The SoftBank-backed social app is announcing its first acquisition. The company is buying AaBeZe Labs and its portfolio of intellectual property with the goal of making the social networking app more ethically designed.
The AeBeZe team, which includes the former Global Chief Curator of eBay, and the former Medium Product Lead Brad Artizinega, will join the team at IRL.
It combines social calendaring, group messaging, and events for people under the age of 25 who aren't active on Facebook. The company shifted its focus to virtual events during the Pandemic. Today, it offers both, and has also grown to become a more full-fledged social networking app thanks to more recent introductions of features like group chat, user profiles, group calendars, and cross-platform support.
Before the acquisition, the company had plotted a course of monetization that wouldn't include advertising, which it sees as problematic to build a healthier social app. The time spent in their apps should be increased in order for companies to make money. It can make money by connecting users to their interests, like a paid subscription to a community or the purchase of event tickets, where it can take a cut of the revenue generated by that sale.
It now sees the potential in using AaBeZe's technology to make even smarter recommendations around the sorts of events and communities its users are interested in, while also being more transparent with users about why those recommendations are being made. It would be different from today's social networks, where it's not always clear why users are seeing the content that appears in their feeds.
AaBeZe Labs/IRL is the image credit.
AaBeZe Labs had developed a portfolio of solutions that were aimed at consumers, military personnel, and enterprise partners. Moodrise is a consumer-facing app, Daybreak is a mobile tool for the U.S. Air Force, and MoodTube is a tool for analyzing videos on the internet. Three of the patents have been granted and 13 of them are in various stages of approval. It has a trademark, "Certified Digital Nutrition."
It learned how being aware of digital nutrition impacted our brain psychology. This knowledge could be used to address and even prevent problematic internet use and other riskier behavior.
AaBeZe Labs/IRL is the image credit.
Modern social networks were built to exploit the psychology of addictiveness, for example, a pull-to-refresh gesture or that delivers fresh content also delivers an addictive dose of dopamine. You may recall that the documentary "The Social Dilemma" detailed many of the ways big tech had designed products to manipulate their users.
AaBeZee's Daybreak is a mobile calendar where users track their moods over time. They could choose daily sessions designed to elevate their mode by watching, listening, or tapping through specific amounts of content.
AaBeZe Labs created Daybreak.
We are focusing on learning from our predecessors and bringing intimacy to the internet. Abraham Shafi, founder and CEO of the IRL, says that social media uses these tactics to build habits and patterns around things that are not healthy. We are interested in not participating in that, but doing the opposite, which is helping you build healthy habits, helping you build meaningful habits not just with yourself, but with your friends.
One day, users could launch the app and then be matched to content based on how they are feeling that day, if Daybeak's technology is integrated into the app. Daybreak's users were asked to report their moods after they launched the app.
The way that we are doing it is by using direct input. There is a clear understanding between the user and the content that they are receiving.
The first integrations of AaBeZe's technology will be rolled out in the first half of next year.
AaBeZe Labs was just over two years old when it was acquired and had raised over a million dollars from investors.
