East Liberty-based ed-tech platform Duolingo Inc. celebrated the launch of its newest product on Wednesday called Duolingo Math, which is now available in the Apple App Store for iOS devices.
Targeted primarily at elementary-level students, Duolingo Math wants to make learning the often-loathed subject more enjoyable with thousands of five-minute "bite-sized" lessons. Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL) plans to use the same gamification tricks found in its language learning product to make this process more fun and to encourage users to want to brush up on skills learned in the classroom or to learn new ones for their age level. Adults could also benefit from the new app as the company is touting daily brain training challenge activities for all ages.
Duolingo Math is the company's fourth main product since its founding 10 years ago and its first product that goes beyond the language-based educational offerings that tens of millions of users around the world have flocked to over the years. Its launch comes just days after the latest report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which found that the country's math scores for fourth and eighth graders have seen their largest decline since the organization began assessing such figures in 1990.
And while Duolingo Math isn't looking to be a curriculum replacement, the supplemental benefits of additional math practice is likely Sammi Siegel's favorite element of the new product. As a staff software engineer and the engineering lead for the Duolingo Math team, Siegel oversaw the five-person team spread across Duolingo's Pittsburgh and New York offices that produced Duolingo Math over the past 18 months.
"We see it as this subject that has a lot of room for impact and something that we thought we could translate a lot of what we've learned about teaching language into the subject where we know that there's a need for it and to make it really fun," Siegel said. "I think that's what Duolingo is best at; making language learning fun and approachable. That's exactly what math needs."
For now, Siegel said Duolingo doesn't have a monetization strategy for the new app. Users won't see ads on the platform nor will they be encouraged to sign-up for the premium version of Duolingo like they might encounter on the company's flagship product. That could change in the future, Siegel said, but it's just not the priority right now.
"We're trying to get product-market-fit and release this product out into the world and see how people interact with it," Siegel said. "There may be plans to monetize it later but right now it's free."
Siegel said over 6,000 users beta-tested the product before its launch. She said her goal now is to hopefully see someone on the New York City subway using Duolingo Math, a sight she's seen countless times when it's come to people who are using Duolingo's flagship language learning app.
Duolingo CEO and Co-Founder Luis von Ahn said in an email statement to Pittsburgh Inno that the launch of the company's latest product has a personal connection to him.
"Most people don’t know that math is my favorite subject," von Ahn said. "In fact, I came to the U.S. to study math and in many ways it’s the reason behind my success. However, many people suffer from math anxiety and just this week we’ve seen reports that the pandemic has led to severe declines in math learning. With the launch of Duolingo Math, we hope to make learning math more fun and accessible for students and grown-ups."
Duolingo employs over 600 workers globally, most of whom work out of its Pittsburgh offices on Penn Avenue.
