Lower than one 12 months 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 buddies — even when their cellphone is locked.
Whether or not you suppose 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 type. 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 rapidly 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 number of weeks in the past, the app noticed 6 million downloads since its launch, based on 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 buddies however there’s no buddy restrict, we’re seeing individuals share their PINs on social media so we’re engaged on a greater buddy 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 progress driver; TikTok “performed an vital position,” Comar mentioned.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly saved on rising through the weekend: ten ten has been everywhere in the French media recently. Not all the time with a optimistic spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, as an illustration, known as it “worrying.” “I used to be very stunned,” Comar mentioned. “There’s nothing “harmful” about ten ten!”
It’s not simply articles trying on the app in a destructive gentle; there’s additionally pretend information circulating, Comar mentioned. “There have been some rumors going round that we have been a Chinese language app due to the title “ten ten” and we received 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, that means additionally it is topic to GDPR. Its present phrases and situations are formulaic, however point out that the crew 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 take heed to your dialog as we don’t even retailer them!
- We’ll by no means promote your information!!
Apart from that call to not promote information, it’s unclear how ten ten will earn a living. “We now have quite a lot of cool concepts on how we might monetize at a later level,” Comar mentioned. 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 in search of to extend their social standing, and French entrepreneurs are pleased 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 laborious to explain however that a number of fortunate ones have felt, it seems like the whole lot goes so quick and so gradual on the identical time, adrenaline combined with delight, gratitude and obligations, you are feeling huge and small on the identical time — You possibly can solely really feel this in shopper social, as a result of it will probably hit you if you least anticipate it and there’s no ceiling. However now we have to maintain our heads on our shoulders, it’s just 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 attributable to 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 neatly. Greater than privateness, it’s typically the truth that ten ten is utilized by teenagers and in school rooms that’s being mentioned. “While you learn these articles it seems like they’re speaking about some sort of new drug going round at school!” Comar mentioned.
It’s straightforward to see why academics have 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 school 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 academics, a dialogue befell 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 quite a lot 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 substantiate it’s the case.)
As an alternative of beginning a brand new ethical panic, maybe ten ten might 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‘ 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 all the time had a bunch of shut buddies, we discuss on a regular basis on a number of mediums, however I felt like all of them had some sort of friction,” he mentioned. “I wished 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 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 properly. 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.
