Influencer app
Time magazine has released its latest list of 100 Most Influential Companies. Many of the usual suspects appear in the rankings — Apple, Chipotle, Disney — but one company in particular caught our eye.
With hundreds of millions of downloads, gamified language-learning app Duolingo was named in the prestigious Leaders section of Time’s list. The app, which has helped millions of users learn languages — and perhaps annoyed just as many with its notoriously persistent push notifications — was praised for its incorporation of AI, having been powered by its own model, Birdbrain, for years. But more recently, the company is incorporating new AI tools into its products, such as GPT-4, allowing users scenario-based ways to practice, like going furniture shopping, asking a friend to go for a hike or ordering coffee at a café in Paris.
It’s all a game
Back in 2009, Guatemalan entrepreneur Luis Von Ahn had just sold his online authentication software reCAPTCHA to Google. Keen to develop a product in the world of education, von Ahn teamed up with computer scientist Severin Hacker and founded Duolingo just 2 years later.
In a competitive space, Duolingo carved out its niche by gamifying the learning experience wherever possible. Leaderboards, experience points, levels, the pressure to keep your “streak” going, and even an in-game currency, have helped the app build habits for users — all communicated through endless notifications on your phone. Annoying? Maybe. Effective? Definitely. Per the latest count, some 20.3 million people use the app everyday.
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