10 million users and counting!
Here's what Duolingo's community of 10 million looks like! Thank you everyone for your love and support. : )
90 Comments
Okay, I'm a little skeptical of the "10 million users". I believe that's correct, but I'm not sure it's very significant. What percentage of those users actually use Duolingo?
I told one of my friends about Duolingo, and he made an account, but he never learned anything. He just made an account and then forgot about it. I have also noticed that other users' accounts are dead too.
Plus, some users may have multiple accounts. I have an extra account which I use as a test account to try things that might clear my data or whatever. I wanted to add extra languages to my account, but I wasn't sure whether a certain button would clear my German progress, so I used my test account to make sure it was safe.
If you ignored the unused accounts and the test accounts, there might only be a 2 or 3 million users.
Yes, I agree Timothy, because i also have an extra account that i use for testing certain features(www.duolingo.com/BenTheGeekTest).
Therefore, I think that Duo should only state the number of accounts that have at least one language higher than Level 2.
I use my account and im not higher than level 2. I am new to duolingo. period.
Actually, the number of hours spent on Duolingo would be a nice addition. It is difficult to establish what constitutes and active vs. inactive account
I think duolingo is perfectly aware of this Timothy. It is just like how facebook doesnt really have 1 bil users. This is just a celebration mark (I am surprised I dont see any 10mil user cake photo). If you compare it to Dropbox, which go public on sept 2008, and reach 50 mils users on Nov 2011. Duolingo is going with a healthy rate (beta on 2011, public on 2012, and 10mils user on Sept 2013, yay!).
My own statistics, if you are interested:
Over the past 14 months, I have been trusted by 681 friends on the English speaking French learning site.
-30% are little active or very recent joiners, with less than 1,000 points.
-45% are what I call the "soft belly" (ventre mou) with probably very different profiles, with 1,000 to 5,000 points.
-15% have probably worked well with 5,000 to 10,000 points.
-10% are among Duo's champions, multilingual, frantic translators, etc. with 10,000 to over 108,000 points.
Of course I would need computer aided analysis tools to give deeper insights... but I think it gives another perspective.
Lol @ soft bellies. Work those translating muscles. One more sentence!
I agree with "Sitesurf" until the last point.
I believe it takes a lot more effort, commitment and points to be considered frantic translator, multilingual or "Duo's champions". More, like well over 30,000 points in a specific language not total points (so if a guy is learning 3 languages at varying levels like level 20 to 25 then his/her total could be 80,000. Then, I would consider that individual Duo's Cham
I am currently on total of 65,000, and have over 31,000 points in French. So, nearly there.
Scoring that many points is a lot of effort not just visiting the site for the piss and score like 30 to 50 points a day but one should be committed to score 150-250 points a day.
A good measure would be how many of those users have made it through the first lock
I think they should only count the users that have used in the last 30 days. Like they do for heroin. This brings the numbers down slightly, to six thousand ;)
Heroin is a good comparison. (Duolingo is pretty addictive for me.)
No, that wouldn't be accurate. But maybe they could only count users who have reached at least level 2 in a language. Of course, this wouldn't help them with fundraising and such...
"Pollyanna" is is the name of a book about a girl of the same name. She would try to see something positive in any situation including when she was undergoing punishment; for this reason, saying somebody is a Pollyanna means that person may be naively or unreasonably optimistic.
Gente de Duolingo, su pagina es ideal para aprender idiomas. Llevo aprendiendo ingles desde hace unos dias y he aprendido cosas que nunca me explicaron bien en la escuela. Realmente me planteo remplazar mis clases de ingles escolares con este mecanismo (Aunque tampoco quiero desmerecer el trabajo de los profesores de mi escuela, ustedes junto a peliculas, musica y otros me enseñaron todo lo básico sobre el idioma). Saludos desde Chile
I love duolingo. Using it on my phone while I'm on public transportation is the best!
Hello from Brazil! I LOVE Duolingo. It's the best, easier and entertaining way to learn another language. :)
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Es liegt wohl daran, dass man hier kein Englisch für Deutschsprachige lernen kann. Es gibt ja trotzdem ziemlich viele deutsche Benutzer hier, aber es gäbe bestimmt mehr mit dieser Möglichkeit.
Ja, es wäre interessant auch die kleineren Prozentanteile zu sehen. And English from German is overdue!!!
