The Duolingo logo is visible on the smartphone.
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Duolingo shares rose nearly 7% on Thursday on a big surge in users signing up to learn Mandarin amid a surge in use of the Chinese social media app Red noteTikTok rival.
The company confirmed to CNBC that the number of Mandarin learners using the app increased by 216% compared to the previous year. For context, Duolingo says Spanish, one of the most popular languages on the app, has seen 40% growth over the same period.
RedNote, or Xiaohongshu as it is known in China, has quickly become the #1 free app on Apple App Store and maintains this position for most of the week. Rounding out the top five are TikTok's Lemon8, US social media newcomer Clapper, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Meta Threads.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case regarding the future of TikTok in the US and the law that could do this Effectively block a popular application. The judges seemed to favor keeping the law and a decision could be made as early as Friday. TikTok is there apparently preparations for Sunday's suspension of operations in the USA.
According to market research firm Sensor Tower, the biggest beneficiary so far of the exodus of US users has been RedNote, which has seen a 20-fold increase in app downloads in the US over the past week. A Duolingo spokesperson told CNBC that the company's marketing team is “forward thinking and already has an active presence on Red, managed by our team in China.”
Duolingo offers online and mobile courses in 42 languages. According to him website48.8 million people learn Spanish on Duolingo. French is the second most popular language on the app (27.3 million users), and Chinese is the eighth (10.7 million).
Duolingo shares have surged 43% in the past year, outpacing the Nasdaq's 29% gain.
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