The BeReal app was launched in December of last year with the idea of asking users to post an edited photo once per day after receiving a push notification. The user has up to 2 minutes to share what they are up to and can see the photos their friends also posted.
The app is simple to use, capturing a selfie and front-facing photo simultaneously, an experience that recalls our fond memories of the long- lost photo app Frontback.
The company says that this experience gives users a chance to show off.
The concept is not new. A similar idea involving push notifications emerged a few years ago as more and more apps tried to snatch users away from the photo sharing service.
The image is called BeReal.
Minutiae helped pioneer the concept of alerts that instruct users to snap whatever it is they are doing now. Martin Adolfsson, co-founder of Minutiae, lamented to the website that BeReal had borrowed a lot from his idea.
Inventions aren't patents. Over the years, we've seen many similar social experiences offered by apps and products, but only one becomes the breakthrough success for its time. Look at the other websites that have been compared to TikTok.
While Minutiae would allow users to browse strangers, BeReal is more focused on groups of real-life friends.
There is a demand for new photo-sharing apps among younger users who are fed up with the constant changes of the existing ones. Other apps, like Minutiae and BeReal, have tried to lure users away from the photo-sharing app, with varying degrees of success.
Poparazzi, an app that turned the tagging feature on the photo-sharing service into its entire premise, was promoted to the top of the App Store using a series of growth hacks. Its popularity has waned and it is now in the photo and video category on the U.S. App Store.
Dispo delayed the release of your digital snaps to give itself a nostalgic feel, but it was aimed at a generation that has never known what it was like to wait for prints. It didn't become the next new social network and is now on the app store's photo and video section.
The image is called Apptopia.
BeReal has been around for a while. Apptopia said earlier this month that 70% of its lifetime downloads occurred in 2022, and that its monthly active users had grown by 315%. The updated figures were offered by the firm. 74.5% of BeReal's lifetime installs have been seen so far this year. France and the U.S. have a 20.5% and 19.7% share of installs, respectively.
The firm attributes the growth to a combination of word-of-mouth, BeReal's college ambassador program and newer features like WidgetMoji and RealMoji. This level of rapid growth typically means marketing or ad spend, not just organic adoption, which would be a slower rise and less sharp of a jump.
The image is called Apptopia.
The funds would be held by BeReal. The app raised $30 million in a Series A last year. It seems like it has put some of the money to use.
At least some of BeReal's growth had been manufactured to make it look like it was a hit. The student paper at Brown University reported that BeReal was paying college students $50 for an app download and $30 for a referral. They said the students would get the money via a payment method. The student paper at Rice University said that other student ambassadors organized events and gave out perks to recruit new users.
The ambassador program runs from January to June of 2022. BeReal declined to talk to us, saying they are not ready for medias.
There is nothing wrong with paid user acquisition. Some paid users become loyal. That is the goal!
The daily active users of BeReal have reached over 2 million as of the time of writing.
It has a 4.5 rating on the App Store and a 4.8 rating on the website. It is the fourth Overall app in the U.S. App Store.
It's frustrating to see apps that are engaged in buying installs and five-star reviews get written up as Gen Z's new favorite toy, in articles describing the app's growth as organic. There may be some word-of-mouth interest here, but that interest has been combined with paid app installs.
In the early days of the App Store, there were more direct channels for cash-to-downloads, until Apple cracked down on companies. More behind-the-scenes paid user acquisition efforts followed. In addition to traditional channels, we see things like online ads/social ads, billboards, TV, etc. College ambassadors are paid to hype an app to a target demographic.
If the hype puts the app in front of users who end up liking it, it may work.
BeReal has a good amount of user acquisition fuel. It could retain users over time since it involves turning on push notifications. It has a long way to go to prove that it can become a part of users, something that we won't know until the paid acquisition efforts slow and the app is left to fend for itself in the competitive landscape.
We love BeReal's download URL, it's bere.al/downloadthedamnthing.
Okay, why not?
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