Trotz vielen Topics und Fragen im Forum oder über Facebook, wird die Frage nach dem Fehlen von Deutsch als Ausgangssprache nirgends beantwortet :(
Impressive!
What about those of us who use both a device and web interface? How is that counted? :3
- 133
amazing. I think it is interesting that iOS and Android are equally used :)
- 97
I was surprised that web-service is so depreciated by mobile users :) Still I prefer website as I hate typing on my phone, but this shows that shift to mobile apps is getting stronger and stronger.
- 2233
Only one quarter of this site's users are Americans. I like it.
Is there any guess about active users? For example that are connected in average once a week (to be large)? And same statistics on them?
I suspect the 10 million would drop by at least half if only active users were counted. How many accounts were opened, used once a year ago, and have sat idle since?
Maybe I'm way off or I am too pessimistic though.
I'm also interested in how many users have split personalities, meaning two duolingo user ids for the same person.
(PS, it's not necessary anymore to have multiple ids since Duolingo added ability to delete or restart languages. and the elusive "6th" language (meaning the language that users identify as a native language) can also be accessed by going into settings and changing your preference, "learning french and i know english" for example, to another selection. jrikhal confirmed that elsewhere in this discussion!)
Really? I had never realized English was so popular, I thought the biggest one was Spanish, then German/French... wow. :)
Some English-speaking Americans are lazy. They look at it and say "cool, but English is good enough for me, and I don't have time to learn anything else", and then they forget about it. It's often the non-English speakers who have the motivation to actually go and learn a language. My guess is because they know how common English is, and feel a need to learn it.
I can't speak for the other countries, because I live in America and don't know what the other countries are like.
Another thing is this: if somebody does not know English, that's probably the first language they'll try to learn. If somebody already knows English, they randomly choose one of those other languages and learn it.
Only %23 on the web, what a pity! Web is easiest way to use duolingo effeciently, I think. Mobile devices make me nuts!
I'm also surprised about this weak-number. Even more since, as far as I have understand, there is (was?) no access to forum from some devices (iPad among them)...
Me and my roommate use Duolingo on our phones while we do stuff that usually takes a lot of time but no concentration. For example football can be followed easily while also learning some words. The mobility of Duolingo on smartphones is the main thing.
Show us where you are! https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/edit?mid=ztfNstYWpokI.kmWU9z2e0uSg
Shout out to all you English learners! Welcome! Is there any way for native English speakers to help those learning? I never ever see their questions. And for quite a few years I taught English grammar part time to adults. They were English speakers, mind you.
Maybe Duolingo should have an "ambassadors" or "natives" designation, for users who are natives in a language and pass a proficiency test in that language, too. Let the natives see questions from users who are merely learning the language. It could be another tab. Instead of coins, we'd get satisfaction, maybe some thank yous and goodwill. Maybe a cool, "natives" badge and t-shirt? ;)
Obrigado! Very interesting, and I ticked-up the likes for that topic. But no link for English. And when I click your name, I see from your stream your English lessons, but still no link.
All four links I gave in that discussion give you access to English learners. People who learn English here do it via one of four languages: French, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese. There are no English via English lessons.
Of course, you could always provide help in any of those four discussion areas in simple English and hope the learners understand, or try to do the same thing in their native language (and thereby sharpen your language skills at the same time).
No problem. I misunderstood what you had posted. Read too quickly, the links look like they lead to discussions of those languages. But I get it now.
There are a lot of questions out there! Maybe there could be a way for the questions that have gone unanswered longest could be listed first. The opposite of new. But that would probably include questions from people no longer (active) on Duolingo.
Maybe a list of questions weighted so that it only shows questions from users who come to the site at least a few times a week, and lists those questions by how long they have gone unanswered.
I also suggested something I called an "Active Tab" a long time ago: http://www.duolingo.com/comment/633086
You can activate the learning of English from any language among French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. Then you'll have access to Discussion about English for native speakers of one of the four languages. You're welcome to come helping Frenchies! ;)
That's true, but it requires you to change your profile each time you want to help out in the appropriate English section. There is no need to that, I give direct links to the four discussion areas here: http://www.duolingo.com/comment/697453.
