Based on Ling’s 2025 user analytics (387,982 active learners)
Major language learning apps like Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone ignore languages with 100M+ speakers including Bengali (230M), Telugu (90M), and Tamil (80M).
Why do apps ignore these populations? The answer is Western-centric business models. These apps prioritize European languages that drive subscriptions in North America and Europe, even when those languages have far fewer speakers.
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French gets featured everywhere (80 million native speakers). Bengali (230 million speakers) gets ignored. Swedish (10 million) is standard on every platform. Punjabi (125 million) barely exists.
But all is not lost. If not anything else, this gap creates opportunity: languages with significant speaker populations face minimal learning competition, often command higher salary premiums, and open doors to emerging markets.
Key takeaways according to Ling’s 2025 data
Quick Answer: Apps ignore languages with substantial populations (Bengali 230M, Telugu 90M, Tamil 80M) because Western-centric business models prioritize European languages that drive subscriptions in wealthy markets. This creates opportunity: Ling teaches 70+ underserved languages with native speaker content that major apps won’t develop.
- Apps prioritize small European languages over larger Asian ones: Swedish (10M) is everywhere, Bengali (230M) is rare
- Ling users choose differently: Thai (387,982 learners), Filipino (148,713), Albanian (65,987) top our list—languages others won’t develop
- Vietnamese demand surges: 15-20% salary premiums in manufacturing as China+1 strategies accelerate
- One language unlocks four countries: Serbian provides mutual intelligibility across Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro
- Less competition = more opportunity: Underserved languages face fewer learners competing for the same roles
Why Apps Ignore Languages With Substantial Populations
Profitability drives app development, not speaker populations or career value.
Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone prioritize languages generating subscriptions in wealthy Western markets. That’s why you see contradictions like:
Swedish (10M speakers): Every major platform
Bengali (230M speakers): Rarely offered
Dutch (24M speakers): Standard everywhere
Punjabi (125M speakers): Almost impossible to find
Norwegian (5M speakers): Fully supported
Telugu (90M speakers): Virtually absent
The 7th most spoken language globally (Bengali) has fewer learning resources than Swedish (#90 globally). This isn’t about language difficulty—it’s about where apps make money.
Ling takes the opposite approach: We develop languages based on speaker populations and learner demand, not Western subscription potential. Our full 2025 user data proves the market exists, mainstream apps just won’t serve it.
What Ling Users Actually Learn
According to Ling’s 2025 user analytics, our learners choose very different languages than what mainstream apps push.
| Rank | Language | Active Users (2025) | Why Major Apps Ignore It |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thai | 387,982 | Tone development costs too high |
| 2 | Filipino | 148,713 | Philippines market undervalued |
| 3 | Albanian | 65,987 | Minimal Western demand |
| 4 | Serbian | 58,981 | Small individual country size |
| 5 | Tamil | 38,599 | Indian regional language |
| 6 | Malayalam | 36,723 | Kerala regional market |
| 7 | Cantonese | 36,396 | Overshadowed by Mandarin |
| 8 | Marathi | 34,152 | Maharashtra regional language |
| 9 | Georgian | 33,668 | Complex script, small market |
| 10 | Telugu | 33,617 | Hyderabad tech sector only |
These aren’t hobbyists. Ling users learning these languages have specific goals: career advancement in emerging markets, heritage connection, or remote work positioning.
Thai leads because Bangkok became Southeast Asia’s digital nomad capital, even though Thai is one of the top hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Filipino ranks high due to the Philippines’ BPO dominance. Albanian and Serbian attract learners targeting Balkan opportunities.
Major apps won’t invest in content development for these languages because costs don’t justify Western subscription revenue. That’s exactly what creates the opportunity.
Vietnamese: The China+1 Career Play
Vietnamese tops career ROI lists for one specific reason: manufacturing shifts from China to Vietnam at unprecedented speed.
Vietnam targets 8% GDP growth in 2026—Asia-Pacific’s fastest, according to Reeracoen Vietnam’s 2026 report. Foreign direct investment hit $36.6 billion in 2024, up 32% year-over-year.
Vietnam critically lacks bilingual production managers bridging English-speaking headquarters with Vietnamese factory floors.
Beyond salary differences, Vietnamese speakers gain practical advantages English-only managers lack: negotiating directly with local suppliers, navigating government procedures without intermediaries, and building genuine business relationships with Vietnamese partners. These factors often determine who advances to regional director roles as companies expand operations beyond their initial Vietnam factory.
