How Duolingo’s DAUs exploded, again
How Duolingo’s DAUs exploded, again
Lessons we can learn from Duolingo’s impressive retention wins
The original story of how Duolingo reignited user growth is incredible. But what’s more incredible is what just happened after this story… they experienced explosive growth yet again!
In the video below, we give a quick breakdown of Jorge Mazal’s original story, with helpful visuals. Plus, we give an update on how Duolingo has exploded DAUs, again, in the last year.
There are so many product management lessons to glean from this tale. Huge shoutout to Jorge Mazal, Duolingo’s former CPO, for inspiring product people with both the wins and lessons in this story.
Our video is a fast, fun breakdown with big updates. If you want to dive deeper, check out the original story on Lenny’s Newsletter (20 min read) and Mazal’s interview on Amplitude (55 min video). Both are well worth the time. You can also read more about the Daily Active User model from Duolingo’s data science team here.
P.S. The making of this video inspired me to reactivate my own Duolingo practice. I’m currently on a 20-day streak, and I’m hooked! ¡Es bueno!
You got this!
Referenced in this post
[Lenny’s Newsletter] How Duolingo reignited user growth, a guest post by Jorge Mazal
[Amplitude] AMA with Jorge Mazal
DAU user stats from Duolingo’s S-1 filing, and Q2 2022 and Q2 2023 shareholder letters
[Statista] Leading learning and education apps worldwide in 2022 by downloads
[YouTube] Duolingo Review 2023 (Pros & Cons Explained) by Test Prep Insight
[Duolingo blog] How Duolingo uses AI to create lessons faster by Parker Henry
I always appreciate it when case studies call out decisions that worked out well but were risky or controversial at the time they were made. The internal discussions about halting new user acquisition efforts and setting a hard cap on push notifications must have been intense. I remember thinking years ago that the person at LinkedIn who decided to preserve the channel by limiting the number of inMail message credits users could buy must have overcome strong objections too. Great video, Sondra!