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 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 might 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 kind. 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.” Based on 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 just a few weeks in the past, the app noticed 6 million downloads since its launch, in accordance with information 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 pal restrict, we’re seeing individuals share their PINs on social media so we’re engaged on a greater pal administration system,” Comar stated.
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 person will get added with out person motion.) There’s inherent virality on this mannequin, however that’s not the one progress driver; TikTok “performed an necessary position,” Comar stated.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly stored on rising throughout 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 illustration, known as it “worrying.” “I used to be very shocked,” Comar stated. “There’s nothing “harmful” about ten ten!”
It’s not simply articles trying on the app in a destructive mild; there’s additionally pretend information circulating, Comar stated. “There have been some rumors going round that we have been a Chinese language app due to the title “ten ten” and we acquired wrongly accused of “spying” and “stealing information”…”
Ten ten is just not Chinese language, although. The corporate has been duly registered in France, since 2021, which means additionally it is topic to GDPR. Its present phrases and circumstances are formulaic, however point out that the workforce 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 are able to’t hearken to your dialog as we don’t even retailer them!
- We are going to by no means promote your information!!
In addition to that call to not promote information, it’s unclear how ten ten will earn cash. “We have now a variety 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 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 recreation performs.” People are searching for 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 laborious to explain however that just a few fortunate ones have felt, it looks like the whole lot goes so quick and so gradual on the similar time, adrenaline blended with satisfaction, gratitude and duties, you’re feeling massive and small on the similar time — You’ll be able to solely really feel this in client social, as a result of it may well hit you if you least anticipate it and there’s no ceiling. However we now have to maintain our heads on our shoulders, it’s just 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 e mail auto-reply warns that they’re “having points with our servers attributable to 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 should navigate well. Greater than privateness, it’s usually the truth that ten ten is utilized by teenagers and in lecture rooms that’s being mentioned. “If you learn these articles it looks like they’re speaking about some sort 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 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 befell as as to whether 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 variety 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 could possibly be a chance 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‘ seemingly helped. However app-based walkie talkies would get no precise traction if there was no actual use case round them. Comar thinks there’s, 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 sort of friction,” he stated. “I needed us to have the ability to talk like if we have been all the time underneath the identical roof, like roommates: you simply pop of their room if you need 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 effectively. Who is aware of, possibly they will use it to say out loud that dinner is prepared. That’s, if their teen accepts them as a contact.
