Getting real about BeReal

OK, let’s be real. There is something to the app BeReal. The daily sensation of capturing your normal, daily moments led to a nice spike in growth – peaking in September 2022 at 14 million downloads of the app that month.

A New York Times article, in which Sensor Tower is quoted, ponders: maybe the interest in being real has started to dwindle?

Is this the end of authenticity?

The BeReal app has had approximately 90 million downloads since launching. But, after peaking last year, monthly downloads for the app has steadily declined.

This could be a signal of mobile app churn, although the number of users on the platform remains fairly strong at about 50 million monthly active users, according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence insights.

Callie Holtermann of the NYT raises an interesting question -- does the app risk losing relevance to competitors by asking people to remain authentic?

Authentic – on social media? 

What⁉️ Shudder the thought! 🙀

Well, if you’ve witnessed a barrage of mobile phone addicts capturing their best life via their iPhone "IRL", you may have the answer: Instagram. (IRL = In Real Life.. c'mon folks.)

The BeReal party crashers

Instagram is massive. The platform has amassed 4.4 billion downloads and continues to drive interest among its 1.4 billion monthly active users.

TikTok is in a close race, not far behind – with 4.3 billion downloads since launching, and keeps 1.1 billion monthly active users coming back for more.

Despite the size of these two behemoths, as the NYT asserts, the platforms both introduced features similar to BeReal last year. Instagram with "dual camera" and TikTok "Now".

After all, imitation is the best form of flattery, right? Or, maybe it's just a couple of huge players picking on the little guy?

While it may seem like it could be a fair fight, if we stack the impressive growth in popularity for BeReal against the market leaders in this category, the story looks a bit different.

What do you think:

Does authenticity for BeReal stand a chance against amazing photos at the beach or the latest dance challenge?

Should BeReal remain ad free to encourage usage or go the way of an ad supported model?

Is it innovation or finding a better way to serve customer expectations when market leaders capture the nuance or features introduced by an emerging brand?

When considering your answers, please, Be authentic....

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