this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism

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How Billionaire Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn Ruined his Own App By Embracing the Worst Parts of Big Tech (medium.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by theHRguy@lemmy.world to c/latestagecapitalism@lemmy.world
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[–] ignirtoq@feddit.online 66 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Meanwhile, revenue is up 38%. Over 10 million paying users. The shareholders are happy. The venture capitalists at General Atlantic and Drive Capital are thrilled.

The users? Deleting the app in protest.

How is revenue up if users are leaving en masse? I would understand if they said profits are up. Are they shoving more ads and raising prices faster than users are leaving? Because Netflix has shown that is unfortunately a viable strategy for a rather long time. Sure, it might eventually kill the product, but they'll get years out of it.

[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 34 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm absolutely no expert but if this is in line with other similar services, they make the majority of their money from a very small percentage of users.

There have been multiple companies in the recent past that have gone thru the same or similar path and what they're seeing is an overall drop in users but a rise in subscriptions or subscription revenue.

Long story short, people leave, but the people that stay pay.

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 weeks ago

Yep. Filtration. 🤮

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

All the free users are deleting it.

[–] pohart@programming.dev 9 points 3 weeks ago

I know I used to pay. The free version was excellent and I wanted to support it. I don't know how the pay version is now but the free version is terrible. I don't see why new users would join.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Some sort of stock/vc chucklefuckery I imagine.

[–] 5oap10116@lemmy.world 58 points 3 weeks ago

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 33 points 3 weeks ago

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 29 points 3 weeks ago

Duo should have a word with him…

[–] fan0m@lemmy.world 26 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

What are some good alternatives?

[–] bvoigtlaender@feddit.org 41 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

i’d guess… textbooks. like actually though. some are really well written, nicely ordered and prioritize stuff which is actually useful.

also you get a distraction free environment as a plus which, i think, is more helpful than one might think.

[–] fan0m@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Unironically love this answer

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

How do I get this distraction free environment with the textbooks? I got a bunch for college and everywhere was still stuffed to the gills with distractions!

I think maybe my own brain is made of distractions...

[–] bvoigtlaender@feddit.org 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

At least for me it feels like that when I sit down to read a book I somehow trick my brain to go into "learn" mode like it actually tries then to remember stuff and to be attentive. Its harder to do that being on the phone i think. Maybe environment wasn't the right word.

[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

When's the last time you went to your local library?

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Like a week ago! But it's usually busy.

[–] zout@fedia.io 11 points 3 weeks ago

Rosetta stone maybe?

[–] Tencho@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

Depending what you want out of it.

Anki Memrise Wlingua

[–] AnExerciseInFalling@programming.dev 4 points 3 weeks ago

Check if your local library has any resources. Mine let me claim a free rocket languages premium account, which supports Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, Arabic, Hindi, Korean, ASL, Portuguese, and Russian up to (I think, don't remember) CEFR level B2

[–] gramie@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago

I have found that Language Transfer is the best language learning system I have used.

French, German, Turkish, Arabic, Swahili, Spanish and Italian all taught by the same guy. Each course is a set of audio files you can listen to on Soundcloud, YouTube, download, or use the minimalist but very functional phone app.

Completely free, supported by donations.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

I've been using Busuu

[–] Jhuskindle@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Pimsleur. Scientifically developed method. Lessons are a little longer than we would normally do today but it works.

[–] Presently42@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago

Pimsleur! Easily found online

[–] lemmylommy@lemmy.world -5 points 3 weeks ago

Duolingo classrooms

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Duolingo was a nice game but shitty tool for learning languages.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, Duolingo gets too repetitive. I haven't tried Babbel but I heard it's better.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Non-paywall link: http://archive.today/KYy0Q

[–] theHRguy@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

ITS NOT PAYWALLED

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

It wants me to sign up and give it my data which is a form of currency

[–] spykee@lemmings.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

please don't yell at me.
I get scaroused easily.

[–] Newsteinleo@midwest.social 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I tend to think this is less an issue with the CEO and more to do with going public. Once share holders get involved they start demanding you lower cost and increase profits. When all this AI shit started every group of share holders started demanding you do something with AI for fear of the company being left behind.

If you found a company, don't go public. If you do go public, sell everything and pease the fuck out.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It can never be Dear Leader's fault it must be his untrustworthy advisors, always.

[–] Newsteinleo@midwest.social 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not sure you understand how a board of directors and share holders work.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Lol, ok bro.

Why don't you go look up what positions a co-founder/CEO usually holds on the board and his share of the stock and positions in particular, fuck yourself for a bit, and then come back?

[–] Newsteinleo@midwest.social 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Usually its something like president or chairman of the board, but that does not mean that person has unilateral decision making power. Even as head of the board he could be removed as CEO by the rest of the board, especially if the rest of the board thinks he needs to do more with AI. The point i am making is that by going public you give up control of your company and that the CEO of Duo is not the only one to blame for the enshitification of Duo.