The Replicability of Duolingo’s Marketing Strategies and the

Limitations of Its Future Development

Siying Gong

Design and Humanities, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing, 400000, China

Keywords: Duolingguo, Marketing, Exaggeration.

Abstract: Although the image of Duolingo's mascot is interesting and appealing, there are certain risks as-sociated with

the excessive entertainment of the brand image. Overemphasizing entertainment and fun, along with overly

exaggerated behaviors, may run counter to the essence of Duolingo as a learning app. Excessive entertainment

and frequent participation in entertainment events may affect users' perception of the brand's professionalism

and reliability. With a large number of users from different countries and with diverse cultural backgrounds,

how Duolingo can properly continue to use entertainment marketing is a question that it needs to ponder in

the future. In general, Duolingo's online marketing approach is a successful one, but there is still a certain

degree of uncertainty in its future development. Maintaining its uniqueness and taking a multifaceted

approach are aspects that Duolingo's marketing should consider in the future.

1 INTRODUCTION

Marketing has been defined and characterized in

multiple ways that are often inconsistent, but

generally vague, and have evolved over time (Ferrell

and Ferrell, 2025). In recent years, the field of

marketing research has shown a growing concern for

consumer well-being (Peterson, 2025). There are

many reasons why Duolingo's marketing has made it

stand out. Firstly, it is the creation of its mascot. The

behaviors of its mascot, Duo, have been highly

exaggerated. This form of interaction is adept at

evoking emotional fluctuations among users. In terms

of creating topics and hotspots, it is skilled at

leveraging major popular events and festivals to build

momentum for itself, and it is good at establishing

connections between itself and these events or

festivals. The topics it creates are also bold, novel,

and even somewhat outrageous. These marketing

operations have quickly sparked heated discussions

on the Internet, increasing the brand's exposure. In

terms of social media interaction, it has launched

activities on multiple social platforms and frequently

interacted with users on each platform. Its "teasing"

replies are also very humorous. This kind of

interaction enhances users' sense of participation and

makes them feel the brand's care and attention.

In recent years, there has been a growing focus on

consumer well-being in the field of marketing

research (Zhao and Tsubaki, 2025). Duolingo's

gamified learning is also a major highlight. It

packages the dull and repetitive process of learning

into a gaming process, sets up leaderboards, an

achievement system, and provides exaggerated and

humorous positive feedback from multiple mascots.

This model allows users to obtain the fun and sense

of achievement of a game during the usage process.

Duolingo also has its own forward-looking

perspective, as it is one of the first applications to use

artificial intelligence.

In recent years, as consumer preferences have

become more diverse and people increasingly value

interesting experiences, the traditional marketing

model has become difficult to adapt to the new trends.

Online marketing emphasizes interesting interactions

with consumers through new ideas. While attracting

consumers' attention to the brand, it enhances

emotional resonance and brand influence, gradually

becoming a favorable model for enterprises to shape

their brands.

However, online marketing also faces some

practical problems in practice. For example, it is

difficult to grasp whether the intensity of using

internet memes will easily trigger controversy, and

whether it will cause public disgust and affect the

brand image. If the marketing content always closely

Gong, S.

The Replicability of Duolingo’s Marketing Strategies and the Limitations of Its Future Development.

DOI: 10.5220/0013992600004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 419-424

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

419

follows following the trends too much will lead to a

lack of the brand's original essence. If there is

insufficient innovation in the later stage or the

innovation fails to achieve the previous effect, users

will become fatigued, resulting in a decline in both

the users' attention to the brand and their sense of

freshness. This article takes Duolingo as an example

to analyze the impact of online marketing on the

brand image, aiming to provide inspiration for

enterprises to adapt to the new marketing trends.

2 INRTORDUCTION TO

DUOLINGO

Duolingo was founded in Pittsburgh, the United

States in 2012 and entered the Chinese market in

2019. It has an extremely large user base, covering

multiple countries and ethnic groups. The range of

languages offered by Duolingo is also remarkably

diverse. It provides courses in over 40 languages.

While covering popular languages such as English,

Japanese, Korean, and French, it also includes less

common languages and endangered languages like

Welsh and Navajo, and even Dothraki from Game of

Thrones.

Its course content is comprehensive and varied,

demonstrated by the fact that it covers the four aspects

of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Each

piece of learning content is organized into various

real-life scenarios.

