Luis Von Ahn

You know, travel is interesting. Now that we're a publicly traded company, people have hypothesized all kinds of stuff about travel with us. They're like, oh my God, travel's opening up. That may be good for Duolingo. Or travel's drying. That may be bad for Duolingo. The reality is travel does not affect us all that much.

You know, travel is interesting. Now that we're a publicly traded company, people have hypothesized all kinds of stuff about travel with us. They're like, oh my God, travel's opening up. That may be good for Duolingo. Or travel's drying. That may be bad for Duolingo. The reality is travel does not affect us all that much.

You know, travel is interesting. Now that we're a publicly traded company, people have hypothesized all kinds of stuff about travel with us. They're like, oh my God, travel's opening up. That may be good for Duolingo. Or travel's drying. That may be bad for Duolingo. The reality is travel does not affect us all that much.

I can have hypotheses for why that is, but we just have not seen traveling closing down or opening up affecting us all that much. The reason is probably because the majority of our learners, we have a lot of learners that that have different motivations. But the two big buckets are not travel. One of them is a hobby. And that's the biggest bucket in the US.

I can have hypotheses for why that is, but we just have not seen traveling closing down or opening up affecting us all that much. The reason is probably because the majority of our learners, we have a lot of learners that that have different motivations. But the two big buckets are not travel. One of them is a hobby. And that's the biggest bucket in the US.

I can have hypotheses for why that is, but we just have not seen traveling closing down or opening up affecting us all that much. The reason is probably because the majority of our learners, we have a lot of learners that that have different motivations. But the two big buckets are not travel. One of them is a hobby. And that's the biggest bucket in the US.

So, you know, you ask people in the US, like, why are you using Duolingo? And the most common answer is like, well, you know, I used to play a lot of Candy Crush or I used to do a lot of Instagram and Now I'm doing Duolingo, and at least I'm learning some Spanish. It's just a hobby. And then the other huge group of people is people learning English. And for them, it's not about travel.

So, you know, you ask people in the US, like, why are you using Duolingo? And the most common answer is like, well, you know, I used to play a lot of Candy Crush or I used to do a lot of Instagram and Now I'm doing Duolingo, and at least I'm learning some Spanish. It's just a hobby. And then the other huge group of people is people learning English. And for them, it's not about travel.

So, you know, you ask people in the US, like, why are you using Duolingo? And the most common answer is like, well, you know, I used to play a lot of Candy Crush or I used to do a lot of Instagram and Now I'm doing Duolingo, and at least I'm learning some Spanish. It's just a hobby. And then the other huge group of people is people learning English. And for them, it's not about travel.

They just actually, honest to God, need to learn English, either because it's for educational opportunities or for job opportunities, et cetera. And those two big buckets account for like 90%, 95% of our users. So travel just doesn't affect it very much.

They just actually, honest to God, need to learn English, either because it's for educational opportunities or for job opportunities, et cetera. And those two big buckets account for like 90%, 95% of our users. So travel just doesn't affect it very much.

They just actually, honest to God, need to learn English, either because it's for educational opportunities or for job opportunities, et cetera. And those two big buckets account for like 90%, 95% of our users. So travel just doesn't affect it very much.

No. I mean, our marketing, we haven't thought about that. I mean – Most of our growth, it's like 90% of our users come in from word of mouth. And that just will keep happening, I think. We also spend very little in marketing comparatively.

No. I mean, our marketing, we haven't thought about that. I mean – Most of our growth, it's like 90% of our users come in from word of mouth. And that just will keep happening, I think. We also spend very little in marketing comparatively.

No. I mean, our marketing, we haven't thought about that. I mean – Most of our growth, it's like 90% of our users come in from word of mouth. And that just will keep happening, I think. We also spend very little in marketing comparatively.

I mean, our marketing budget, our entire marketing budget for the whole world, and we really do operate in every single country in the world, is $50 million a year, which is quite small for a company with our revenue. But we just, you know, whatever we're doing with marketing seems to be working pretty well. And we don't spend a lot of money on it.

I mean, our marketing budget, our entire marketing budget for the whole world, and we really do operate in every single country in the world, is $50 million a year, which is quite small for a company with our revenue. But we just, you know, whatever we're doing with marketing seems to be working pretty well. And we don't spend a lot of money on it.

I mean, our marketing budget, our entire marketing budget for the whole world, and we really do operate in every single country in the world, is $50 million a year, which is quite small for a company with our revenue. But we just, you know, whatever we're doing with marketing seems to be working pretty well. And we don't spend a lot of money on it.

Ah, yeah. So we have functions. There's the marketing function. There's the engineering function. There is the product management function, design, et cetera. So we have functions, and each function has a function head. To give you a relative idea of sizes of functions, engineering, product management, and design combined account for about 70% of our employees.

Ah, yeah. So we have functions. There's the marketing function. There's the engineering function. There is the product management function, design, et cetera. So we have functions, and each function has a function head. To give you a relative idea of sizes of functions, engineering, product management, and design combined account for about 70% of our employees.