👉 Background: BeReal is the French photo sharing app that launched in 2020 as a more “authentic” alternative to Instagram and Snapchat. It popped off during the pandemic, and was one of the top-most downloaded apps of 2022.

👉 What happened: Now, BeReal has been sold to French app developer Voodoo for €500 million euros after if struggled to generate a profit and started running out of cash.

👉 What else: As it turns out, in spite of introducing new features like private rooms, BeReal’s growth plateaued in the last year. So now Voodoo's hoping to turn BeReal around by establishing a sustainable business model.

What's the key learning?

💡 In the social media industry, it takes more than hype to compete against the titans.

💡 When BeReal launched, it blew up. But in 2022, it took just six months for the app to drop from 15 million monthly active users to 6 million as the hype of the app fizzled. BeReal didn't stand much of a chance against the addictive nature of platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

💡 And we've seen other social media companies like struggle in the same way:

• Clubhouse, the audio social media app, had almost 10 million installs in February 2021, but took a 66% nosedive by the end of April.
  
• Vine, the OG short-form video platform, was acquired by Twitter in 2012, but shut down 5 years later because it couldn’t monetise.

So if BeReal is going to try establish itself as a long term player - well, it's certainly working against the odds.