of charge language learning. This is a noble venture indeed, one can take it upon themselves using the internet to learn languages for free, but it is not easy. The Duolingo app makes learning easy and fun for users. As a matter of fact, many schools use the app in the classroom to teach various languages to children. This comes in very handy as education budgets are slashed all over the world due to the slow recovery from the last economic downturn.

How Duolingo Makes Money

The method to make money is pretty simple here. The app and browser addition push advertisements to users during lesson time. One may get rid of the advertisements by paying for a subscription. In addition, they have received several rounds of funding, the most recent one being $83 million from Google. The fact that the sole focus of the company is to freely deploy information is what got Google interested in supporting it. They currently sell branded merchandise, but revenues there are not enough to keep the company afloat. They are also in the process of creating other ways to make money, which will be reviewed in the next section.



Recent Developments

Since the purpose of Duolingo is to bring free education to the masses, they have recently been looking at new ways to monetize use. It looks like they will be testing this on users in the near future. They are looking at where they can insert more advertising and offering additional user options as pay as you go services. Another idea they will be testing are tourism type advertisements geared at the lesson plans, for example, Duolingo could strike a deal with France to promote French tourism among those learning French on the site or app.

Fun Fact

Duolingo was born at Carnegie Mellon University to a computer science professor and his graduate student, Luis von Ahn, and Severin Hacker, respectively. The original purpose of the program was to solve two problems, one to teach people another language and the second to have translations done in a redundant manner. The problem being solved here is that learning a new language can be very expensive and the professor was eager to bring the costs down for people wanting to emigrate to places that could bring them better lives.


Reviewed and edited by Albert Fang.

See a typo or want to suggest an edit/revision to the content? Use the comment form below for feedback.

At FangWallet, we value editorial integrity and open collaboration in curating quality content for readers to enjoy. Much appreciated for the assist.


Did you like our article and find it insightful? We encourage sharing the article link with family and friends to benefit as well - better yet, sharing on social media. Thank you for the support! 🍉

Article Title: How Does Duolingo Make Money?

https://fangwallet.com/2018/04/10/how-does-duolingo-make-money/


The FangWallet Promise

FangWallet is an editorially independent resource - founded on breaking down challenging financial concepts for anyone to understand since 2014. While we adhere to editorial integrity, note that this post may contain references to products from our partners.

The FangWallet promise is always to have your best interest in mind and be transparent and honest about the financial picture.



Become an Insider

budget planner template printable

Subscribe to get a free daily budget planner printable to help get your money on track!

Make passive money the right way. No spam.





Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned. The opinions expressed here are the author's alone.

The content of this website is for informational purposes only and does not represent investment advice, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security, investment, or product. Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence, and, if necessary, consult professional advising before making any investment decisions. Investing involves a high degree of risk, and financial losses may occur including the potential loss of principal.


Write for Us


Albert is an entrepreneur, content strategist, and UCLA Bruin. Professionally, he has spearheaded business strategy efforts at SoFi, Houzz, and AKQA. In his free time, he enjoys sharing his personal finance/FIRE journey on his personal finance blog and offering enriching, minimalistic financial guidance.

1 Comment

Write A Comment

Pin It