The US-based online language learning platform, Duolingo, has launched Hindi language course for English speakers. The course will be available on the web starting Thursday and will come to iOS and Android platform in some time.
Launched in India in 2014, Duolingo has over 10.1million users in the country. Claiming India to be one of the top 10 largest markets worldwide, the company states that globally, Duolingo has approximately 8.6million Hindi speakers learning English on their platform. For the Hindi learning course, the company has been working for last one year, with nearly 152,000 people signed up to be notified once the course becomes available.
This is an interactive platform, where users have to answer questions to move forward. Instead of long sessions, there are 5-minute sessions that one can take on-the-go. Designed like a game, users can compete with friends, have streaks, get points, level up, and earn virtual currency to spend on bonus items while learning. There is a chatbot feature that helps users practice conversation, without the fear of embarrassment that comes with talking to native speakers.
According to the company's user base in India, English is the most popular language amongst Indian users with 68 per cent users interested in learning the English language, 8.3 per cent users interested in French, 8.2 per cent in Spanish, 5.5 per cent interested in German and 2.1 per cent interested in Japanese.
Other than launching Hindi learning course, Duolingo is also working on English courses for Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu and Tamil speakers.
Duolingo has a mission of making language education free, fun and accessible to everyone in the world. Started at the end of 2009, today Duolingo has 200 million total users worldwide and offers 80 total language courses for 31 distinct languages. The company has raised U$108.3 million in total. Over 300,000 teachers are using Duolingo in class with Duolingo for Schools. The company uses machine learning to give everyone personalized, adaptive lessons based on their progress.