Duolingo Inc. is keeping its profit-generating streak going for another quarter as the edtech company reported that a new record number of people are using and paying for premium access to its namesake platform.
On Wednesday, the East Liberty-based company posted $2.8 million in profit during its third fiscal quarter of 2023, which ended on Sept. 30. It's the second time in a row and the second time overall that the tech firm has reported generating a profit since it went public in July 2021.
Duolingo (NASDQ: DUOL) also posted over $121 million in subscription bookings during the quarter, up 54% compared to the same quarter a year ago.
CEO and Co-Founder Luis von Ahn cited continued product developments to the Duolingo platform, mostly through the nonstop use of A/B testing, and strong organic marketing wins over the past few months as the fuel behind some of the success that the company has enjoyed this year.
But this comes as Duolingo has also been quick to expand subject offerings on a platform originally built for language learning. Duolingo users can begin taking music and math lessons on the company's app, new or expanded offerings that the company hopes will broaden the reach of its overall target audience.
"As more users access these new courses, we believe it will increase the commitment to our platform and that they'll be more likely to recommend us, which will further drive organic user growth," von Ahn said on the company's earnings call. "It's clear that our strategy is working as demonstrated by our exceptional growth."
Von Ahn cautioned investors that the scale of this growth isn't sustainable in the long-term, however.
"As I've said before, we can't expect to accelerate forever, but it's very gratifying to see that our product improvements and creative marketing efforts are resonating with our learners," he said.
Duolingo Chief Financial Officer Matt Skaruppa took time during his portion of the call to repeat those comments as well.
"Looking ahead, we feel very good about next year," Skaruppa said. "But as Luis has already reminded you, our user growth is unlikely to accelerate forever, and it may be hard to repeat some of the one-time events that have happened this year."
The share price for Duolingo's stock has soared by over 19% in intraday trading on Thursday compared to Wednesday's closing price, hanging at about $200 per share as of 2 p.m. and within striking distance of an all-time high of about $204 per share that it saw on Sept. 20, 2021, shortly after its IPO that July.
