Duolingo: Making millions out of you
发布时间 2022-07-06 16:24:21 来源
摘要
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Learning a new language can be quite a challenge. It takes time, energy, and a lot of patience. Plus, it can be costly.
One company wanted to change that by making language education free. On its way to the top of the tech segment, it earned fans and critics alike.
Duolingo changed learning for millions of people. Or did it? Let's talk about Duolingo in this episode of Company Forensics.
00:00 Duolingo - Intro
00:49 Duolingo- The origins
01:42 Duolingo - Learning for free
02:33 Duolingo - Expansion, free of charge?
03:16 Duolingo - Monetization experiments
04:12 Duolingo - Free no more
05:45 Duolingo - Does it work?
07:10 Duolingo - A new stage in the company's success
Read the video transcription + sources: https://slidebean.com/story/how-duolingo-worth-billions?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=ba-content
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Learning any language can be quite a challenge. It's time, energy, and a lot of patience, plus it can be costly. And one company wanted to change that by making language education free. And it's on its way to the top of the educational tech or tech segment. It earned fans and critics alike. Dualingo changed learning for millions of people, or did it? Let's talk about dualingo in this episode of Company For Insects.
学习任何语言都可能会是一项巨大的挑战。它需要时间、精力和耐心，而且还可能会很昂贵。然而，一家公司想要改变这一点，让语言教育免费。现在，这家公司走上了教育科技或技术领域的巅峰。它赢得了粉丝和批评家的追捧。Dualingo改变了数百万人的学习方式，还是说它没有？让我们在本期的“昆虫企业”中谈谈Dualingo。
Guadamala, Luis Juanan, and Swiss Severing Hacker come from vastly different countries, but language was vital for both. In Guatemala, English meant more job opportunities, but learning was expensive. Vonan wanted to pass the Toeful, which was unavailable in Guatemala, so he spent $1,200 trailing to a Salvador only for the test. On the other hand, Hacker grew up surrounded by German, Italian, French, and English in his everyday life in Switzerland. Their passion for languages made them click when they met at Carnegie Mellon University. There, Vonan was a computer science professor and Hacker, a PhD student.
瓜地马拉人Luis Juanan和瑞士人Severing Hacker来自不同的国家，但语言对他们来说非常重要。在瓜地马拉，学英语意味着有更多的工作机会，但学习英语很贵。Vonan想要通过Toeful考试，但这个考试在瓜地马拉不可用，所以他花费了1200美元去萨尔瓦多考试。另一方面，Hacker在瑞士的日常生活中被德语、意大利语、法语和英语包围。他们对语言的热情使他们在卡内基梅隆大学相识。在那里，Vonan是一位计算机科学教授，而Hacker则是一位博士生。
Vonan was already famous for his ideas. Vonan created the cap-chit test, which squiggly letters to certify that you're human. He did that, and then sold it to Google for millions. Now, Vonan wanted to solve another problem, teaching languages for free. Millions of people want to learn English, but can't afford it. Again, the challenge was clear, and the pair tried killing two birds with one stone. Vonan believed crowdsourcing could solve learning a new language. He would take users who wanted to learn a language and have them translate articles.
Vonan已经因他的想法而出名了。 Vonan创建了帽子测验，使用曲线字母证明你是人类。他做到了这一点，然后以数百万美元的价格将其出售给了Google。现在，Vonan想要解决另一个问题，免费教授语言。数百万人想学英语，但无法负担。再次，挑战是明确的，这对取得了一举两得的尝试。 Vonan认为众包可以解决学习一门新语言的问题。他将选择想要学习一门语言的用户，并让他们翻译文章。
With millions on board, Duelingah would translate articles in no time, but of course, not all users would translate articles. So first, they'd have to learn the basics. Then, as they advanced through the levels, they could translate longer sentences. Plus, they would do it all at no charge because their benefit is learning, but wait, isn't that free work? So why not turn it into a game? Duelingah then became a 100% free language learning site. And people learned by helping translate the web, having fun and earning points along the way.
Duelingah平台上有数百万用户，他们可以快速翻译文章。当然，并不是所有用户都可以翻译文章的。所以他们首先需要学习基础知识。之后，随着他们逐渐提升，也可以翻译更长的句子。此外，用户可以免费翻译，因为他们的收益是学习。但是，这不是免费的工作吗？为什么不把它变成一个游戏呢？Duelingah于是成为一家百分之百免费的语言学习网站。人们通过帮助翻译网页来学习，并且在此过程中享受乐趣和获得积分。
By October 2011, Duelingah had received $3 million in funding, and some of the names there were Tim Ferris, Ashton Kutcher, and Union Square Ventures. Then, after heavy promotion, the company launched in 2012, offering four languages, French, English, Spanish, and German. By September 2012, the platform already had 250,000 users. 20% of those users came from Latin America and lower income countries. And with such a strong start, investors wanted in.