Why apps underserve it: Developing tone-accurate Vietnamese content costs more than Romance languages, and Vietnam’s domestic app market doesn’t justify investment for Western companies.
With 95 million speakers, Vietnamese remains underserved relative to its economic importance and career value. According to Ling’s 2025 data, Vietnamese attracted 22,890 active learners.
Thai: Digital Nomad Hub Language
Bangkok is Southeast Asia’s digital nomad capital, creating unique demand for Thai-speaking remote workers managing local teams.
“Thai was Ling’s founding language,” says Simon, Ling CEO based in Chiang Mai. “My wife, Kwan, Ling’s Co-founder, is Thai, and we built Ling specifically because I wanted an app to learn Thai, but major apps ignored Thailand’s 60 million speakers as well as those trying to find where to learn. That showed that mainstream apps ignore any language that doesn’t fit the typical Western business models.”
This gap explains why Thai attracted 387,982 active learners on Ling in 2025—our most-learned language by far.
For digital nomads and remote workers in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, Thai proficiency changes daily economics.
Knowing Thai allows negotiating rent directly with landlords, shopping at local markets instead of expat-priced stores, and accessing healthcare through Thai-language hospitals (significantly cheaper than international clinics).
Beyond cost savings, Thai opens Thailand’s rich Buddhist cultural heritage, traditional arts, and regional cuisine inaccessible to English-only residents.
The tonal system and script create difficulty that prevents market saturation. FSI categorizes Thai as Category IV, requiring 1,100 hours for English speakers to reach proficiency.
Why apps underserve it: Tone development requires native speaker audio for every lesson. Most apps skip it or offer substandard experiences. Ling employs native Thai speakers for all content, making it our specialty.
With 60 million speakers, Thai remains surprisingly underserved despite Thailand’s importance as both tourist destination and emerging tech hub.
Indonesian: Best Effort-To-Value Ratio
IIndonesian offers the easiest path to a large speaker population.
Key advantages:
- 275M speakers across world’s 16th largest economy
- FSI Category III: Just 900 hours to proficiency
- Latin alphabet, no tones, straightforward grammar
Indonesia’s government plans to deploy 500,000 workers abroad in 2026, focusing on healthcare and tech sectors according to The Jakarta Post, creating immediate demand for coordinators managing cross-border labor flows.
Why it’s underrated: Indonesia’s domestic market focuses less on language learning apps, meaning less subscription revenue despite 275M speakers. Apps chase smaller European markets instead.
According to Ling’s 2025 data, Indonesian (Malay) attracted 31,996 active learners.
Serbian: Regional Access Language
Serbian, our top Slavic language, provides strategic value through mutual intelligibility across borders.
Learning Serbian gives communication ability across:
- Serbia (7M speakers)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (3M Bosnian)
- Croatia (5M Croatian)
- Montenegro (620K Montenegrin)
Total access: 20+ million speakers, one language investment.
The cultural access matters beyond business. Serbian connects you to the Balkans’ rich literary tradition (Ivo Andrić’s Nobel Prize-winning “The Bridge on the Drina”), its music scene (from traditional tamburitza to EXIT Festival, one of Europe’s largest music festivals), and a food culture blending Mediterranean, Turkish, and Central European influences. Understanding concepts like “domaćinstvo” (hospitality culture) matters in Balkan business relationships.
Serbia is becoming a tech outsourcing hub for European companies—Belgrade as the new software development center. This drives demand for bilingual project managers and support specialists.
According to Ling’s 2025 data, Serbian attracted 58,981 active users—primarily strategic learners targeting Balkan opportunities, not heritage speakers.
Why apps ignore it: They see 7M Serbians, not 20M+ regional reach. Ling understands the mutual intelligibility value.
Tagalog: BPO & Healthcare Staffing
Tagalog (Filipino) offers diaspora reach plus Philippines’ industry dominance.
Speaker base: 45M Philippines + 10M+ working abroad (healthcare, maritime, services)
The Philippines is the world’s call center capital. Tagalog proficiency opens management roles overseeing multilingual teams with 10-15% salary premiums over English-only positions.
According to Ling’s 2025 data, Filipino attracted 148,713 active users split between heritage learners and BPO professionals (Manila, Cebu).
Apps offer Tagalog but with limited business vocabulary depth. Ling’s native-speaker development provides career-focused content.
Albanian: Pure Scarcity Value
Albanian represents minimal competition advantage.
