Duolingo founder on the key to solving retention “The way we solved [retention] was just through trial and error,” Duolingo founder Luis Von Ahn explains. “By now, some of us have some intuition about what is good for gamification, but the reality is that most of it is just trial and error.” He continues: “In the history of Duolingo, we have run 16,000 A/B tests. Each one of those is trying to figure out if we change these little things — “should this button be red or blue?” — to try to get you to come back. And its these 16,000 A/B tests that have made our retention outstanding. At this point our user engagement is starting to get comparable to social networks.” Source: @StanfordGSB (May 2025)

@LuisvonAhn @duolingo When von Ahn heard that his language-learning app had become a vital teaching tool in refugee camps, his company waived the fees for over 135,000 displaced and low-income students for its English proficiency test.

@LuisvonAhn @duolingo The National Geographic 33—inspired by our 33 founders—is an initiative honoring changemakers who are rising to meet the most critical challenges of our time, making meaningful progress and incredible breakthroughs.

$DUOL | DA Davidson 𝗿𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝘂𝘆 on 𝗗𝘂𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝗰., PT $𝟭𝟳𝟱 Analyst sees choppy September weekly DAU trends, but the month's final week delivered 3Q's fastest W/W growth.