Lower than one yr after its iOS launch, French startup ten ten has gone viral with a walkie-talkie app that permits teenagers to ship voice messages to their shut pals — even when their cellphone is locked.
Whether or not you assume that’s a recipe for catastrophe or the best factor you’ve heard could rely in your age group, and youths clearly heard of that one lengthy earlier than we did; though walkie talkies are clearly not a brand new idea, even in app kind. Ten ten is doing the identical, however in 2024.
“We’re ephemeral by design,” ten ten co-founder and CEO, Jule Comar mentioned in a written interview with TechCrunch. He added that In CB codes, 1010 means “Transmission accomplished, standing by.” In keeping with 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 grew to become out there a couple of weeks in the past, the app noticed 6 million downloads since its launch, in accordance with knowledge shared by market intelligence agency Sensor Tower with TechCrunch on Friday.
The idea might additionally obtain tweaks alongside the way in which. The present UX suggests a 9-friend cap, however that’s not the case. “Ten ten is for shut pals however there’s no good friend restrict, we’re seeing individuals share their PINs on social media so we’re engaged on a greater good friend administration system,” Comar mentioned.
The PINs Comar is referring to are the IDs that customers can use to search out one another. The app additionally asks for entry to the person’s contacts (however no one will get added with out person motion.) There’s inherent virality on this mannequin, however that’s not the one development driver; TikTok “performed an necessary function,” Comar mentioned.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly saved on rising throughout the weekend: ten ten has been all around the French media these days. Not all the time with a optimistic spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, as an example, referred to as it “worrying.” “I used to be very shocked,” Comar mentioned. “There’s nothing “harmful” about ten ten!”
It’s not simply articles wanting on the app in a damaging mild; there may be additionally faux information circulating, Comar mentioned. “There have been some rumors going round that we had been a Chinese language app due to the identify “ten ten” and we obtained wrongly accused of “spying” and “stealing knowledge”…”
Ten ten isn’t Chinese language, although. The corporate has been duly registered in France, since 2021, that means it is usually topic to GDPR. Its present phrases and situations are formulaic, however point out that the crew is within the means of writing higher ones. Extra importantly, the startup’s privateness coverage is adamant about two factors:
- All of your conversations are ephemeral, we are able to’t take heed to your dialog as we don’t even retailer them!
- We’ll by no means promote your knowledge!!
Moreover that call to not promote knowledge, it’s unclear how ten ten will generate profits. “We’ve a number of cool concepts on how we might monetize at a later level,” Comar mentioned. There’s little question 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 means of elevating funding, Comar replied affirmatively. However, he added with a smiley, “we are able to’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 considered one 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 facet BeReal, Yubo or Zenly, or on the {hardware} facet with luxurious gadgets.
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 mentioned:
It’s exhilarating, it’s a sense that’s arduous to explain however that a couple of fortunate ones have felt, it looks like every part goes so quick and so gradual on the identical time, adrenaline combined with pleasure, gratitude and tasks, you’re feeling massive and small on the identical time — You’ll be able to solely really feel this in shopper social, as a result of it could hit you once you least count on it and there’s no ceiling. However now we have to maintain our heads on our shoulders, it’s only the start, the toughest is but to come back.
Comar and ten ten co-founder and CTO Antoine Baché have been sleeping little or no these days. A smiley-ridden e-mail auto-reply warns that they’re “having points with our servers as a result of an enormous variety of customers on the identical time,” and “engaged on it day and night time 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 typically the truth that ten ten is utilized by teenagers and in lecture rooms that’s being mentioned. “Whenever you learn these articles it looks like they’re speaking about some type of new drug going round at school!” Comar mentioned.
It’s straightforward to see why lecturers had been the primary adults to note the app. Since ten ten can bypass a lock display screen to play a message out loud, it may be used for pranks and create small disruptions in lecture rooms. However having to show cellphone hygiene isn’t new, and youngsters are savvy sufficient to determine it out, too.
In a French subreddit for lecturers, a dialogue came about as as to if members had had any issues with ten ten in lecture rooms. One participant famous that there had been “no main incidents to date” regardless of the app “getting a number of consideration” at their faculty. However, that individual added, “I ask the scholars to place their telephones on airplane mode.” (We haven’t reached out to confirm that this individual is a trainer, however their profile appears to verify it’s the case.)
As a substitute of beginning a brand new ethical panic, maybe ten ten may very well be a possibility for fogeys 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‘ doubtless 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 bunch of shut pals, we discuss on a regular basis on a number of mediums, however I felt like all of them had some type of friction,” he mentioned. “I needed us to have the ability to talk like if we had been all the time below the identical roof, like roommates: you simply pop of their room once you wish to say one thing, if their door is closed you knock, if it’s open you simply discuss!”
Hopefully for ten ten, mother and father will see the worth in that as nicely. Who is aware of, perhaps they will use it to say out loud that dinner is prepared. That’s, if their teen accepts them as a contact.