In addition, Duolingo has the following

characteristics in its course delivery. Firstly, it

gamifies the learning process. It transforms the

learning process into elements of a game, with

features such as experience points, levels, and

challenges. Users can earn experience points to level

up, unlock new content and functions by completing

tasks, and receive rewards like virtual badges by

finishing challenges. Secondly, its teaching is

personalized. Duolingo conducts tests with the help

of AI, and customizes courses according to the users'

language proficiency shown in the test results,

providing suitable learning content and difficulty

levels. It also reminds users to review in a quirky way.

It also provides other related services. The first is

the Duolingo English Test (DET), which can be taken

at home via a computer and webcam without the need

for an appointment or a visit to a test center. It uses

computer adaptive technology to adjust the difficulty

of the questions accord-ing to the test-taker's level.

The entire test takes about 60 minutes, and the test

results will be sent to the registered email address

within 48 hours after the test. The results of this test

are recognized by many foreign institutions. In some

institutions, it can replace the IELTS and TOEFL for

college applications.

The second is Duolingo ABC, a learning app

specifically designed for children aged 3 to 8.

Through phonics lessons and stories, it helps younger

children learn to read and write. The third is Duolingo

Math, which provides math teaching in an interesting

way. Students can use this course to catch up with

their classroom progress, and adults can also use it to

exercise their brains and improve their mathematical

thinking abilities.

3 ANALYSIS OF DUOLINGO'S

MARKETING STRATEGY

Duolingo's success can be attributed in large part to

the significant role that marketing has played in its

market growth (López, Muñoz, Sepúlveda, &

Barraza, 2025). Duo-lingo's marketing strategy has

many merits worthy of learning. Firstly, it has created

a vivid mas-cot. Its IP, the green owl Duo, has been

given many exaggerated behaviors and mannerisms.

This makes the image of the owl distinctive and

relatable to everyday life. It is like a friend beside

users, constantly motivating them to study seriously.

Sometimes, it even shows a bit of temper, which

makes the image of the green owl more vivid in the

hearts of users.

The interaction between Duo and users is also an

important reason for Duolingo's marketing success. It

is constantly being mischievous and can get angry

when users do not listen to its advice to study. This

form of interaction is adept at triggering emotional

fluctuations among users, evoking different emotions

in them.

Duolingo's approach to creating hot topics on

social media is also commendable. Firstly, they are

bold and innovative. When integrating current hot

events or festivals, they do not et these other events

overshadow their brand. Instead, they focus more on

establishing a connection between their brand and

these events, rather than simply combining the two.

In terms of social media interaction, it has launched

activities on multiple social platforms and interacted

frequently with users on each platform. Its witty

replies are very humorous. Through interaction, it

stimulates consumers' perception and evokes a sense

of warmth, thus improving consumers' attitudes (Qi,

Liu, & Huang, 2025).

PRMC 2025 - International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication

420

The green owl Duo has its own social media

accounts and sometimes posts about its daily life on

them. This makes users feel as if there really is such

a green owl existing in their lives. This kind of

interaction enhances users' sense of participation and

makes them feel the brand's care and attention. Other

brands can also be more proactive in interacting with

users on social media during their marketing efforts.

They can even adopt the mode of having the

application "talk" to users, which can make the

mascot livelier and achieve the effect of establishing

a connection with users.

Duolingo analyzes the possibility of anti-

consumption by positioning according to different

communication appeals. In creating topics and

hotspots, Duolingo is good at leveraging major

popular events and festivals to build momentum for

itself. It is skilled at establishing connections be-

tween itself and these events or festivals. The topics

it creates are also bold, novel, and even a bit

outrageous. These marketing operations have quickly

sparked heated discussions on the In-ternet,

increasing the brand's exposure. (Andrea and Marja,

2024)

Among learning applications, Duolingo uses

entertainment modes such as level-clearing and

interaction to stimulate users' interest and increase

user stickiness. Just as its slogan goes, "The

platform's gamified approach to language acquisition

has revolutionized the way people approach this

endeavor, making it a fun and rewarding pursuit." Its

approach makes learning more enjoyable, which has

great reference value for learning-type applications.

However, this marketing method is not without its

drawbacks, and there are still certain limitations to its

future development. Firstly, although Duolingo's

marketing method is unique, with the continuous

emergence of similar marketing techniques in the

market, it is a question that needs to be studied

whether users will become tired of it or experience

aesthetic fatigue. Consumer at-tribution,

psychological processes, social media amplification,

consumer empowerment, and cultural shifts are all

issues that need to be considered. (Cui, van Esch,

Brad Efridage, Ladow, & Northey, 2025). Moreover,

if in the future Duolingo cannot continuously and

effectively tap into popular hot topics like it does at

present, and fails to output innovative, fresh, and

interesting content with its own uniqueness, and if

such a situation occurs and persists for a period of

time, its marketing effect will be greatly reduced, and

it will be difficult to continue to attract users' attention

and participation in the later stage. Since many of

today's cutting-edge technological advancements are

closely related to marketing (Grewal et al., 2025).

