Starting a new social network is almost a crazy bet face to well-established giants like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. However, this is what the French BeReal has been doing since the end of 2019. This was good for them since their application is now panicking on the counters. So, according to Apptopia data provided by Axios, the number of active users has increased by 315% since the beginning of 2022. Similarly, BeReal is #4 in terms of downloads in France, the US, and the UK during the first three months of the year. Only Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest do a better job.
“We don’t want to steal your time or attention”
So comment explain this phenomenon? First, you must explain comment works BeReal. Specifically, after downloading the app, users receive one notification per day asking them to post a selfie within the next two minutes. The idea, of course, was not to spend hours improving the perfect photo, like on Instagram, but to show others how that is rarely son advantage. So, backed by great word of mouth, especially among the younger generation and on some campuses, BeReal beats everyone. We are dealing with a real phenomenon that goes against platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, or Instagram, where everything is often overrated.
Similarly, BeReal will not demand too much time from its users. This limited use creates a kind of daily ritual like playing Wordle. That’s exactly what the app’s founder, Alexis Barreat, explained last July. He quoted Western France, “We don’t want to steal time or attention. Connect, in three minutes, everything. Since then, BeReal has continued to grow and continues to hire staff from its Paris office. We will, of course, have to see if this success is a long-term success or just a fad. In any case, the success of this French app, which resists the tyranny of appearance, clearly deserves special attention.
