[021]Chase itApp Store / Ireland, US, UK, Australia, Taiwan, JapanSubscription (hard paywall + annual plan)Data as of 2026-11-08
Partner with teachers of niche languages on a learning app, with a hard-paywall annual subscription
B
It can work, but only with a person from that language's community.HeyRua rides one teacher's few hundred thousand followers, estimated monthly revenue $3–90k. Outsiders got traction through TikTok (Ziggy) or paid acquisition (Kori), but couldn't monetize or defend it, and Kori's owner listed it for sale after the hype wore off.Maybe · grade and headline from full write-up · next review 11-30
| Background | Duolingo has Irish, Korean, and Vietnamese, but since 2024 Irish uses synthetic voices with no dialects. The only real gap is ASL. |
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| Upside | The gap isn't 'nothing exists,' it's 'done shallowly': speaking practice, dialects, native-speaker recordings. HeyRua has sat #1 on the Ireland Education free chart for 6 days straight, above Duolingo. |
| Demand | Of 49 reviews, 12 actively trash Duolingo. Users want honesty, Ulster dialect and real human voices; sign language users resent AI and 'learn five signs, then pay'. |
| Competition | Each language seems to have room for only one "teacher-made app"; ASL already has Lingvano (120k rating) and SignLab; paid-acquisition players (Kori, VietBuddy) rotate by niche |
| Revenue | Verified by payment platforms: Kori October $29.7k, VietBuddy $25.1k (both via paid acquisition / TikTok). HeyRua never disclosed revenue; estimated from installs at $3–90k monthly |
| Growth | First let the teacher post naturally on their own account for two months; a profile with 188k likes starting at 10-16 runs about 23 Meta ads; the top-rated store is the US, not Ireland |
| Window | No hard window. Duolingo won't add dialects and human recordings anytime soon, but each language is first come, first served. |
| Who it's for | Someone who is a language teacher or blogger, or an indie developer who can negotiate revenue share with one. Not for AI spam across three languages, pure paid acquisition, or teams with no deaf members building sign language |