Duolingo has just reported its financials for the second quarter of 2024. Revenue for the Duolingo English Test was 10.7 million dollars, up from 9.8 million in Q2 of 2023. Note that the price of the test increased from $59 to $65 in this time frame.
If we divide the revenue by the per-test cost, we find that the DET was taken about 164,500 times in the quarter, about a 1% drop from last year. Note that this is a crude estimate as some test takers pay more than $65 (to get faster results) while some test takers pay less (by purchasing a bundle). Others take the test via Duolingo’s Access Program, and get vouchers from receiving institutions. A more precise number of test takers (for 2023) was given at DETcon 2024, but I suppose that is covered by my NDA.
This flat quarter comes after a very strong Q1.
Using the same math as above, we can estimate that DET’s test volume is up about 5% in the first two quarters of 2024 (compared to the same period in 2023). Perhaps I’ve buried the lede here as Pearson reported a 10% decline in test volume during the same period, and IDP Education is expecting a 15-20% decline in the volume of IELTS test takers for the year ending June of 2024.
It seems that growth is still happening at Duolingo, but we must pay careful attention to the final six months of 2024.