
Duolingo Built a $700M Company Without Charging Users - programLyrique
https://producthabits.com/duolingo-built-700-million-company-without-charging-users/
======
lazerwalker
Is "our users aren't our customers" really something to be proud of in 2019?

------
wildfire
Odd. I've paid about £100 so far for a subscription and other gamification
things.

I don't regret the money, and believe it was worthwhile. But Duolingo isn't
free.

~~~
beatgammit
It is free though. You don't _have_ to pay to use the service, and the only
thing to gain by paying is removal of ads and offline access. All of the
content is available for free.

------
pragmaticlurker
that's blatant. They offer only the first levels as free, then you have to pay

~~~
KozmoNau7
Really? Because I've used for free for a long time, with seemingly no content
blocked by a paywall.

~~~
read_if_gay_
Weirdly, there are differences between the mobile app and the desktop web
version. I’ve tried the app but mostly stuck to web because of those
differences, which mostly appeared to be a bunch of shenanigans like gems and
health that aren’t present in the web version. I never ran into a paywall
either but the app might have those explaining your different experiences.
Then again, I haven’t used Duolingo in a while so might be completely wrong.

