Duolingo, e.l.f. bet big on TikTok, now app could be banned, Barron’s says

Duolingo (DUOL) language-learning app and the e.l.f Beauty (ELF) cosmetics site have both found great success using TikTok to drive their growth. That could be threatened now that the U.S. has banned the social-media platform because of its Chinese ownership, Angela Palumbo writes in this week’s edition of Barron’s. The platform has become a core part of the sales strategies for e.l.f Beauty’s makeup and Duolingo’s language app. Those stocks have been two of the stock market’s best performers, gaining more than 350% since 2022, the author notes. For companies who built their marketing strategies around TikTok, a ban of the app, or a change to the way it operates, could upend a sales strategy that helped propel their stocks higher, the publication says.