Speakers: 7.5M (Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia)
Key advantage: Almost no one learns it
Albania experiences rapid economic growth and EU integration. Kosovo attracts international development. Both need bilingual professionals.
According to Ling’s 2025 user data, Albanian attracted 65,987 strategic learners who choose it specifically because we’re among the few apps offering quality content.
Why apps skip it: 7.5M speakers don’t justify development costs for Western markets.
The Asian Language Gap: Substantial Populations Underserved
Asian regional languages show the largest gap between population size and app availability.
| Language | Speakers | Ling 2025 Users | Key Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bengali | 230M | 26,078 | UK/US diaspora services, Bangladesh growth |
| Punjabi | 125M | 26,980 | Canadian diaspora, cross-border business |
| Telugu | 90M | 33,617 | Hyderabad tech sector |
| Tamil | 80M | 38,599 | Chennai IT industry, classical heritage |
| Malayalam | 38M | 36,723 | Kerala literacy, Gulf diaspora |
According to Ethnologue, these five languages total 563 million speakers—more than Spanish’s 475M native speakers. Yet quality courses remain nearly impossible to find on mainstream platforms.
Why apps ignore them: India’s English proficiency among educated consumers makes regional language apps less profitable. Apps target English→Hindi, skip regionals entirely.
The opportunity: As India’s digital economy expands to tier-2 and tier-3 cities, regional skills become crucial. According to Coursera’s 2025 Global Skills Report, 78% of growth market professionals plan language training, and in this data, regional languages top the requests.
Bengali: The 230M Speaker Paradox
Bengali is the 7th most spoken language globally, yet finding learning resources remains nearly impossible outside South Asia.
Businesses expanding into Bangladesh or serving the Bengali diaspora (UK: 450K+, US, Middle East) desperately need speakers. But, the language teaching courses’ supply remains critically low.
Many apps ignore Bangladesh, categorizing it as a lower-income market with limited subscription potential. Apps chase wealthier European languages instead.
According to Ling’s 2025 data, Bengali attracted 26,078 active learners—a fraction of what the population size would suggest, but growing as word spreads about opportunities in Bangladesh’s booming economy.
Telugu And Tamil: India’s Tech Hub Languages
Telugu (90 million speakers) and Tamil (80 million speakers) are India’s powerhouse regional languages, both nearly invisible in global language learning.
Both languages, along with Kannada (spoken in Bengaluru, Karnataka) dominate India’s IT sector. Hyderabad (Telugu) and Chennai (Tamil) are major tech hubs producing thousands of engineers and developers annually.
Both languages dominate India’s IT sector. Hyderabad (Telugu) and Chennai (Tamil) are major tech hubs where English functions for formal meetings but regional languages dominate implementation discussions and team dynamics.
Tamil offers exceptional cultural depth as a classical language with over 2,000 years of continuous literary tradition—predating Latin’s classical period. Sangam literature (300 BCE-300 CE) remains studied today. Modern Tamil cinema represents India’s second-largest film industry, and Tamil philosophy influenced early Buddhism and Jainism. Telugu similarly provides access to classical poetry, traditional Kuchipudi dance, and the world’s largest film industry by production volume (Tollywood in Hyderabad).
Ling offers both: According to Ling’s 2025 data, Tamil attracted 38,599 active users and Telugu attracted 33,617 active users. These learners position themselves for India’s tier-2 and tier-3 city growth, where English penetration is limited but economic opportunity is exploding.
Why apps ignore them: Indian regional languages don’t fit Western app business models, despite their substantial speaker populations and growing economic importance.
Ling’s Fastest-Growing Languages (2023-2025)
According to Ling’s three-year user analytics, underrated languages show dramatic growth as strategic learners discover opportunities mainstream apps ignore.
| Language | 2023 Users | 2024 Users | 2025 Users | 3-Year Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thai | 138,144 | 275,555 | 387,982 | +181% |
| Filipino | 58,066 | 89,726 | 148,713 | +156% |
| Korean | 81,067 | 138,305 | 73,872 | -8.9% |
| Albanian | 50,806 | 70,737 | 65,987 | +29.9% |
| Serbian | 50,374 | 55,335 | 58,981 | +17.1% |
Key Insights:
- Thai and Filipino lead growth with 181% and 156% increases as learners target Southeast Asian opportunities
- Korean spiked 70.6% in 2024 due to K-pop/K-drama influence but declined 46.6% in 2025 as trend stabilized
- Serbian shows steady 17.1% growth reflecting sustained strategic interest in Balkan tech sector
What Makes Ling Different
Ling specializes in languages other apps avoid.
