Lower than one yr 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 youths 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 a couple of 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 folks 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 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 progress driver; TikTok “performed an essential function,” Comar stated.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly stored on rising through the weekend: ten ten has been all around the French media recently. Not at all times with a constructive spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, for example, known as it “worrying.” “I used to be very stunned,” Comar stated. “There’s nothing “harmful” about ten ten!”
It’s not simply articles wanting on the app in a damaging gentle; there’s additionally faux information circulating, Comar stated. “There have been some rumors going round that we had been a Chinese language app due to the title “ten ten” and we bought wrongly accused of “spying” and “stealing information”…”
Ten ten will not be Chinese language, although. The corporate has been duly registered in France, since 2021, which means it’s also topic to GDPR. Its present phrases and situations are formulaic, however point out that the staff 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 will’t take heed to your dialog as we don’t even retailer them!
- We are going to by no means promote your information!!
Apart from that call to not promote information, it’s unclear how ten ten will make cash. “We have now 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 means 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 among these backers, he sees ten ten as half of a bigger development amongst French startups.
For Amsellem, the widespread thread is that “France is king at standing sport performs.” People are in search of to extend their social standing, and French entrepreneurs are pleased to assist, whether or not that’s on the software program aspect BeReal, Yubo or Zenly, or on the {hardware} aspect 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 stated:
It’s exhilarating, it’s a sense that’s arduous to explain however that a couple of fortunate ones have felt, it seems like all the pieces goes so quick and so gradual on the identical time, adrenaline blended with delight, gratitude and tasks, you’re feeling large and small on the identical time — You’ll be able to solely really feel this in shopper social, as a result of it might probably hit you whenever 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 come back.
Comar and ten ten co-founder and CTO Antoine Baché have been sleeping little or no recently. A smiley-ridden e mail auto-reply warns that they’re “having points with our servers on account 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 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. “Once you learn these articles it seems like they’re speaking about some sort of new drug going round at school!” Comar stated.
It’s simple to see why academics 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 children are savvy sufficient to determine it out, too.
In a French subreddit for academics, 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 lots of consideration” at their college. 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 substantiate it’s the case.)
As an alternative of beginning a brand new ethical panic, maybe ten ten could possibly be a possibility 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’s, and that’s what impressed him.
“I’ve at all times 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 had been at all times beneath the identical roof, like roommates: you simply pop of their room whenever 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 effectively. Who is aware of, perhaps they’ll use it to say out loud that dinner is prepared. That’s, if their teen accepts them as a contact.
