Duolingo’s rise to stardom

Photo by ajau_suresh

Duolingo, a language learning app known for its unique social media presence and trendy content has skyrocketed these past few years. According to the Vault Collective, since 2021, the platform has grown from 50,000 to an astounding 8 million followers on TikTok. This traction has resulted in their app receiving an active 5.2 million paid subscriber base as well as a 50% year-over-year increase in monthly active users for the platform. This surge in growth would not be possible without the company’s proactiveness to adjust their brand’s tone to play on Gen Z’s wit and knowledge of trendy topics on social media.

After reading Duolingo’s meaningful metrics blog, it’s clear that the brand had a strategic plan and process to get the results they were looking to achieve. As mentioned in our readings this week, a clearly defined goal is crucial to every marketing campaign. (The Marketing Campaign Playbook) In this case, the general goal for Duolingo in 2018 was to increase their DAU (Daily Active User) metric. Simply put, the more active users they have on their platform leads to more active subscription members resulting in more profit.

Contrary to other approaches by competitors, Duolingo primarily focuses on reaching users organically by relying on what their community wants to see, creating content against social norms and staying up-to-date with latest trends. As of 2023, 80% of its users were gained organically. One recent example of Duo’s quirkiness is the Squid Game skit they made to promote the new season of Squid Game as well as highlight the fact that the show might serve as a segway to learning Korean on their app. It’s fascinating to see how this seemingly wild concept can generate about 5 million views, 236K likes, and 14,000 comments solely on YouTube. Duolingo’s “entertainment-first” approach makes their content easy to share and feels less “pushy” in terms of marketing in general. They are truly pioneers and game-changers on how brands interact with their consumers on TikTok.

It’s clear that this little green owl has built an immense amount of trust in their community resulting in more users using their app more than competitors.  It’s clear that the risks have finally paid off for Duolingo. 

Due to the uncertainty and recent 12-hour ban of TikTok, it’s important now, more than ever to diversify and improve one’s presence across all of their social media platforms. Compared to the 10 million followers that Duolingo has on TikTok, their other social accounts see about 20% of that, averaging at about 2 million per account. While those are still superior numbers, a focus on growth across all platforms would allow for a “safety net”. In the case of any situation arising as it did earlier this year when an entire platform shuts down. Also, while their “unhinged” approach has primarily worked in the realm of Gen Z and TikTok, it’s clear that a different approach will be needed when facing an older audience and alternate platform.