43.5M views just this year, 838K bookmarks, and 110K shares.
Language-learning app Airlearn operates over 27 accounts:
Their 3 most viral videos all share the same hook and format:
- Each video is under 10 seconds (typically 7 or 8 seconds).
- Videos feature creators smiling or posing directly at the camera.
- They use long, engaging texts that criticize Duolingo, encouraging viewers to switch to an app focused on conversational skills.
The strategy is entirely about leveraging Duolingo’s flaws to trigger viewers. Then, Airlearn is recommended in the comments.
Example:
“Tell me why I spent a whole year on Duolingo trying to learn Korean, yet I couldn’t speak a single sentence,” followed by “But I can have conversations after just 2 weeks on another app, probably because it doesn’t waste time teaching meaningless phrases.”
They purposely avoid mentioning Airlearn directly in their videos to boost engagement and provoke comments like these:
They likely engineer some comments using other accounts linked to their app, but the strategy clearly works.
All top-performing videos heavily rely on repeating and exploiting this one successful format.
Airlearn also has Spanish ambassadors (based in the U.S.) achieving impressive results using the same technique in another language: @languagepracticew
The results speak for themselves:
Each ambassador runs between 195 and 316 videos, forming a fully operational and well-established network.
Their massive engagement—especially bookmarks and shares—is mostly driven by directly “dissing” Duolingo.
Discover all their accounts in this Shortimize collection:
https://app.shortimize.com/c/2b10C3yQgg26Ax
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