How Duolingo will integrate with AI in the future is

also one of the issues it needs to consider. Emerging

technologies in marketing can bring sustainable

benefits, but they can also cause damage to the

environment, economy, and society (Beninger and

Robson, 2025).

Secondly, although the image of the green owl is

interesting and appealing, there is a certain risk

associated with the excessive entertainment of the

brand image. Overemphasizing entertain-ment and

fun, along with overly exaggerated behaviors, may

run counter to the essence of Duo-lingo as a learning

applet. Excessive entertainment and frequent

participation in entertainment events may affect users'

perception of the brand's professionalism and

reliability. Moreover, there have been cases where

users "tease" that they only remember Duo's funny

stunts but have never actually studied on the app.

How to balance the development of these two aspects

is something that Duolingo needs to consider in the

future.

As the competition among language learning apps

becomes more intense, other competitors are

constantly developing and improving their marketing

strategies. Duolingo's success will attract many

imitators and competitors, which is a double-edged

sword for Duolingo. While other imita-tors are

marketing, Duolingo will also achieve a certain

marketing effect. However, if imitators or

competitors gain some popularity by borrowing

Duolingo's marketing methods and then improve and

innovate on their own, Duolingo may be at risk of

being replaced. Therefore, thinking about its own

innovation points and ensuring its uniqueness are also

aspects that Duolingo needs to focus more on in the

future. Finally, Duolingo has a large number of users

worldwide, but different cultures have different levels

of acceptance and preferences. Whether it can

balance the needs of different regions during

marketing is also something that Duolingo should

think about in the future.

In general, in the future, Duolingo's marketing

methods face some limitations and challenges. It

needs to think about both innovation and balance,

make continuous adjustments and improvements,

continue to develop its uniqueness, and balance the

risky aspects to maintain its marketing effectiveness

and market competitiveness.

The Replicability of Duolingo’s Marketing Strategies and the Limitations of Its Future Development

421

4 ANALYSIS OF DUOLINGO'S

BRAND SHAPING STRATEGY

Duolingo has stood out among numerous language

learning apps with its unique brand shaping strategy,

gaining user groups from various countries and

earning an excellent reputation. The core of

Duolingo's brand shaping lies in its uniqueness. Being

free of charge, interesting, and efficient are all the

unique features that Duolingo offers, which

differentiate it from other apps. These three key

points precisely target the users it aims to reach.

In today's globalized and multicultural market,

the diversity of consumer demands highlights the

increasingly enhanced social role of consumption

(Tuli, Srivastava, & Kumar, 2025). In comparison

with other apps or institutions that require a large

amount of money and are dull and repetitive,

Duolingo's free and interesting model is extremely

attractive to its users, which also expands its user

reach infinitely.

Being funny is also a great advantage of

Duolingo. Duolingo has added game mechanisms to

the dull and repetitive language learning process.

There are rankings to stimulate users' fighting spirit,

and experience points that can be exchanged for

rewards. These mechanisms add a touch of fun to the

boring learning process. All these unique features

give Duolingo a stronger competitive edge in the

market, creating a distinct contrast with other

language learning apps and reaching a wider range of

users from different industries and at various

consumption levels.

Duolingo's marketing strategy has its own

characteristics and can really strike a chord with

users. In terms of social media marketing, Duolingo

is actively involved in major domestic and

international social platforms. It publishes relevant

learning videos in the image of the green owl, re-

minding users of the content to be learned today, thus

achieving the learning effect. The content published

on social platforms is mostly presented from the

perspective of the owl Duo. This per-spective has a

very unique effect, and while promoting the brand, it

also perfects the lively image of the owl. The vivid

image of the owl Duo has enhanced the brand's

popularity and affinity.

Due to the advantages of being free and

interesting that the Duolingo app itself possesses,

Duo-lingo has a significant competitive edge over

other apps. Duolingo also uses conventional mar-

keting methods, such as offering rewards for inviting

new users to register. This marketing approach

further expands Duolingo's influence and the scope of

its user base.

At the same time, Duolingo attaches great

importance to users' feedback on the app, which is al-

so the soul of the Duolingo app. In terms of page

design, the Duolingo app has a simple and easy-to-

understand interface, which caters to both users with

no language foundation and those with some

language proficiency. Most importantly, the

languages covered by Duolingo are rich and diverse,

almost including all popular languages and involving

many less common languages and even endangered

languages, satisfying users' needs.