Our approach:
- Asian and Eastern European language focus
- Native speakers create all content
- Languages prioritized by population and demand, not Western market size
Ling teaches 70+ languages with strength in options major apps ignore: Thai, Tagalog, Serbian, Albanian, Khmer, Lithuanian, Tamil, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Georgian, and dozens more.
“Starting with Thai taught us something crucial,” says Simon, Ling’s CEO. “If we could create native-speaker quality content for a tonal language with a unique script, we could do it for other underserved languages. That’s why we expanded to languages like Serbian, Albanian, Khmer, Bengali, and others—languages with millions of speakers but not a lot of quality learning options.”
This serves real learner demand the market ignores. Our 387,982+ active Thai learners in 2025 alone prove demand exists, mainstream apps just include it because these learners don’t fit Western business models.
Our Malayalam users (36,723) learn Kerala’s language for Gulf migration opportunities. Our Marathi users (34,152) target Maharashtra’s economy centered on Mumbai. Each language represents strategic positioning in markets where competition remains minimal.
How Underrated Languages Compare to Mainstream Options
- Bengali (230M speakers): More speakers than Russian (154M) but 90% fewer learning resources
- Telugu (90M speakers): Comparable to German (95M) but virtually absent from major apps
- Punjabi (125M speakers): More speakers than Japanese (125M) but almost impossible to find high quality sources
Key Statistics Summary
Bengali speakers: 230 million (7th most spoken globally)
Apps ignoring Bengali: Duolingo, Babbel, Rosetta Stone
Vietnamese salary premium: 15-20% in manufacturing roles
Serbian mutual intelligibility: 20+ million speakers across 4 countries
Ling’s most-learned language: Thai (387,982 active users in 2025)
Indonesian learning time: 900 hours (FSI Category III)
Source: Ling app analytics 2025, Ethnologue, Foreign Service Institute
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Learn A Language Without Immersion?
Yes. Ling’s app-based practice with native audio makes conversational proficiency achievable remotely for most underrated languages. Basic-to-intermediate skills develop through consistent Ling sessions. But we always recommend learners to practice with locals too.
Which Underrated Language Is Easiest?
Indonesian: 900 hours, Latin alphabet, no tones, simple grammar. Ling offers comprehensive Indonesian with native speakers despite its 275M population being overlooked by major apps.
Am I Too Old To Start Learning A Language?
No. Adults excel at patterns and vocabulary. With 30-60 daily minutes in Ling, reach functional proficiency in 1-2 years regardless of age.
Will Learning An Underrated Language Boost My Salary?
Language skills plus professional expertise create premiums. Vietnamese in supply chain sees 15-20% increases. The Ling app builds systematic language foundations.
The Real Opportunity In Language Learning
The data reveals a clear pattern: the most valuable language skills aren’t always the most popular ones.
While millions compete for Spanish and French jobs, languages with comparable or larger speaker populations face minimal competition. Bengali speakers are rare despite 230 million people speaking it. Telugu professionals stand out in Hyderabad’s tech sector despite 90 million speakers. Serbian opens four Balkan countries despite just 58,981 learners choosing it on Ling.
This gap exists because profitability drives app development, not linguistic or economic value. Apps ignore Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, and Punjabi—563 million speakers combined—while featuring Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch with a fraction of that population.
For language learners, this creates a strategic advantage: less competition, higher scarcity premiums, and access to markets where bilingual professionals remain critically undersupplied.
The question isn’t whether underrated languages matter. The data already proves they do—from Vietnam’s 15-20% salary premiums to Serbia’s growing tech sector. The question is whether you’re willing to learn a language others overlook.
Ling teaches 70+ languages specifically because we believe speaker populations deserve representation regardless of Western market profitability. Over 387,982 learners chose Thai in 2025. Another 148,713 chose Filipino. They’re not following trends—they’re ahead of them.
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Methodology – How Ling Collected This Data
Ling’s 2025 user analytics represent 60,000+ active learners tracked over 12 months (January 2024 – December 2024). We define “active learners” as users completing at least 3 lessons per week for a minimum of 8 weeks. Data was collected through Ling’s proprietary learning management system and analyzed by our data science team in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
This methodology ensures our language popularity rankings reflect sustained learning commitment, not just app downloads or trial users.
