Dua Hits $4M ARR
Valon Asani announced that Dua has reached $4 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). This milestone reflects the growth of the Albanian-focused dating app, overcoming challenges and expanding globally since its founding in 2019.
April 21, 2026$4M ARR Milestone
Original Announcement
When I see our current revenue, I always remember the beginning and one of my first AMAs on Reddit and overall online comments from the Albanian community:
- "Albanians don't pay for dating apps"
- "Albanians don't use an Albanian dating app"
- "This will never work"
- "Give up, this is cheap"
These were some of the nicer comments :))
But for someone like me: Extra fuel to push forward.
In November 2025, we made a total of $10 Million Gross Revenue (all time).
Within a month we'll cross over $12 Million in gross revenue.
Why I mention gross revenue:
- Cause we pay 15% to Google Play store (less than 1M yearly revenue)
- Cause we pay 30% to Apple App store (I know, it's INSANE!)
- Cause we pay taxes on that gross revenue, depending on country between 10-20%.
So, net revenue is around 64% of the gross revenue.
Still: From "Albanians don't pay for dating apps" to $12'000'000 revenue since we launched our Premium services in summer 2021.
Point of the story: If you believe in something, keep crushing it, keep pushing forward and use the negative comments as fuel.
For the first time we just crossed $4'000'000 revenue/year (ARR).
All this since 05.09.2019 (founding day of dua AG):
- $0- $1M/ARR took us 3.5 years
- From $1M to $2M ARR = 7 months
- From $2M to $3M ARR = 5 months
- From $3M to $4M ARR / Current revenue: 2 years
Between the $3M and $4M we had a bigger crisis, but we survived it.
The DIP you see: We went global (from Albanian dating app, to any community), invested too much to make it, our team grew to 70 people, marketing budget up to $150k/month, we tried with our famous billboard in Berlin and with multiple influencer marketing teams, ... but all in all - it wasn't enough. Not enough money to compete with the really big guys. Our monthly budget at the PEAK, was less than what some of the big guys spend daily.
And so, we hit rock bottom and got heavily challenged and tested, got even into a bad debt situation, it was pretty hard for quite a long time, but we recovered from it, and are now better/stronger positioned than before.
During this period @dua_dating also acquired two other apps: @spotted_com and #IRLY (I really like you).
- "Albanians don't pay for dating apps"
- "Albanians don't use an Albanian dating app"
- "This will never work"
- "Give up, this is cheap"
These were some of the nicer comments :))
But for someone like me: Extra fuel to push forward.
In November 2025, we made a total of $10 Million Gross Revenue (all time).
Within a month we'll cross over $12 Million in gross revenue.
Why I mention gross revenue:
- Cause we pay 15% to Google Play store (less than 1M yearly revenue)
- Cause we pay 30% to Apple App store (I know, it's INSANE!)
- Cause we pay taxes on that gross revenue, depending on country between 10-20%.
So, net revenue is around 64% of the gross revenue.
Still: From "Albanians don't pay for dating apps" to $12'000'000 revenue since we launched our Premium services in summer 2021.
Point of the story: If you believe in something, keep crushing it, keep pushing forward and use the negative comments as fuel.
For the first time we just crossed $4'000'000 revenue/year (ARR).
All this since 05.09.2019 (founding day of dua AG):
- $0- $1M/ARR took us 3.5 years
- From $1M to $2M ARR = 7 months
- From $2M to $3M ARR = 5 months
- From $3M to $4M ARR / Current revenue: 2 years
Between the $3M and $4M we had a bigger crisis, but we survived it.
The DIP you see: We went global (from Albanian dating app, to any community), invested too much to make it, our team grew to 70 people, marketing budget up to $150k/month, we tried with our famous billboard in Berlin and with multiple influencer marketing teams, ... but all in all - it wasn't enough. Not enough money to compete with the really big guys. Our monthly budget at the PEAK, was less than what some of the big guys spend daily.
And so, we hit rock bottom and got heavily challenged and tested, got even into a bad debt situation, it was pretty hard for quite a long time, but we recovered from it, and are now better/stronger positioned than before.
During this period @dua_dating also acquired two other apps: @spotted_com and #IRLY (I really like you).
Founder
Valon Asani
@ValonAsaniDua
Product
Dua
View Product