2011年10月，Duelingah已获得300万美元的资金支持，其中包括蒂姆·费里斯、阿什顿·库彻和联合广场公司等知名投资者。之后，在大力推广之后，该公司于2012年推出，提供法语、英语、西班牙语和德语四种语言。到2012年9月，平台已经拥有25万用户，其中20%来自拉丁美洲和较低收入国家。由于取得了如此强劲的开端，投资者们想要参与其中。
By October, the company had landed $15 million in series B funding. And with this money, they released a Duelingah out for iOS in 2012 and Android in 2013. Now everybody learned a language on their phones. And around that time, one ad looked for other sources of income. Again, with crowdsourcing, article translation. Only this time, he would charge for the service. The idea was controversial, but investors liked it. Plus, the app kept proving it's worth by June 2013. It had four million users, and one more and later, a million more. Duelingah kept growing.
到了十月份，这家公司已经获得了1500万美元的B轮融资。凭借这笔资金，他们在2012年推出了针对iOS的Duelingah，2013年又推出了针对Android的版本。这样，每个人都能在自己的手机上学习语言了。在那个时候，有一则广告寻求其他收入来源。再次通过众包进行文章翻译。但这次，他打算对服务收费。这个想法有争议，但投资者喜欢它。另外，到2013年6月，该应用已经有了四百万用户，并且后来又增加了一百万用户。Duelingah继续增长。
But how do you make profit out of those millions of users? Well, the founders thought of two ways to go about it. In 2013, the company launched its own incubator program for new languages. Volunteers could upload entire languages or individual classes. Also Duelingah offered translation services. For example, users who were native in French, Spanish, and Portuguese translated articles from English as practice. Meanwhile, Duelingah charged outside consumers for these services. The idea was controversial, but both CNN and BuzzFeed used it.
但是，你如何从这些数以百万计的用户中赚取利润呢？好吧，创始人想出了两种方法。2013年，该公司推出了自己的孵化器计划，用于新语言的开发。志愿者可以上传整个语言或单个课程。此外，Duelingah还提供翻译服务。例如，会讲法语、西班牙语和葡萄牙语的用户可以翻译英文文章以练习。同时，Duelingah向外部消费者收取这些服务的费用。这个想法引起了争议，但CNN和BuzzFeed都使用了它。
Duelingah's funding kept increasing as well, with $20 million in 2014, $45 million in 2015. Now the company had a $470 million of regulations and many questions around volunteer work. If you, if any companies reached this level, relying on volunteers, Duelingah had everything going for it. Millions love the immersive game-like approach, but the leap from there to monetizing was still distant.
杜林加的资金也在持续增长，2014年达到2000万美元，2015年达到4500万美元。现在，该公司有4.7亿美元的法规和关于志愿工作的许多问题。如果您，以及任何公司，达到了这个水平，依赖志愿者，杜林加拥有一切。数百万人喜欢沉浸式的类游戏方式，但从那里跨越到盈利仍然很遥远。
In 2015, Duelingah changed its focus. The company tried to capitalize on the millions of users it had, and Vanana announced all their sources of revenue still centered around education, and they were ambitious.
在2015年，Duelingah改变了其重心。该公司试图利用其拥有的数百万用户，并且Vanana宣布其所有的收入来源仍然集中在教育上，并且他们抱有雄心壮志。
Duelingah launched its version of the Tofu certification program, the Duelingah English Test, or DET. And for years, the Tofu was vital for almost everybody who wants to study in the US. And now, an ATTEC starter wishes to compete, for less. These tests have always been expensive.
Duelingah推出了其版本的豆腐认证计划，即Duelingah英语测试(DET)。多年来，豆腐对于几乎每个想在美国学习的人来说都非常重要。现在，一个ATTEC的新手希望以更少的费用来竞争。这些测试一直非常昂贵。
It Duelingah got enough institutions to believe in the test, they could offer the DET for a mere $20. But money was still short. However, Duelingah's revenue went from $1 million in 2016 to $13 million in 2017.
如果Duelingah的测试取得足够的机构的认可，他们可以提供DET测试，只需20美元。但是，资金仍然很紧缺。然而，Duelingah的收入从2016年的100万美元增加到2017年的1300万美元。
So the company took a significant risk that year. Ads would increase on the free app, so to avoid them, plus having offline access, all you had to do was get Duelingah Plus for $9.99 a month.
