Duolingo

By Craig on October 2, 2016

Founder and CEO of Duolingo: Luis von Ahn

Venture Name: Duolingo (Duolingo.com)

duolingo-logoDuolingo is a free language learning platform that employs a gamified skill tree and adaptive feedback tools to motivate potential “students” to learn a new language.  1  The software teaches languages to anyone with a smartphone or Internet connection.  2  Users gain experience points as they learn the language.  Users can set a daily target for learning, based on 10 minute increments of time.  If you choose to learn for 30 minutes, then meeting this goal will earn you extra rewards.  The game-based software reminds users by email of their daily status and the points-based system is fun and works to motivate students to meet or exceed their daily goals.   Lessons involve reading, writing (entry through your keyboard or mobile device), listening and speaking, with the software capable of very accurate voice recognition to practice your speaking skill.  As the goal is to learn a language, the software rates your success with various grammar and vocabulary, but that rating decreases if you do not refresh or re-study that unit.  This encourages review of past material on a weekly basis to keep your score up.  Courses can teach as many as 2,000 words. 3  The efficacy of Duolingo’s data-driven approach to language learning was evaluated by professors at City University of New York and the University of South Carolina and they found that “34 hours on Duolingo was equivalent to the value of a first-year college semester, which takes in the order of 130+ hours.”  1

The real genius of Duolingo, however, lies BEHIND the game-based learning software.  At higher levels of language training, which can only be achieve by passing the in-app quizzes in all 4 language skills, the users are now encouraged to translate sentences into the language they are learning.  Duolingo compiles an aggregate of all of its users translations to produce accurate translations.  By learning a language, users are assisting the company to provide translation services for major corporate clients, such as CNN and Buzzfeed.  2

The company profile on AngelList Education states that Duolingo is now the world’s most popular way to learn languages online with 59 different language courses across 23 languages and over 120 million users.  1  As of 2015, the company has been valued at USD $470 million, with more than $83 million raised from investors such as Google Capital.  1, 4

Founder’s Bio:  Luis von Ahn14502919_10101180270924449_1498463518717916475_n

In 2009, in the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University, Luis von Ahn and his computer science PhD student, Severin Hacker were trying to find a way to translate English material on the web into other languages.   Von Ahn, a native of Guatemala, and Swiss-born Hacker soon discovered that this was a nearly impossible task.  Software was clearly not up to the task of dealing with the intricacies of human language, and paying a human to translate the entirety of the web into multiple languages was financially impossible.  The solution:  make a game-based free app that teaches people a new language and use THEIR time and energy to turn them into translators capable of acting as a universal translator.  2

Von Ahn’s early research was in cryptography, but he earned international recognition and awards for his work on CAPTCHAs, which are “computer-generated tests that humans are routinely able to pass but that computers have not yet mastered.”  5  He went on to found one of the most ubiquitous Internet tools, the company reCAPTCHA, which was sold to Google in 2009.  6  (see Figure 1)

recaptcha_sample_white
Figure 1.
reCAPTCHA anti-bot validator  9

His Wikipedia page details his many amazing accomplishments: 6

Venture Team:  Duolingo.com

The co-founder is one of von Ahn’s students from Carnigie Mellon University, who earned his PhD for work on Duolingo   Launched in 2011, the company has grown and attracted investors from venture fund management companies movie stars, like Aston Kutcher, and even Google Capital.  The company has already raised more than USD $80 million in investment and is valued at more than $470 million.  With the backing of Google, and partnerships with major corporations, like CNN, the future for Duolingo seems set.

Personal Reflection:

As a language and science teacher, I was skeptical that a free app could help people to learn a language, so I decided to try it out.  I set a daily goal of 30 minutes to study French, and I soon found myself surpassing my goal most days because of the challenge of keeping my “strength” rating up on previous lessons.  The gamification tools were cleverly implemented and worked well to motivate learning.  I found the lessons a bit repetitive, and this was a common theme in the comments section.  I did feel that this tool would help people with some skill in a language to practice their skills, challenge new skills and maintain their 4 skills in a language.  I am not convinced, however, that it can completely replace other forms of language learning.  Overall, it is a very slick and professional service that is a tremendous advantage to anyone wanting to advance their skills in a language.

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duolingo
  2. https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2014/visionary/severin-hacker/
  3. http://olimo.livejournal.com/208893.html
  4. https://angel.co/duolingo
  5. Von Ahn, L.; Blum, M.; Langford, J. (2004). “Telling humans and computers apart automatically”.Communications of the ACM. 47 (2): 56–60. doi:1145/966389.966390
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_von_Ahn
  7. https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-von-ahn-4567065
  8. https://pando.com/2013/05/30/say-what-duolingo-points-to-datas-important-role-in-online-education/
  9. https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 Oct Posted on Duolingo

I've used Duolingo for a little while and did appreciate the gamification to certain extent (I have a friend who now lives in a different country whose progress I could also follow and try to keep up with), but the repetitiveness (at the beginner levels) became annoying after a while. I understand the reason for the repetitiveness - it has to do with the forgetting curve and the software applies the concept of spaced repetition to get things into your long-term memory - but the choice of words to teach was poor. While the community of more advanced learners is quite good, I just couldn't get into this program because I wasn't learning things I could use right away (knowing how to say "Bear" in German or French may not be particularly helpful in a typical conversation).

