Everytine Duolingo is in the news here, I find the anecdotes and suggestions of alternative solutions interesting, but we rarely discuss what is making Duolingo

Everytine Duolingo is in the news here, I find the anecdotes and suggestions of alternative solutions interesting, but we rarely discuss what is making Duolingo so successful. They have become a household name. Almost all non-tech people around me know what Duolingo is. Kind of like Tinder, they may not use it, but they know it. I also view Duolingo as a game that provides a bit of exposure to a new language, but won't get you very far unless combined to other resources. I wonder where the IPO will lead them. They did encourage a ton of people to be curious about new languages. It worked for me. I hope they can help them get to the next level, and not become, as someone else mentioned here, the next Farmville.