In 2020, French entrepreneurs Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau launched the photo-sharing app BeReal with the goal that people would use it the way social media apps were originally intended: to connect with friends and family without worrying about followers, likes and filters. It was as simple as snapping a picture. Be your true self. your true self. Be real.
This was originally created as a way for Gen Z to stay in touch. “authentically”Since then, it has risen to be the second fastest-growing social network platform in 2022, behind only TikTok.
BeReal has shot from 10,000 daily active users in March 2021 to more than 15 million today — helping to snag the company a $600 millionAccording to the Financial Times, valuation. Though CEO Barreyat, who previously worked in media production at GoPro, keeps a low profile, turning down interviews with the press (including ), that hasn’t stopped the company from permeating pop culture. Recent developments include the acquisition of “SNL” sketch featured a bank robber who botches his own in-progress crime when his BeReal app tells him it’s time to post.
BeReal encourages users to say yes “be real”Every day at an unknown hour “Time to BeReal: 2 min left to capture a BeReal and see what your friends are up to!”Two minutes are allotted to users for taking and posting images from the front-facing as well as back-facing cameras. Any image shared after 120 seconds will be subject to the stigma of being deleted. “late.”BeReal restricts private interactions instead of following. “friends”They allow their friends to see each other’s posts. Unlike other popular social media apps, it’s hard to put a filter on shared images, since BeReal even reveals how many times a user retakes their photo.
The app’s reported 315%Increase in usage in 2022, and a 1,000% rise in downloads (it ranked No. 1 in Apple’s app store in July) haven’t gone unnoticed by TikTok and Instagram: Both recently launched features similar to BeReal’s two-sided look and overall “authenticity” vibe.
Most studios will wait and see if BeReal can be as valuable a marketing tool in Hollywood than its social media counterparts. Spontaneity, however, is a problem for well-planned publicity campaigns. For now, only Paramount has jumped into the fray, using BeReal to promote next year’s “Scream 6”by teasing cast members, locations, plot lines and characters. (In extreme meta irony the BeReal “Scream”TikTok has teasers.
What will happen to other studios? We’ll have to wait more than two minutes to find out.
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