In terms of Luis von Ahn as a role-model, I think I would have a hard time relating to him. His accomplishments are worthy of admiration, and he has clearly used his education and research to successfully tackle real-world problems. However, I see him more as an academic than an entrepreneur - his project's "hidden agenda" of having humans translate things that are impossible for computers to translate seems to point to potentially more research data being generated for analysis.

3 Oct
0 Thumbs Up!
R. Stefan @rusyniak

I've used Duolingo for a little while and did appreciate the gamification to certain extent (I have a friend who now lives in a different country whose progress I could also follow and try to keep up with), but the repetitiveness (at the beginner levels) became annoying after a while. I understand the reason for the repetitiveness - it has to do with the forgetting curve and the software applies the concept of spaced repetition to get things into your long-term memory - but the choice of words to teach was poor. While the community of more advanced learners is quite good, I just couldn't get into this program because I wasn't learning things I could use right away (knowing how to say "Bear" in German or French may not be particularly helpful in a typical conversation).

In terms of Luis von Ahn as a role-model, I think I would have a hard time relating to him. His accomplishments are worthy of admiration, and he has clearly used his education and research to successfully tackle real-world problems. However, I see him more as an academic than an entrepreneur - his project's "hidden agenda" of having humans translate things that are impossible for computers to translate seems to point to potentially more research data being generated for analysis.

2 Oct Posted on Duolingo

Great choice of a venture and description of the founder. It's interesting how his background in Captchas influenced his work with Duolingo. I could see some carryover because of the natural visual and language processing and the simplicity of both products. I've played a little with Duolingo but don't have the same level of experience as Joyce and Galina.

2 Oct
0 Thumbs Up!
Bryan Thompson @thompsbw

Great choice of a venture and description of the founder. It's interesting how his background in Captchas influenced his work with Duolingo. I could see some carryover because of the natural visual and language processing and the simplicity of both products. I've played a little with Duolingo but don't have the same level of experience as Joyce and Galina.

2 Oct Posted on Duolingo

I have used Duolingo and liked it but was not necessarily blown away. Perhaps the level I was doing was below what I should be, furthermore, I am a self-proclaimed non-gamer. I love the idea of gamification and I can really see how it would work for many learners, but for myself, gaming stresses me out. Playing Guitar Hero makes my hand cramp halfway through the one song. I do like the layout and interactions that Duolingo brings, however, I find that to learn I language especially how to say something, I need to repeat it out loud, and that is the crux of the problem for me with any language learning apps. I can really only study in a private place where I feel comfortable speaking aloud (I certainly wouldn't do that on the morning subway commute!). So I agree with Craig that Duolingo is a great app, but one that just didn't work for me.

2 Oct
0 Thumbs Up!
Joyce Chan @jhlchan

I have used Duolingo and liked it but was not necessarily blown away. Perhaps the level I was doing was below what I should be, furthermore, I am a self-proclaimed non-gamer. I love the idea of gamification and I can really see how it would work for many learners, but for myself, gaming stresses me out. Playing Guitar Hero makes my hand cramp halfway through the one song. I do like the layout and interactions that Duolingo brings, however, I find that to learn I language especially how to say something, I need to repeat it out loud, and that is the crux of the problem for me with any language learning apps. I can really only study in a private place where I feel comfortable speaking aloud (I certainly wouldn't do that on the morning subway commute!). So I agree with Craig that Duolingo is a great app, but one that just didn't work for me.

2 Oct Posted on Duolingo

I heard about Duolingo, but I have not tried it before today. I decided to try a Spanish lesson and set it up for 5 minutes a day. I ended up completing 5 times more than planned and enjoyed this game-based experience. This awesome product was born as a result of collaboration of a teacher and his student. I like how initial idea was transformed as the two smart brains joined to come up with a solution. In addition, they were able to build relationships and raise $80 million.

2 Oct
0 Thumbs Up!
Galina Culpechina @gculpech

I heard about Duolingo, but I have not tried it before today. I decided to try a Spanish lesson and set it up for 5 minutes a day. I ended up completing 5 times more than planned and enjoyed this game-based experience. This awesome product was born as a result of collaboration of a teacher and his student. I like how initial idea was transformed as the two smart brains joined to come up with a solution. In addition, they were able to build relationships and raise $80 million.

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