This year, Duolingo announced a major strategic shift: from monetization to user growth, with a target of 100 million daily active users by the end of 2028. To get there, it needs to grow about 25% year over year, every quarter. In Q2 2026, daily users grew 23%, to 58.7 million, the first time growth has sped up in two years. Duolingo also disclosed a roughly $10 million bonus that pays out if Q4 growth hits 25% or more. Paid subscribers grew by about 200,000 in the quarter, the fewest since 2

Update (April 2026): On April 9, shareholders of both companies voted overwhelmingly to approve the merger — 99.4%% at Coursera, 99.9%% at Udemy. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. I also dug into the 300-page merger prospectus and found that Coursera approached Udemy three times over two years before getting a yes, and that Pluralsight’s owner made a competing cash offer. Read the full merger history. TL;DR Coursera is acquiring Udemy in an all-stock deal worth ~$1.8 b

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Subscriber growth and revenue are accelerating even as revenue per user declines. Udemy built its empire on a simple idea: anyone could create a course, and anyone could buy one. That marketplace model made Udemy famous and made millionaires out of its top instructors. Now the company is deliberately killing it. In Q3 2025 earnings call, Udemy’s CFO admitted they are “intentionally reducing” single course sales to push users toward subscriptions. The logic is straightforward: Udemy keeps 82.5%

This is the first major move by Udemy’s new McKinsey-veteran CEO, who is prioritizing enterprise efficiency over the founder’s product vision.