Yes, it clearly be more practical to have -- instead of "French", "Spanish" etc. in English interface and "English" in French interface and "English" in Spanish interface and having to click on "more"/go to the Settings' page, as currently -- "French from English level XX", "English from French level YY", "Spanish from English level ZZ" etc. in each interface (for each "language1 from language2" you have activated/started) on the left-upper drop-down menu. It would permit to having to change of interface (no need to change of profile/account).
And, IMO, it would be more practical than to have to, each time, look for the link you kindly provided (I'll not start to bookmark every interesting links... :)).
You are right, it would be handy if Duolingo provided an easier route. If bookmarking is not your thing, just remember the number 652 (or scribble it on a piece of paper). If you are on any Duolingo page, just edit the address line in your browser by scrubbing everything after "www.duolingo.com" then add "/topic/652" and you are in the French via English discussion area.
Indeed, I could remember the number. ;) But since I'm also (slowly) doing the english (from French) tree, I anyway go into the French interface sometimes.
But the better thing, for me, would be to merge "XXX from YYY" and "YYY from XXX"'s discussion (as proposed here http://www.duolingo.com/comment/746673). Maybe not totally merge but tabs accessible from both interface.
I'm actually replying to mon copin jrikhal, but you're welcome, too, davu.
"I anyway go into the French interface sometimes." Now that would be a fun and beneficial improvement for Duolingo! Allow learners of a language to immerse themselves by switching interfaces, too! Again without maintaining split personalities (dual or even multiple duolingo accounts!) -- how many of those do you think there are? If it is a significant fraction of the 10 million, that would puncture the big balloon party a little bit. :|
I say merge the split personalities, allow free access to all duolingo languages and interfaces!
Wait, just thought of something else. Under settings there is an option, "Learning Language." If one changes that, would it be enough to reveal the sixth language? Would it occlude/hide/erase! data for the "I know ___" language? Has anyone tried changing this? I have not because I want to keep all my data intact.
Okay, that's enough for me. Have a great day! A tout, bon chance!
@tariqnisarahmed: No need of multiple accounts!
You can switch between "learning from english" and "learning from french" and "learning from spanish" etc. without any problem!
I don't know how they found me, but I have quite a few "follower friends" who are non-native English speakers learning English. I always just add them back and help them or answer their questions any time they need me.
This is the best App ever!! I use it while I am standing in queues, subways, waiting areas..just marvelous!
เป็นเว็บเรียนภาษาทีดีมากครับ อยากให้ลองพัฒนาตัวโปรแกรมให้ตอบรับกับภาษาทางแทบเอเชียบ้างครับ ขอบคุณมากครับ
If you wait a little (believed to be until 9th october 2013), you'll be able to add languages (from english? from any other?) to Duolingo and so help others to learn it.
Wow! Cool!! I'm glad to hear good news. I'll wait for it. By the way, How can you understand thai? That's awesome. :- D
Mmm... I cheated: Google translate to have a vague idea of the meaning. :)
By the way, it's not "believed" anymore, it's sure: http://www.duolingo.com/comment/868354
Congratulations Duolingo! Hope you have another 10 million users very soon!
Some very interesting facts about Duolingo, as for Platforms, I am one of the 23% who use Duolingo on the web.
i must say 10 million is a lot but its nearly at 11 million and i have a great feeling that once its at 12 or 50 million celebration happen because over 7 billion people on this planet so i hope duolingo grows big like mean old Amazon but not to mean.
I'm curious exactly what the platform statistic is showing. I use web and android so do I show up as both or just one? Or is it percentage of lessons etc?
I am very surprised to see English is the most popular language when most of the comments here in Discussion are in English. Is the learning English section so good that learners quickly become fluent enough to be able to express themselves so well? I wish the learning German, which I did, was so good.
The people learning English here are essentially segregated from people learning other languages. The barriers are not very strong however, as I explain in my reply to tariqnisarahmed elsewhere in this discussion. If you follow the links I mention you'll see that their discussions are conducted in a mixture of their native language and English. Unfortunately, there is no English via German option so you will probably find the links uninteresting.
Many has a basic knowledge of English from shool or with listening English music. In de industry you need a basic of English. When you are learning a language from English, you have to write answers in English. On this manner you will also learn English, while you learn another language. The knowledge from another language, like French, Dutch, ... will be heplfull, because many words are the same or do not different much. English is also easier, because the gender has no influence on the writing of the words.
Congratulations everyone! Thanks to us and the wonderful team at Duolingo we finally broke the 10 million mark!
