Could it be that the season for 'foreign language study,' which often ranks alongside 'diet' as a common New Year's resolution, is approaching? In January, the monthly active users (MAU) of major English learning apps such as Duolingo, Malhaeboka, and Speak have seen a noticeable increase.
These apps promote English learning with game-like elements to prevent users from giving up within three days. The strategy of Duolingo, a U.S. company listed on NASDAQ, particularly stands out in its efforts to penetrate the Korean market.
According to Mobileindex on the 7th, Duolingo only had about 130,000 monthly active users in January 2022, three years ago, but it attracted nearly 880,000 users as of this January. This is more than double the approximately 330,000 MAU from January last year. Malhaeboka and Speak followed closely, gathering nearly 500,000 users during this period.
Looking at the overall trend of MAU for English apps, users typically flock in large numbers in January as if validating their 'New Year's resolution' but gradually decrease until December.
Duolingo has recently increased its user base even during the off-peak seasons, drawing interest to the reasons behind this growth. Duolingo has engaged the younger audience by creating short-form content through social media (SNS), enhancing brand recognition, and has notably utilized game-like elements in learning to maintain continuous user engagement.
Users earn experience points (XP) each time they complete a lesson. Levels increase based on the acquired XP. It visually displays the learning progress.
Additionally, through a league system, users can be promoted to higher leagues or relegated to lower ones based on their activity. The app indicates whether users have studied daily and uses light-hearted push notifications like, 'You haven't logged in for 3 days,' 'It's time to study English! Should I come to your house?' and 'Your English skills are getting rusty.'
The domestically developed app Malhaeboka (by Ipopsoft), which is also gaining traction, was created by developers from games like Nexon's Kart Rider. It enhances the fun of learning by using a quiz format where users fill in blanks in English sentences and match them with Korean translations. Users can also decorate characters or purchase items using in-app currency called 'Diamonds.' After answering daily questions, users are shown what percentile they are in nationally, encouraging continuous learning.
Speak, an English conversation app well-known for utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), is also praised for incorporating game-like elements by offering various challenges and missions that encourage users to set and achieve goals.
Such gamification strategies have been assessed to create a more engaging and sustainable language learning environment, increasing learners' participation and motivation. A paper published by the Indian research institution RSIS International titled 'The Role of Gamification in Enhancing Participation and Motivation in Language Learning' states, 'Game-like approaches help overcome traditional barriers to language acquisition, such as anxiety and lack of confidence,' and analyzes that 'game-based elements like rewards, badges, and levels provide learners with incentives to invest more time and effort.'