What happened
Shares of Duolingo (DUOL -0.34%) soared on Friday after the mobile learning platform delivered strong first-quarter growth metrics and boosted its full-year financial forecast. As of 2 p.m. ET, its stock price was up 40%.
So what
Duolingo's revenue rose 47% year over year to $81.2 million, besting Wall Street's expectations for sales of $77.6 million. The gains were fueled by a 60% surge in paid subscribers, to 2.9 million.
The company's language-learning app is proving popular with students of all ages. Monthly active users climbed 23% to 49.2 million, while daily active users jumped 31% to 12.5 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
"All elements of our business performed well this quarter and we saw accelerating user growth, record quarterly bookings, and strong margins," CEO Luis von Ahn said in a press release. "We believe these results come from the investments we've made in R&D to drive innovation and continuously make our products more effective, more fun, more engaging, and more social."
Moreover, Duolingo's profitability is improving as it scales its subscriber base. Its net loss per share checked in at $0.31, compared with a loss of $1.04 in the prior-year quarter. That was far better than the $0.59 per-share loss analysts had expected.
Now what
These solid results and promising ongoing subscriber trends prompted Duolingo to raise its full-year revenue and earnings outlook. Management now expects revenue of $388 million to $397 million in 2022, up from a prior estimate of $332 million to $342 million. The company also guided for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of as much as $3 million.
