As the US tightens its noose around TikTok, an unlikely winner has emerged: Duolingo. The language learning platform has seen a 216% surge in people learning Mandarin in the US compared to the same period last year.
And its stock has risen more than 7% since the start of last week.
The app, with its iconic green owl mascot, is riding the exodus of TikTok users migrating to Chinese app RedNote (Xiaohongshu), which is in Mandarin.
Another popular language learning app, Drops, also recorded five times more users from the US learning Mandarin yesterday compared to the past two weeks, the startup’s general manager Frederik Cordes told MONIIFY.
Learning Mandarin out of spite? You're not alone.
— Duolingo (@duolingo) January 15, 2025
We’ve seen a ~216% growth in new Chinese (Mandarin) learners in the US compared to this time last year. https://t.co/9hzwBxfTgD pic.twitter.com/qWM9f5oFYA
MONIIFY reached out to Duolingo for more information but didn’t get an immediate response.
Shares of Duolingo, which is listed on the Nasdaq, have surged in recent days. But its stock was already riding high, climbing 43% last year.
Birds of the TikTok feather
Duolingo offers courses in more than 40 languages and has over 500 million users, according to its website. Its gamification features allow users to “earn” points for completing lessons, drawing parallels to how Robinhood “gamified” investing.
Duolingo’s bump largely mirrors other TikTik copycats such as Lemon8, Clapper and Flip.
US TikTok users, who number around 170 million, have described themselves as “TikTok refugees”, which was a trending hashtag on RedNote. Unlike China hawks irl, American users on RedNote have offered to help Chinese users with their English homework. And dozens of Chinese creators have posted guides on how to use the platform.
The TikTok ban is set to take effect on Sunday, but the Supreme Court has said it will issue opinions on Friday on whether to enforce the ban.
Edited by Lin Noueihed. If you have any tips, ideas or feedback, please get in touch: talk-to-us@moniify.com