因此，公司在那一年冒了很大的风险。广告将增加在免费的应用程序上，为了避免这些广告，以及可以离线访问，你只需要每月支付9.99美元购买Duelingah Plus。
But the monetization ideas didn't end there. Can you imagine breaking a 52-week Duelingah streak? Well, you no longer had to. Instead, for $4.99, you could ask Duelingah to repair it and keep going.
但是这些变现点并没有止于此。你能想象打破了一个持续52周的Duelingah连胜纪录吗？现在你不必这么做了。相反，只需支付4.99美元，你就可以要求Duelingah对它进行修复并继续前进。
The strategies, though, not fan favorites, eventually paid off. By 2018, the DET, for example, had the approval of 180 institutions, including Yale and Columbia. And that same year, the company tripled 2017's income.
然而，这些策略虽然不是粉丝们最喜欢的，但最终收到了回报。例如，到2018年，DET获得了180家机构的批准，包括耶鲁大学和哥伦比亚大学。同年，该公司的收入增长了三倍，超过了2017年的收入水平。
In 2019, Duelingah had a $30 million fund around which ballooned the valuation to $1.5 billion, making it one of the few tech startups to reach unicorn status. By March 2020, Duelingah had a million paying users, and by the end of the year, it was 1.6 million users, according to its S1 filing.
2019年，Duelingah拥有了3000万美元的基金，估值达到了15亿美元，成为为数不多的达成独角兽地位的科技初创公司之一。根据其S1登记文件，到2020年3月，Duelingah拥有100万付费用户，到年底时则已达到了160万用户。
But the story isn't perfect. Duelingah has had its share of criticism. Though Duelingah is massive, it still relies heavily on volunteers. In fact, many consider the volunteers' value to be greater than that of its paid employees.
但这个故事并不完美。Duelingah也受到了批评。尽管Duelingah很庞大，但它仍然严重依赖志愿者。实际上，许多人认为志愿者的价值比其有薪雇员更大。
But the profit from paid subscriptions all goes to Duelingah, so why keep using them? Then there's the app itself. The Duelingah owl is excellent and reminding you practice every day. And for many, this is a good thing as it brings discipline, but the owl has gotten more intense. He even cries if you ignore him for too long, just Google Duelingah memes.
但是来自付费订阅的利润全部归Duelingah所有，那么为什么要继续使用它们呢？还有应用本身。Duelingah的猫头鹰非常善于提醒您每天练习。对许多人来说，这是一件好事，因为它带来了纪律性，但是猫头鹰变得更加强烈了。如果您忽略他太久，甚至会哭泣，只需在谷歌上搜索Duelingah的模因即可了解这一点。
But jokes aside, this isn't the most significant criticism. Banana has said Duelingah is a tool for people to get a job, even a high-paying job. He only promises users will get to advanced, beginner, and early intermediate levels. The press loves criticizing Duelingah with many car articles claiming it just doesn't work. Language experts have also highlighted that it's too rigid and that has an impractical vocabulary.
开个玩笑，但这不是最重要的批评。Banana曾说Duelingah是帮人们找工作，甚至高薪工作的工具，他只承诺用户能达到高级、初级和早期中级的水平。媒体一直批评Duelingah，许多文章称它根本无效。语言专家也指出它太死板，词汇不切实际。
Diane Larsen Freeman is a linguist who specializes in second language acquisition. And she told Forbes that Duelingah's method is ineffective since there's no conversation with other humans. One Duelingah employee didn't understand a basic question in Spanish, or does a spinyone? Use speech Spanish. After six months of using the app. And then Steve Saco, a language expert, took 300 hours of Duelingah's Swedish lessons. Only to fail a college introductory Swedish exam. And for the DET, critics call it a rudimentary test of exercises unfit for college level English, let alone how English works in real life.
Diane Larsen Freeman是一位专攻第二语言习得的语言学家。她告诉福布斯，Duelingah的方法是无效的，因为它没有提供与其他人的交流。一名Duelingah的员工不理解一道基础的西班牙语问题，或者是一只刺猬？使用西班牙语交流。在使用该应用程序六个月后，语言专家Steve Saco参加了300小时的Duelingah的瑞典语课程，并在大学入门瑞典语考试中失败。而在英语国家，批评者称DET是一个简单的练习测试，不适合高校水平的英语，更不用说英语在现实生活中的应用了。
But this did not slow Duelingah down. When in June 2021, Duelingah filed its S1-front-evential IPO of fans and investors took notice. The S1 filings figures were impressive. By March 2021, the app had 40 million monthly users and 500 million downloads while being the highest grossing education app. Income had increased as 5% of users paid for the premium edition.
