Duolingo shares rose nearly 7% on Thursday following a large spike in users signing up to learn Mandarin in conjunction with soaring usage of Chinese social media app RedNote, a TikTok rival.
The company confirmed to CNBC that there’s been a 216% increase in Mandarin learners using the app compared to a year earlier. For context, Spanish, one of the most popular languages on the app, has seen a 40% increase over the same period, Duolingo said.
RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, as it’s known in China, has rocketed to become the No. 1 free app on the Apple app store, a position it’s held for most of this week. Rounding out the top five are TikTok’s Lemon8 app, U.S. social media upstart Clapper, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s Threads.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case involving the future of TikTok in the U.S., and a law that could effectively ban the popular app. The justices appeared to favor upholding the law, and a decision could come as soon as Friday. TikTok is reportedly preparing for a U.S. shutdown on Sunday.
RedNote has so far been the top beneficiary of the American user exodus, seeing its U.S. app downloads increase by 20 times over the last week, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. A Duolingo spokesperson told CNBC that the company’s marketing team is “forward-thinking and already has an active presence on Red, managed by our team in China.”
Duolingo offers online and mobile courses across 42 languages. According to its website, Duolingo has 48.8 million Spanish learners. French is the second most popular language on the app at 27.3 million users, while Chinese is eighth at 10.7 million.
Duolingo shares climbed 43% last year, topping the Nasdaq’s 29% gain.
The Federal Trade Commission asked a judge in Seattle to delay the start of its trial accusing Amazon of duping consumers into signing up for its Prime program, citing resource constraints.
Attorneys for the FTC made the request during a status hearing on Wednesday before Judge John Chun in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Chun had set a Sept. 22 start date for the trial.
Jonathan Cohen, an attorney for the FTC, asked Chun for a two-month continuance on the case due to staffing and budgetary shortfalls.
The FTC’s request comes amid a push by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to reduce spending. DOGE, which is led by tech baron Elon Musk, has slashed the federal government’s workforce by more than 62,000 workers in February alone.
“We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on our case team,” Cohen said.
Chun asked Cohen how the FTC’s situation “will be different in two months” if the agency is “in crisis now, as far as resources.” Cohen responded by saying that he “cannot guarantee if things won’t be even worse.” He pointed to the possibility that the FTC may have to move to another office “unexpectedly,” which could hamper its ability to prepare for the trial.
“But there’s a lot of reason to believe … we may have been through the brunt of it, at least for a little while,” Cohen said.
John Hueston, an attorney for Amazon, disputed Cohen’s request to push back the trial date.
“There has been no showing on this call that the government does not have the resources to proceed to trial with the trial date as presently set,” Hueston said. “What I heard is that they’ve got the whole trial team still intact. Maybe there’s going to be an office move. And by the way, both in government and private sector, I’ve never heard of an office move being more than a few days disruptive.”
The FTC sued Amazon in June 2023, alleging that the online retailer was deceiving millions of customers into signing up for its Prime program and sabotaging their attempts to cancel it. Amazon has denied any wrongdoing, calling the FTC’s claims “wrong on the facts and the law.”
“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” former FTC Chair Lina Khan said at the time.
The FTC brought a separate case against Amazon in September 2023 accusing it of wielding an illegal monopoly. The agency alleged that Amazon prevents sellers from offering cheaper prices elsewhere through its anti-discounting measures. That case is set to go to trial in October 2026.
In the time since the FTC filed its cases, Khan has been replaced as the head of the FTC by Trump appointee Andrew Ferguson. Tech companies, which are the target of several regulatory agencies, have sought to curry favor with Trump, including Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos. He attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, and Amazon was among several tech companies to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks on as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press as they stand next to a Tesla vehicle on the South Portico of the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 11, 2025.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Tesla shares rose for a second straight day in early trading Wednesday after the stock recorded its worst day since 2020 earlier in the week.
Shares were last up 8%, building on a 3.8% gain from Tuesday.
Tesla has tumbled in recent weeks, shedding more than 40% in market value since President Donald Trump took office. Shares rallied in the postelection Trump trade on bets that CEO Elon Musk’s close ties to the president would benefit the company.
Tariff concerns have added fuel to that fire as a potential trade war threatens two key supplier markets. That pushed the company to its longest weekly losing streak in its 15-year public market history.
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Since Trump’s inauguration, Musk has become a key face of the new White House administration and close advisor of the president as he looks to reduce government spending, leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump said Tuesday he plans to buy a Tesla in support of Musk as Tesla locations around the country see protests and demonstrations.
The company also faces a divided Wall Street, as bears point to rising EV competition, declining new vehicle deliveries and the effects of tariffs on the company’s near-term business. Bulls still have faith in Musk and his promise to unveil an affordable new model EV and start a driverless ride-hailing service later this year.
In this photo illustration, the Spotify music app is seen on a phone on June 04, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Spotify is minting music millionaires.
Nearly 1,500 artists generated over $1 million in royalties from Spotify in 2024, the company said Wednesday in its annual Loud and Clear Report.
Spotify said more than 80% of the artists in that pool didn’t have a song reach the app’s Global Daily Top 50 chart.
“Spotify has helped level the playing field for artists at every stage of their careers,” read a portion of the report. “Success in the streaming era doesn’t require a decade-spanning catalog nor a chart-topping hit.”
The news comes about a month after the company reported a fourth-quarter earnings beat that saw the Swedish music streamer record its first full year of profitability. The company said it paid an all-time high of $10 billion in royalties to the music industry for the year.