In recent years, Duolingo has integrated artificial

intelligence (AI) with current hot topics. It uses AI to

track users' learning progress and tailor learning

methods for them. The most intuitive fea-ture of

Duolingo lies in its design. The app design uses bold

green colors, and the image of the green owl is very

vivid and cute. The other character images are also

commendable. The "tough girl" character once

sparked a heated discussion on the Internet, and both

her character design and personality design are vivid.

This unique visual style has formed the characteristic

of Duolingo, which is also the reason why Duolingo

stands out among many language learning apps.

Although Duolingo has achieved remarkable

success in brand shaping, it also faces some chal-

lenges in the future. While Duolingo has caused a

sensation on the Internet, many language learning

apps have started to imitate it. In the face of numerous

imitators, it remains to be seen whether Duolingo can

still maintain its uniqueness in the future.

In addition, with the continuous increase in the

number of users, their demands are also growing.

During the process of developing its marketing

strategies, Duolingo needs to focus on its product

itself to maintain the essence of a learning app.

Excessive entertainment marketing may affect the

brand's reputation. The public may have doubts about

whether an entertainment-oriented app can provide

serious teaching. There may be an imbalance between

entertainment and learn-ing. These are all issues that

Duolingo needs to consider in the future.

5 SUGGESTIONS

Duolingo's marketing approach is unique and meets

the emotional value that the general public currently

needs. However, it still needs to consider how to

balance entertainment and learning. No matter how

prosperous Duolingo's development is on the

Internet, its essence remains a language learning app.

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In the midst of various online trends and waves,

Duolingo needs to think carefully about its future

marketing strategies. For instance, it should consider

whether it is necessary to participate in some

unnecessary hot topics.

When it comes to the videos published on the

Internet, while consolidating and developing the

brand image of the green owl, it also needs to consider

whether it is necessary to release too much content

that is not related to learning. In the future

development of the brand, the amount of content and

the funny videos it creates should be moderately

reduced, but it is not advisable to completely

eliminate such videos. Losing the element of fun may

cause Duolingo to lose its own characteristics and

greatly reduce its brand effect. At the same time, more

consideration should be given. After some funny

videos bring short-term joy to users, do they play a

role in strengthening the brand? If too many funny

videos are released, users may think that the app is

"not doing its job properly", which may greatly

undermine users' trust in the nature of Duolingo as a

learning app and give users the impression that it is

not serious and overly entertaining. If this happens,

Duolingo's brand image will be severely damaged.

Furthermore, Duolingo has users all over the

world. Every entertainment-related move should take

into account the taboos behind different cultures. If it

accidentally violates these taboos, Duolingo will

suffer the backlash of its entertainment-oriented

approach, and the consequences will be difficult to

reverse. In addition, Duolingo needs to consider its

free service model. According to Duolingo's official

account, although Duolingo stands out in the bustling

Internet marketing, its financial situation is still not

optimistic. It needs to further consider whether it

should continue to maintain the feature of being free

and whether sudden charging will cause user

dissatisfaction.

6 CONCLUSION

Duolingo's marketing plan is a very successful one

and is worthy of reference. Its page design is simple

yet unique. In terms of online interaction, Duolingo

has its own set of theories. It posts relevant hot topics

on major social platforms in the guise of the green

owl. While strengthening the image of the owl, it

participates in these hot topics, increasing its

exposure and expanding its user reach.

At the same time, the design of Duolingo's brand

mascot has its own characteristics. The vivid

portrayal of multiple characters has sharply increased

its online exposure, attracting a large number of users

both at home and abroad, and significantly expanding

its user base. The reasons why Duolingo has achieved

such excellent results are that being free and

interesting give it a strong competitive edge among

learning apps.

However, at the same time, Duolingo needs to

consider more carefully how to balance enter-

tainment and learning, and whether it is worthwhile

to implement the marketing strategies that trigger

heated online discussions multiple times while

maintaining its humorous approach. When releasing

humorous marketing content in the future, more

considerations should be given. The key is to combine

learning with entertainment, as simply relying on

humor for marketing may not yield good results or

have much significance.

Behind the free service model, despite Duolingo's

glorious image and the heated discussions it

generates, its financial situation is weak, with even

some losses. It needs to figure out how to balance

being free and its financial status, and how to make

users accept potential future fees without feeling

averse. Maintaining its uniqueness, balancing

entertainment, and upholding the essence of being a

learning application are the keys to ensuring the long-

term success of its mar-keting efforts.

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