但是这并没有阻碍Duelingah的发展。2021年6月，Duelingah提交了其首次公开发行（IPO）的S1文件，其粉丝和投资者们开始关注该公司。根据S1文件的数据显示，截至2021年3月，该应用程序拥有4000万月度用户和5亿的下载次数，同时成为最赚钱的教育应用。该公司的收入也有所增加，因为约5%的用户购买了高级版本。
Even the controversial DET tests, which cost $49 by March 2021, have been a hit with users taking it 344,000 plus times. Revenue for 2020 double to 2019's figures reaching $161 million.
即使是备受争议的 DET 测试，截至 2021 年 3 月每次测试的费用为 49 美元，但已经成为用户热门的选择，测试次数超过了 34.4 万次。2020 年的收入比 2019 年翻了一番，达到了 1.61 亿美元。
Yet Duelingah still hasn't turned a profit. Instead, losses increased from 19 to 2020. And therein lies the challenge.
然而，Duelingah仍未实现盈利。相反，亏损额从19增加到了2020。这就是挑战所在。
Duelingah started as free and to a degree, it still is free. That's the reason why millions use it every month. So the company must keep them entertained and make money. And now, they have to entertain investors as well. So in the future, the question is the same in every single language.
Duelingah最初是免费的，到一定程度上，它仍然是免费的。这就是为什么每个月有数百万人使用它的原因。因此，公司必须让他们感到愉快，并赚钱。现在，他们还必须取悦投资者。因此，未来，问题在每种语言中都是相同的。
Thanks a lot for watching this one, guys. I actually met Luis one on a TEDx conference I was invited to speak back way back in 2013. I found him to be a great guy with some really, really cool ideas.
大家看完这段视频，真的很感谢。其实，2013年我被邀请去参加TEDx会议讲演时，认识了Luis。我发现他是一个非常好的人，有一些非常酷的想法。
One of the ideas that really blew my mind back then was how he apologized to everyone for the time that he had made the world waste solving capture puzzles. And the evolution of capture was going to recapture where the puzzles stopped being just random letters to figure out you're not a robot. But other ways to realize you're not a robot that could also help in other ways. And that's what we have today with Google. If you look at the recapture models today, you're trying to solve little puzzles that are actually useful for something. Right now, they're used by Google's AI for self-driving cars.
当时真的让我印象深刻的一个想法是，他向每个人道歉，因为他曾让整个世界浪费时间解决捕捉谜题。而捕捉技术的演进将重新捕捉，不再仅仅是随机字母的解谜，而是其他方式来确认你不是机器人，还可以在其他方面提供帮助。这就是Google现在拥有的。如果你看一下今天的捕捉模型，你正在尝试解决一些实际有用的小谜题。现在，它们被Google的人工智能用于自动驾驶汽车。
So Luis ends up watching the video. I hope you take no offense. I'm a big fan of your company. Have you been thinking about learning Chinese, Spanish, or some other language? Take a pause on that. Instead, learn how to read data. As a startup entrepreneur, nothing is more important than understanding your business metrics. As our friends from Turntmoggle would say, we've been using Turntmoggle for over five years to track the performance of our SaaS business. And if you haven't already, I highly recommend you watch the video that we produced in partnership with them a little bit ago.
所以Luis最终看了这段视频。我希望你不会生气。我是你公司的忠实粉丝。你有没有考虑学习中文、西班牙语或其他语言？先停一下，转而学习如何读取数据。作为一名创业者，比理解你的业务指标更重要的是什么都没有。正如我们的Turntmoggle朋友所说，我们已经使用Turntmoggle跟踪我们的SaaS业务的表现超过五年了。如果你还没有的话，我强烈建议你观看我们与他们合作制作的视频。
Customer churn, how to save your starter for this video, dives into what churn is, and why it can be deadly for a SaaS business. And we know all that too well. Thankfully, a Turntmoggle can save your business by providing you with incredibly valuable insights about customer churns so that you can quickly reduce it by addressing the root of the issue. Chartmoggle is free for any company with under $10,000 in MRR. And if you have over $10,000 in MRR, you can get a $50 month credit for 12 months by going to turntmoggle.com slash slide beam.
客户流失，如何保护你的企业，这个视频深入介绍了什么是流失，以及为什么它对SaaS企业来说会是致命的。我们对此深有体会。幸运的是，Turntmoggle可以通过提供关于客户流失的非常宝贵的洞察力来拯救你的企业，以便你可以通过解决问题的根源来快速减少流失。Chartmoggle对于任何MRR低于10000美元的公司都是免费的。如果你的MRR超过10000美元，你可以在turntmoggle.com/slidebeam上享有为期12个月的50美元月信用。
A big thanks to the team for sponsoring this video. Thanks a lot for watching everyone, and we'll see you next week.
非常感谢团队对这个视频的赞助。感谢大家观看，下周见。