Duolingo Announces 51% DAU Growth and Record Bookings and Revenue in Third Quarter 2022; Raises Full Year Guidance

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL), the world’s leading mobile learning platform, announced results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022 in a shareholder letter that is posted at investors.duolingo.com.

“Our results this quarter speak volumes – as we continue to grow users, we are finding them more engaged and see more of them subscribing to Super Duolingo, resulting in record bookings and revenue,” said Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo. “I’m particularly proud that our products are encouraging more engagement, which can lead to better learning outcomes. Today, nearly 70% of our daily active users have a Duolingo streak longer than 7 days.”

Third Quarter 2022 Highlights

• Total bookings were $102.7 million, an increase of 41% from the prior year quarter;
• Subscription bookings were $78.9 million, an increase of 42% from the prior year quarter;
• Paid Subscribers totaled 3.7 million at quarter end, an increase of 68% from the prior year quarter;
• Monthly active users (MAUs) grew 35% to 56.5 million from the prior year quarter and Daily active users (DAUs) grew 51% to 14.9 million from the prior year quarter;
• Total revenues were $96.1 million, an increase of 51% from the prior year quarter;
• Net loss totaled $18.4 million, compared to a net loss of $29.0 million in the prior year quarter;
• Adjusted EBITDA was $2.1 million, compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $6.0 million in the prior year quarter.

Financial and Operating Metrics

The following table summarizes our financial and operating highlights for the quarter ended September 30, 2022.

The following table provides revenues by product type:

Financial Outlook

Duolingo is providing the following guidance for the fourth quarter and the full year ending December 31, 2022:

With regards to the Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA outlook provided above, a reconciliation to GAAP net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure presented in accordance with GAAP, has not been provided as the quantification of certain items included in the calculation of GAAP net loss cannot be calculated or predicted at this time without unreasonable efforts. For example, the non-GAAP adjustment for stock-based compensation expenses related to equity awards requires additional inputs such as number of shares granted and market price that are not currently ascertainable, and the non-GAAP adjustment for certain legal, tax and regulatory reserves and expenses depends on the timing and magnitude of these expenses and cannot be accurately forecasted. For the same reasons, we are unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information, which could have a potentially unpredictable, and potentially significant, impact on our future GAAP financial results.

Video Webcast
Duolingo will host a video webcast to discuss its quarterly results today, November 10, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. ET. This live webcast and related materials will be publicly available and can be accessed at investors.duolingo.com. A replay will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website two hours following completion of the call and will remain available for a period of one year.

About Duolingo
Duolingo is the leading mobile learning platform globally. Its flagship app has organically become the world's most popular way to learn languages and the top-grossing app in the Education category on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. With technology at the core of everything it does, Duolingo has consistently invested to provide learners a fun, engaging, and effective learning experience while remaining committed to its mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available.

Definitions

Subscription Bookings and Total Bookings. Subscription bookings represent the amounts we receive from a purchase of a subscription to Super Duolingo (formerly called Duolingo Plus). Total bookings represent the amounts we receive from a purchase of a subscription to Super Duolingo, a purchase of a Duolingo English Test, an in-app purchase for a virtual good, and from advertising networks for advertisements served to our users. We believe bookings provide an indication of trends in our operating results, including cash flows, that are not necessarily reflected in our revenues because we recognize subscription revenues ratably over the lifetime of a subscription, which is generally from one to twelve months.

Monthly Active Users (MAUs). MAUs are defined as unique Duolingo users who engage with our mobile language learning application or the language learning section of our website each month. MAUs are reported for a measurement period by taking the average of the MAUs for each calendar month in that measurement period. MAUs are a measure of the size of our global active user community on Duolingo.

Daily Active Users (DAUs). DAUs are defined as unique Duolingo users who engage with our mobile language learning application or the language learning section of our website each calendar day. DAUs are reported for a measurement period by taking the average of the DAUs for each day in that measurement period. DAUs are a measure of the consistent engagement of our global user community on Duolingo.

