Duolingo's CEO has 3 criteria for deciding what topics to add — and explains why Pokémon and coding didn't make the cut

Duo the owl can't thatch everything.

Duolingo's CEO, Luis von Ahn, said the institution has 3 criteria to determine what subjects to add. The app started with languages and has expanded to math, music, and chess.

"We statement a batch astir what subjects to teach," von Ahn said successful a speech astatine Stanford Graduate School of Business published past week. "There's a fewer things that we request them to do."

The company's archetypal request is that determination needs to beryllium a "very ample demand" — astatine slightest hundreds of millions of radical who are funny successful learning that topic, Von Ahn said.

"For example, adjacent coding, there's lone astir 20 cardinal radical successful the satellite that either privation to larn coding oregon are learning coding. That's conscionable not a precise ample number," von Ahn said. The subjects should besides beryllium teachable connected a mobile app, helium added.

The institution had 46.6 cardinal regular progressive users successful the archetypal quarter, a 49% leap from past year.

The institution offers courses successful astir 40 languages, including immoderate that person a declining fig of speakers.

Duolingo's 2nd criterion is that it volition lone thatch subjects that payment the world.

"Turns retired a batch of radical privation to larn similar Pokémon cards," the CEO said. "We're not going to bash that. So we privation it to beryllium bully for the world."

Von Ahn, who cofounded the institution successful 2011, has said that making acquisition escaped and accessible has ever been Duolingo's mission. During the Stanford talk, von Ahn said that 1 of his regrets erstwhile increasing the institution was monetizing it 3 years excessively precocious due to the fact that helium thought "making wealth was evil."

The CEO said his 3rd request for what subjects are added has to bash with the team's motivation.

"We request idiosyncratic oregon a tiny radical of radical wrong the institution to beryllium excited astir this, to really spell enactment connected it," von Ahn said.

He said that employees began processing chess — which launches this week — 8 months ago.

"It got started by 2 people, neither of whom knew however to codification and neither of whom knew however to play chess," helium said.

Late past month, von Ahn made headlines for outlining each the ways helium plans to integrate AI astatine the company, including for hiring and valuation decisions.

Duolingo is connected a tear. The company's banal has risen 198% successful the past twelvemonth due to the fact that of AI and continued growth successful some escaped and premium users.