Duolingo, the language learning app, has gained more in market value this year than Udemy and Coursera combined. Duolingo’s market cap is $13.49 billion, while Coursera and Udemy are worth $1.08 billion and $1.12 billion, respectively.

I was trying to figure out why this is so and took a peek at Duolingo’s finances. Until recently, Duolingo was actually generating less revenue than both Coursera and Udemy. But Duolingo’s recent growth has been astonishing, as shown in the graph below.

Duolingo surpassed Coursera in quarterly revenue in Q2 of this year and is on track to overtake Udemy this quarter.

While Coursera and Udemy report their reach in terms of total registered users, Duolingo takes a social media approach to metrics: the company reported 37.2 million daily active users (DAUs) in the latest quarter, up 54% year-over-year, and 113.1 million monthly active users (MAUs), a 36% increase from the prior year.

As part of my ongoing series for Class Central, I am dissecting the online education businesses. In the past, I scrutinized the finances of Coursera, Udemy, Thinkific, and Khan Academy.

I will be taking a deeper look at Duolingo next. I’ll be sharing my analysis first as a series on LinkedIn, before compiling it into a comprehensive article for Class Central’s The Report. To follow along with this analysis and stay updated on trends in online education, follow me on LinkedIn or Bluesky (I am just getting started there).