Sell ads directly to brands and have app characters introduce them

Cem KansuIt's very cool. It's currently only in the US. So we're focusing on growing these in the US because obviously we created a great format, but to be able to scale this, we also need to be working with companies. And right now we're just focused on companies that would want to advertise with us in the US.

Cem KansuWe created multiple formats, but the one I love the most, and that seemed to be working really well, is one of our characters. So we have eight Duolingo characters on Duolingo that you see, introduces the ad.

Cem KansuFor example, pick a brand. Let's say it's a detergent. I'm making this up. It's not like we had exactly this, but one of our characters, Lily, would make jokes about like, "Oh, I need to wash my clothes. I wish I could do that."

Cem KansuAnd we write a custom script to introduce that ad that's very short and then the ad itself plays. So that at least we are building a little bit of our character world further and it's not jarring as you ended a lesson right now. That's what our ads are really a little bit where you see an ad, it feels like you're easing into the ad.

Cem KansuWe're trying this right now. When you see it as a user, it's actually as an ad, it's a very delightful format. Our challenge I would say is scaling it. I think since it's a custom format, well, you got to go up to advertise and explain how this works.

Cem KansuSo it's a bit of a slow adoption process, but we're going to, I mean, our goal is to basically increase the volume of these ads and reduce the programmatic by a good amount in 2026.