How Duolingo Applied Sensor Tower Data to Improve Global Reach

Challenge

In analyzing strategies to better approach growing Duolingo globally, the team had a significant challenge: The overall education landscape had no blueprint for the kind of global mobile expansion Duolingo sought to accomplish. With the app already on the cutting edge for the industry, very few models or cohorts existed to give the team a good idea of where to even begin. As such, the team already knew that they had to develop intelligence from market leaders in other categories. Second, while Duolingo originally sought inspiration from the leading category in mobile sophistication, Games, the hyper casual and IAP-focused models in that category didn’t necessarily align with the company’s overall goals.

Solution

To gain inspiration, the team first looked at Sensor Tower’s Top Apps to assemble a short-list of “Role Model” apps which don’t directly compete with Duolingo but have experienced broader mobile success due to novel strategies. From there, the team explored each Role Model through the use of the App Profiles feature to examine areas of overall success, especially in global expansion. By combining data about a Role Model’s update history with its overall global expansion via user downloads, the team pieced together where and how localization strategies affected user acquisition.

The team then scheduled discussions to get deeper insight from the Role Model’s perspective.The team used their findings from Sensor Tower to ask important questions on recent updates, localization methods, and marketing strategies that helped the Role Model boost global user acquisition. Sensor Tower data helped the team turn these important interviews into actionable insights across several teams.

Result

Duolingo’s research unearthed important opportunities for the team. Recognizing that many Role Model companies benefited from nuanced and thorough localization efforts that focused on tone as well as translations, Duolingo embedded a team member to project-manage an overhaul of the app’s localization efforts. Additionally, the team learned important insights from Role Model companies regarding global marketing strategy, specifically reinforcing efforts in the LATAM region where Duolingo is already experiencing success. With a proven research-oriented approach to developing critical mobile strategy, Duolingo seeks to refine its innovative app and provide more education to more people worldwide.