--- description: Duolingo: 2025 TIME100 Most Influential Companies title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2025: Duolingo image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce0054d199714bd/6998c7b81500fb237aaa6601/t100-companies-2025-duolingo-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jun 26, 2025 # Duolingo Grabbing attention by [Joe Mullich](/author/joe-mullich/) ## Joe Mullich Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  The Duolingo logo is seen on a smartphone. The Duolingo logo is seen on a smartphone.Gabby Jones—Bloomberg/Getty Images In early 2025, Duolingo announced that its mascot was murdered—and then, two weeks later, revealed that Duo the Owl faked its own death as a ploy to get users to complete their daily language lessons. The green bird sure knows how to build buzz, helping to turn an educational app into a cultural phenomenon. "We're competing for those five minutes of your time you may spend on TikTok or Instagram," says Chief Marketing Officer Manu Orssaud. The company's bold and playful approach to brand-building has fueled its rapid growth: Duolingo more than doubled its monthly active users from 2022 to 2024, when it amassed more than 130 million and saw revenue rise around 40% year-over-year. A tongue-in-cheek cameo in Barbie (where the doofy husband learns Spanish on Duolingo) and a strategic partnership with Netflix’s _Squid Game_ titled “Learn Korean or Else” helped power growth; the company monitors music, TV, and social media to identify emerging language interests. But the marketing would be useless without a great product, says Orssaud: "We want our product to be so delightful and satisfying that you want to play it every day.” Duolingo: 2025 TIME100 Most Influential Companies ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289606/duolingo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289606/duolingo/"},"headline":"Duolingo","datePublished":"2025-06-26T11:31:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:29:43.364Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289606/duolingo/","keywords":["Companies2025","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce0054d199714bd/6998c7b81500fb237aaa6601/t100-companies-2025-duolingo-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Mullich","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joe-mullich/"}],"creator":"Joe Mullich","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce0054d199714bd/6998c7b81500fb237aaa6601/t100-companies-2025-duolingo-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/companies2025/","name":"Companies2025"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289606/duolingo/","name":"Duolingo"}}]}] ```