Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo who needs to gamify language studying | EUROtoday

On May 12, 2025

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“HEy it’s duo, you have 3 minutes for your Turkish lesson? ». Duolingo users know this daily notification on the part of the owl to the garish green plumage. They also know those, more guilty, who follow in the event of a missed lesson. But few are those who know the man behind the bird, Luis von Ahn.

Less well-known than Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and different massive names in tech, Luis von Ahn can be extra discreet. However, he’s additionally a billionaire – his fortune, estimated at 1.9 billion {dollars} (round 1.7 billion euros), fairly surrounding these of a Daniel Ek, managing director of Spotify, or a Ben Silbermann, co -founder of Pinterest. And, above all, its software, undisputed chief within the sector, successful on the inventory market: in a single yr, at Wall Street, the title gained 150 %.

The man behind all information

And success was rapid. As quickly as he kicks off in 2012, Luis Von Ahn mentioned he had the prospect to learn from the advantages of a Ted Talk he had animated, and the place he had introduced his launch. Half 1,000,000 individuals register as quickly as the appliance is began. A clearly sustainable coup. Today, Duolingo welcomes some 40 million guests each day – 100 million monthly – and goals on the billion {dollars} in turnover out of 2025 (which might characterize a rise of 32 % in comparison with 2024).

Behind this success, a freemium mannequin – lower than 8 % of customers pay a subscription – which guarantees the simple studying of some 43 languages, together with English (half of the appliance downloads are made for this language), Spanish, German, Russian … but in addition the Haut Valyrien, fictitious language created for the sequence Game of Thronesor the Klingon, used on the planet of Star Trek. For a while now, Duolingo has additionally been providing music principle, arithmetic and failures.

In addition, Luis von Ahn assures him with Konbini: “I’m very unhealthy to study new languages. Same factor for the co -founder of Duolingo, Severin Hacker, and for the primary eight staff. I feel it’s a superb factor: that makes us take a look at a mannequin for medium -sized individuals, not for language geniuses. »»

Learning gamification

And that is not all: retaining its customers with multiquotidian notifications and because of the “Streaks” system (each day of lesson makes you win one), Luis von Ahn has guess on the gamification of its software. Although he admits having acquired “criticism on the subject, of people who said that the application did not seem serious, and that education was serious”, he assumes this bias: “We do not agree, education does not need to look serious. »»

Besides, he likes to tell regularly that, questioned why they use Duolingo, people answer having spent a long time on other mobile games, and consider that today, they have fun learning. Because Duolingo, with its (short) lessons of less than five minutes a day and its system with levels and awards, is thought of as a real game.

A licked communication

Another lever activated to print: a robust visible id, with effectively recognized characters (the inexperienced owl duo; but in addition Lily, the sarcastic teen with purple hair; the sportsman Eddy; the bears with scarf Falstaff or the enthusiastic Vikram) within the service of a licked communication. Because Duolingo took the wave Genz on social networks, the place the appliance is successful. Directed of the dying of his mascot, resumption of just about all of the traits and in style audios in his codecs, pranks and jokes to Internet customers … All, by taking part in the sensation of guilt that may weigh on customers who’re lacking their day by day lesson.

And Luis von Ahn additionally depends on common improvements. Recently, he introduced to combine synthetic intelligence to create new academic content material and personalize the expertise … changing, by the identical time, suppliers and freelance on these missions. Under the LinkedIn press launch of the corporate on this topic, the criticisms are fuse, and several other customers announce to delete the appliance of their cellphone, or to terminate their paying subscription.

A pc engineering that desires to democratize studying

And the CEO of Duolingo just isn’t at its first blow. In 2007, it’s he who was behind Recaprcha Inc., which serves to verify {that a} customer on a web site is certainly a human and never a robotic, displaying him photos which can be troublesome to learn. This might be offered in Google in 2009.

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Originally from Guatemala, the place he studied within the non-public sector, Luis von Ahn holds a math license at Duke in North Carolina University, and a doctorate in pc science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In a earlier life, this pc instructor had acquired the distinguished prize from the American program MacArthur Fellows, and had been categorised as the perfect scientific brains by a number of scientific magazines.

Although born, in 1978, in a center class household, and that having studied within the non-public sector, he defined in 2020 to the BBC that he wished, with Duolingo, “do something that would allow everyone to access education in an equal manner. I focused on languages, because by growing up in Guatemala, I found that everyone wanted to learn English, and that knowing it in a non -English -speaking country could double your income. ” With Konbini, he declares that one of the things that made him the most proud is to have learned “that refugees used Duolingo to study the language of their host nation, and that the UN had recourse to refugee camps” … But also that Bill Gates used it: “It is de facto what made me probably the most proud, to study that the identical methodology was utilized by among the most poor individuals and among the most poor individuals had been utilized by among the most poor individuals and among the most poor individuals had been utilized by some individuals and probably the most poor individuals and among the most poor individuals had been used occasions, by one of many richest! »»

https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/luis-von-ahn-le-pdg-de-duolingo-qui-veut-gamifier-l-apprentissage-des-langues-12-05-2025-2589469_23.php