Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Launch a plan with no ads, offline use, and 'support our mission'
About half of early buyers paid to support the app; started a run rate
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- 2017
In their words
Why Your Free Users Are Your Real Growth Engine – Cem Kansu, Duolingo CPO
Cem KansuSo we said, "You can use Duolingo fully offline and turn off your ads." And then when we designed the purchase page, we're like, "This looks really weird with two features. We need a third feature." But we couldn't actually, at the time, figure out what the third feature should be.
Cem KansuSo we wrote a line there that was the thing that users were telling us, which is support Duolingo in its mission of free education. I think we just said, "Support Duolingo's mission," for short. And that was our first entry into subscription, that was Duolingo Plus.
Cem KansuAnd honestly, what I think we saw happen was probably majority of users early on bought it for the fact that they enjoyed Duolingo so much and wanted to contribute back. The other half, or maybe the half of the demand was from no ads and minimally for offline. And that started us giving us a run rate.
Cem KansuObviously, I mean, I'm happy to talk about it more, but from then to today, the subscription has evolved a lot, but that was the very first version.
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More from this episode
- Keep lessons free and sell learners' translations to news sitesSmall revenue; dropped by 2016 (price race and low translation quality)
- Charge $1-3 to fix a broken streakA good share of users paid; showed how much users value their streak
- Show one ad only after a lesson ends, and test it against retentionRetention mostly neutral, at most a slight hit, across ad tests
- Count ad complaints per million users and compare them to other complaintsMissing-course complaints were 3x ad complaints; ads launched
- Block gambling and sketchy ad types, even if it costs revenueAccepted lost ad revenue for better experience; no numbers
- Sell ads directly to brands and have app characters introduce themUsers like the format; slow to sell because it's custom
- Use the end-of-lesson ad slot to advertise your own paid planGuest says house ads beat programmatic ads; no numbers
- Run 3-6 month holdouts for changes whose effects show up lateNew push lifts can turn negative after about 6 weeks
- Sell a one-time ad-free month at $3, $5 or $10 to test demandUptake far above expectations; led to the subscription
- Offer a free trial even though the app is already freeOne of the biggest unlocks; guest had expected it to flop
- Tell users on the paywall you'll remind them on day 5 of a 7-day trialWon A/B tests by easing fear of subscription traps
- Change the buy button to say 'Try for $0.00'Beat 'Try for free' on both trial starts and trial-to-paid
- Give subscribers unlimited hearts so mistakes never stop their lessonsBig turning point: raised subscription conversion and retention
- Make paid features free when a test shows they earn littleTook a small revenue hit on purpose to grow free users
- Add new subjects inside the main app instead of launching new appsSeparate apps were 'hard mode'; in-app works better, but many users still don't know
- Offer live human tutors on demand in a higher-priced planFailed: users joined, panicked and left; later replaced by AI video call
Tags: subscription-launch, ad-free, offline, support-the-mission