Quizlet, a platform for creating digital flashcards, has reached a substantial milestone with 50m monthly active users now taking advantage of its machine learning-powered educational tools. The platform is extremely popular in the US, providing over 300m user-generated study decks, maps, charts and other tools to users.
The news comes roughly eight months after the firm closed $20m (£15.6m) in financing, and while the company is not yet profitable, it has seen revenues growing by 100 per cent year on year, and grew by 20m monthly active users in the same timeframe. The company was founded in 2005 by then 15-year-old Andrew Sutherland.
“The students on Quizlet are studying everything from basic Spanish to college-level organic chemistry to EMT certification test prep,” said CEO Matthew Glotzbach, who joined the firm from Google back in 2016. “They’re using Chromebooks in classrooms in Des Moines, Iowa and studying on the bus with an Android phone in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the US, we’re used by two in three high school students and one in two college-age students.
“We’re so proud to be helping over 50m students study and learn each month, but we know that number only tells one part of our story. It tells of our scale, but not of our impact on the world. Reaching millions of students is half of our focus; the other half is making sure we’re helping them to be successful and hit their learning goals.”
The platform operates on an ad-supported freemium model with three subscription levels available to users. At $12 a year, Quizlet Go removes ads and adds offline studying on mobile. Quizlet Plus, the $20 a year model, introduces image uploading and voice recording capabilities, while Quizlet for Teachers, the educator-focused package that costs $35 a year, enables users to create their own decks for students and access additional data, analytics and reporting.