Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL), the world’s leading mobile learning platform, announced today its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022.
According to the report, total revenues were $88.4 million, an increase of 50% from the prior year quarter. The monthly active users (MAUs) grew 31% to 49.5 million from the prior year quarter and daily active users (DAUs) grew 44% to 13.2 million from the prior year quarter.
The opening price of Duolingo was $99.77/share and closed at $102.00/share, up 3.36%, with a total market value of $3.864 billion.
“Our second quarter results exceeded expectations, driven by accelerating user growth and strength across our entire business,” said Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo. “I’m very proud that we delivered over 50% growth in bookings and revenue from the prior year quarter, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. We see this growth as a result of our relentless focus on constant product improvement. Through continuous experimentation, we are driving organic growth, deeper user engagement, and stronger free-to-paid user conversion.”
In 2022 Q2, Duolingo’s total bookings were $97.5 million, an increase of 51% from the prior year quarter, of which subscription bookings were $74.1 million, accounting for approximately 76 of the total.
The total revenues in 2022 Q2 were $88.4 million, an increase of 50% from the prior year quarter. The net loss totaled $15.0 million, compared to a net loss of $0.2 million in the prior year quarter, with the majority of the change driven by an increase in stock-based compensation; adjusted EBITDA was $4.2 million, compared to $3.7 million in the prior year quarter.
At the end of the second quarter of 2022, Duolingo’s paid subscribers totaled 3.3 million, an increase of 71% from the prior year quarter. According to the company, each unique user account is treated as a single paid subscriber regardless of whether such user purchases multiple subscriptions, and the count of paid subscribers does not include users who are currently on a free trial or who are non-paying members of a family plan.
During the second quarter, Duolingo generated $9.9 million in free cash flow, an increase of $7.8 million over the prior year quarter, driven by an increase in cash from operations. The company defined free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities, reduced by purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software development costs, and increased by IPO and public company costs, taxes paid related to stock-based compensation equity awards and other costs, as we believe they are not indicative of future liquidity.
The report reveals that Duolingo expects the booking of the full year to be $404-410 million, the revenues to be 361-367 million, and the adjusted EBITDA to be $4-7 million.
In the letter to shareholders, Luis von Ahn introduced a few new features expected to launch in the coming months.
He also mentioned that DET revenue grows as more people take the test, which in turn happens as more institutions accept our test results. This year, we’re focused on expanding acceptance in institutions in four strategically important countries: the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. As of the end of Q2, over 3,700 higher education programs accept the DET.
Although language learning is still the main business, Duolingo is no longer limited to this, and its goal is the whole education market. JMDedu has noted that when it went public last year, Duolingo's introduction was “the world's leading mobile language learning platform”, which has been replaced by “the leading mobile learning platform globally” this year.
To note, Duolingo was reinstated on the Chinese app stores at the end of May 2022. It was among many apps that were removed from the app stores in China in Q3 2021. Since the reinstatement, Duolingo’s China DAUs nearly double as of June 30, 2022, returning to the levels they had before the removal.
“I should mention that while China is an important opportunity for us, it’s still a small portion of our business, representing about 1-2% of DAUs and MAUs, and less than 1% of paying subscribers in Q2,” said Luis von Ahn.