Throughout this document, the measurement period for MAUs and DAUs is the three months ended September 30, 2022 and the same period in the prior year where applicable, and the analysis of results is based on those periods.

Paid Subscribers. Paid subscribers are defined as users who pay for access to Super Duolingo, including subscribers who pay for a family plan, and had an active subscription as of the end of the measurement period. 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.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release, including without limitation, statements regarding our business model and strategic plans and our financial outlook for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “shall,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” “goal,” “objective,” “seeks,” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to various factors, including, but not limited to: our ability to retain and grow our users and sustain their engagement with our products; competition in the online language learning industry; our limited operating history; our ability to achieve profitability; our ability to manage our growth and operate at such scale; the success of our investments; our reliance on third-party platforms to store and distribute our products and collect revenue; our reliance on third-party hosting and cloud computing providers; our ability to compete for advertisements; acceptance by educational organizations of technology-based education; our ability to access, collect, and use personal data about our users and payers, and to comply with applicable data privacy laws; potential intellectual property-related litigation and proceedings; our ability adequately obtain, protect and maintain our intellectual property rights; and the other important factors more fully detailed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2022, as any such factors may be updated from time to time, including without limitation our Quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2022 and in our other filings with the SEC, accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and the Company’s Investor Relations website at https://investors.duolingo.com. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.

Limitation of Key Metrics and Other Data
We manage our business by tracking several operating metrics, including MAUs, DAUs, paid subscribers, and bookings. While these metrics are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our platform is used. These metrics are determined by using internal data gathered on an analytics platform that we developed and operate and have not been validated by an independent third party. This platform tracks user account and session activity. If we fail to maintain an effective analytics platform, our metrics calculations may be inaccurate. Because we update the methodologies we employ to create metrics, our operating metrics may not be comparable to those in prior periods. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate these metrics differently.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We use certain non-GAAP financial measures to supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are presented in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures include Adjusted EBITDA. Please refer to the definitions and reconciliation at the end of this press release. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. By excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our recurring core operating results, we believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance. Accordingly, we believe these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors and others because they allow for additional information with respect to financial measures used by management in its financial and operational decision-making and they may be used by our institutional investors and the analyst community to help them analyze the health of our business. However, there are a number of limitations related to the use of non-GAAP financial measures, and these non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently or not at all, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.

Website Information
We routinely post important information for investors on the Investor Relations section of our website, investors.duolingo.com and also from time to time may use social media channels, including our Twitter account (twitter.com/duolingo) and our LinkedIn account (linkedin.com/company/duolingo/), as an additional means of disclosing public information to investors, the media and others interested in us. It is possible that certain information we post on our website and on social media could be deemed to be material information, and we encourage investors, the media and others interested in us to review the business and financial information we post on our website and on the social media channels identified above, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website and our social media channels is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.

DUOLINGO, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
ADJUSTED EBITDA RECONCILIATION
(Amounts in thousands)

Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net loss excluding interest (income) expense, net, income tax provision, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expenses related to equity awards, IPO and public company costs and transaction costs related to an acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA is used by management to evaluate the financial performance of our business and we present Adjusted EBITDA because we believe it is helpful in highlighting trends in our operating results and that it is frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties to evaluate companies in our industry. The following table presents a reconciliation of our net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure presented in accordance with GAAP, to Adjusted EBITDA:

________________
(1)   In addition to stock-compensation expense, this includes costs incurred related to taxes paid on equity transactions.

(2)   IPO and public company costs include costs associated with IPO readiness incurred in 2021 and costs associated with the establishment of our public company structure and processes, including consultant costs, a one-time fee associated with the set-up of our initial proxy statement, and fees paid to consultants and Deloitte for work in connection with remediation of the material weakness disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.

(3)   Represents costs incurred related to an acquisition, including integration costs.

Contacts

Investor Relations:
Deborah Belevan, VP of Investor Relations
[email protected]

Press:
Sam Dalsimer, Global Head of Communications
[email protected]