Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Spend the first 5 years on the free product, then add a subscription
Built a moat; now worth over $10B
Workedproduct-activationpricing
What they did
Launched in 2011/2012 and focused only on the free experience, with no Duolingo Plus subscription until 2017. Now expanding into math and music to reach early adopters in new categories.
What happened
Became a competitive moat (Jacob: it pushed paid brain-training apps like Elevate out of that approach); worth over $10B.
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Duolingo
All 61 Duolingo tactics- Cut the free trial from 14 days to 7More conversions overall and experiment results twice as fast
- Sell a one-time ad-free month at $3, $5 or $10 to test demandUptake far above expectations; led to the subscription
- 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
- Send tomorrow's reminder 23.5 hours after today's lesson, not at a time users pickBeat every other scheduling strategy tested, including user-chosen times
- Let an algorithm pick from 250 reminder messages, and A/B test adding new onesNotifications called a top retention driver; no numbers shared
More from this episode
- Compare your last 12 months of metrics to similar apps to find your weakest spot
- When users stay but few pay, fix onboarding, the paywall and price firstSeveral wins; no numbers given
- Survey free and paying users about what the free and paid versions are worthFound the free version was so good people didn't need to pay
- Give a bigger annual discount and nudge more users to the yearly plan
- Move a Facebook-dependent app toward word of mouth and SEO
- Buy users with ads that pay back in 45 days, even with low retentionProfitable despite 30% annual retention; guests warn it won't reach a big outcome
- Tinder: Offer several paid tiers and convert users fast when they won't stay longMakes up for weak retention; guest gives no numbers
- Duolingo: Show more ads to free users so they either earn you money or upgrade