Duolingo’s stock price rose 7% on Thursday following a significant increase in users signing up to learn Mandarin, largely driven by the growing popularity of Chinese social media app RedNote, a rival to TikTok. The company confirmed that Mandarin learners have seen a 216% increase compared to last year.
RedNote has taken advantage of the shift away from TikTok, soaring to become the top free app on Apple’s store and reaching a 20-fold increase in US downloads over the past week. Duolingo’s marketing team has an active presence on RedNote, managed by its Chinese team.
Duolingo offers courses in 42 languages, with 48.8 million Spanish learners and 27.3 million French users. The company saw a 43% gain last year, outpacing the Nasdaq’s 29% increase. A US shutdown of TikTok is reportedly imminent, as the Supreme Court weighs a law that could effectively ban the app.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/16/duolingo-shares-climb-7percent-as-users-swarm-to-app-to-learn-mandarin.html