Lower than one 12 months after its iOS launch, French startup ten ten has gone viral with a walkie-talkie app that enables teenagers to ship voice messages to their shut mates — even when their telephone is locked.
Whether or not you suppose that’s a recipe for catastrophe or the best factor you’ve heard could rely in your age group, and teenagers clearly heard of that one lengthy earlier than we did; though walkie talkies are clearly not a brand new idea, even in app type. Ten ten is doing the identical, however in 2024.
“We’re ephemeral by design,” ten ten co-founder and CEO, Jule Comar stated in a written interview with TechCrunch. He added that In CB codes, 1010 means “Transmission accomplished, standing by.” In response to Comar, this is only one of “a number of meanings that align with our values and the idea.” It appears to be resonating; the app is free and shortly climbing rankings.
Ten ten’s sudden rise is especially noticeable in France, the place it has been downloaded 1 million occasions. Together with on Android, the place it turned accessible just a few weeks in the past, the app noticed 6 million downloads since its launch, in response to knowledge shared by market intelligence agency Sensor Tower with TechCrunch on Friday.
The idea might additionally obtain tweaks alongside the best way. The present UX suggests a 9-friend cap, however that’s not the case. “Ten ten is for shut mates however there’s no buddy restrict, we’re seeing folks share their PINs on social media so we’re engaged on a greater buddy administration system,” Comar stated.
The PINs Comar is referring to are the IDs that customers can use to seek out one another. The app additionally asks for entry to the consumer’s contacts (however no person will get added with out consumer motion.) There’s inherent virality on this mannequin, however that’s not the one development driver; TikTok “performed an vital position,” Comar stated.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly stored on rising in the course of the weekend: ten ten has been everywhere in the French media these days. Not all the time with a constructive spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, as an example, known as it “worrying.” “I used to be very shocked,” Comar stated. “There’s nothing “harmful” about ten ten!”
It’s not simply articles wanting on the app in a unfavorable gentle; there may be additionally faux information circulating, Comar stated. “There have been some rumors going round that we have been a Chinese language app due to the identify “ten ten” and we bought wrongly accused of “spying” and “stealing knowledge”…”
Ten ten shouldn’t be Chinese language, although. The corporate has been duly registered in France, since 2021, that means it’s also topic to GDPR. Its present phrases and circumstances are formulaic, however point out that the staff is within the strategy of writing higher ones. Extra importantly, the startup’s privateness coverage is adamant about two factors:
- All of your conversations are ephemeral, we will’t take heed to your dialog as we don’t even retailer them!
- We are going to by no means promote your knowledge!!
In addition to that call to not promote knowledge, it’s unclear how ten ten will generate income. “We now have lots of cool concepts on how we might monetize at a later level,” Comar stated. There’s little doubt that their present success will purchase them time — and assist them safe enterprise capital to get to that later level.
Requested if his startup already had or was within the strategy of elevating funding, Comar replied affirmatively. However, he added with a smiley, “we will’t actually disclose how a lot and [from] whom but.”
In response to TechCrunch, French VC Hugo Amsellem indicated that though his agency Instinct isn’t one in every of these backers, he sees ten ten as half of a bigger pattern amongst French startups.
For Amsellem, the frequent thread is that “France is king at standing sport performs.” People are in search of to extend their social standing, and French entrepreneurs are blissful to assist, whether or not that’s on the software program aspect BeReal, Yubo or Zenly, or on the {hardware} aspect with luxurious units.
It stays to be seen how lengthy ten ten can retain its cool issue, however its CEO is conscious that its present place is each privileged and fragile. Comar stated:
It’s exhilarating, it’s a sense that’s arduous to explain however that just a few fortunate ones have felt, it looks like all the things goes so quick and so gradual on the similar time, adrenaline blended with delight, gratitude and duties, you are feeling massive and small on the similar time — You possibly can solely really feel this in client social, as a result of it could hit you if you least anticipate it and there’s no ceiling. However we’ve to maintain our heads on our shoulders, it’s only the start, the toughest is but to return.
Comar and ten ten co-founder and CTO Antoine Baché have been sleeping little or no these days. A smiley-ridden electronic mail auto-reply warns that they’re “having points with our servers resulting from an enormous variety of customers on the similar time,” and “engaged on it day and evening to repair it as soon as and for all.”
Server pains apart, a generational hole is one hurdle that ten ten must navigate well. Greater than privateness, it’s usually the truth that ten ten is utilized by teenagers and in school rooms that’s being mentioned. “If you learn these articles it looks like they’re speaking about some type of new drug going round at school!” Comar stated.
It’s simple to see why lecturers have been the primary adults to note the app. Since ten ten can bypass a lock display to play a message out loud, it may be used for pranks and create small disruptions in school rooms. However having to show telephone hygiene isn’t new, and youngsters are savvy sufficient to determine it out, too.
In a French subreddit for lecturers, a dialogue happened as as to whether members had had any issues with ten ten in school rooms. One participant famous that there had been “no main incidents to date” regardless of the app “getting lots of consideration” at their college. However, that particular person added, “I ask the scholars to place their telephones on airplane mode.” (We haven’t reached out to confirm that this particular person is a instructor, however their profile appears to verify it’s the case.)
As an alternative of beginning a brand new ethical panic, maybe ten ten may very well be a chance for folks to marvel at the truth that a few of our favourite cultural artifacts are making a comeback; whether or not that’s cassettes, Dungeons & Dragons, or now, walkie talkies.
There’s just one small step from out of date to classic, and the success of ‘Stranger Issues‘ possible helped. However app-based walkie talkies would get no precise traction if there was no actual use case round them. Comar thinks there may be, and that’s what impressed him.
“I’ve all the time had a gaggle of shut mates, we discuss on a regular basis on a number of mediums, however I felt like all of them had some type of friction,” he stated. “I needed us to have the ability to talk like if we have been all the time below the identical roof, like roommates: you simply pop of their room if you wish to say one thing, if their door is closed you knock, if it’s open you simply discuss!”
Hopefully for ten ten, dad and mom will see the worth in that as nicely. Who is aware of, possibly they’ll use it to say out loud that dinner is prepared. That’s, if their teen accepts them as a contact.
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