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by ben_w 1054 days ago
> Even if it's a success, the likes of DuoLingo can copy that in a month and have so much more marketing and money to win the market

Only theoretically; in practice, Duolingo have a specific brand — IMO aimed at helping younger kids with schoolwork — they don't want to risk damaging, so if you target your language course at people who chafe at the style of art, animation, voice, and/or content of Duolingo[0], you still have a business opportunity even though Duolingo is also already working with GPT-4.

[0] This is why I've stopped using Duolingo entirely, while also having paid versions of Clozemaster and Babbel, which are also very different from each other.
2 comments
jvvw 1054 days ago
I was really puzzled by Duolingo for ages - I just found all the animations etc. painful and other apps seemed to much better for language learning. And then my kids (10 and 12) started using it and absolutely loved getting streaks, lingots and so on and were choosing to use it for fun. It doesn't really matter that it isn't the most efficient way to learn French if they enjoy it.

Any sort of LLM-based tutor is tricky with children as you can't guarantee that it won't come up with something inappropriate, even with the various guardrails in place. As a parent, I'm happy to take that risk especially if I am around to explain anything, but if I were a teacher for example then I probably wouldn't be and I imagine businesses are going to be in a similar situation.

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gs17 1054 days ago
That explains it. I sometimes try it out again (another year, still no stories for Chinese) and the amount of animations and popups you have to deal with for finishing a lesson felt like they take longer than the lesson! "You completed a lesson, you started a streak! Set a goal now! You completed a quest and got a streak freeze! You moved up in the league! You earned points for the event! Invite your friends!"
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ben_w 1054 days ago
> the amount of animations and popups you have to deal with for finishing a lesson felt like they take longer than the lesson!

Same.

For over a year before I finally gave up on it, I was force-quitting the app and reopening it for the next lesson because that was faster.

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ksoped 1054 days ago
>aimed at helping younger kids with schoolwork

IMO duolingo is aimed at peopple(adults) who say they want to learn a language but aren't ready to take it seriously

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Secretmapper 1054 days ago
IIRC their demographics are heavily skewed towards younger people.

In US/Japan etc. the largest age-group of learners is 13-22

- Found the source: https://blog.duolingo.com/dear-duolingo-how-does-language-le...

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