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 telephone 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 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.” 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 instances. Together with on Android, the place it turned 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 best way. 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 mentioned.
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 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 development driver; TikTok “performed an vital function,” Comar mentioned.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly saved on rising throughout the weekend: ten ten has been everywhere in the French media currently. Not at all times with a constructive spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, for 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 trying on the app in a detrimental mild; there’s additionally pretend 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 bought wrongly accused of “spying” and “stealing knowledge”…”
Ten ten shouldn’t be Chinese language, although. The corporate has been duly registered in France, since 2021, which means it is usually topic to GDPR. Its present phrases and situations are formulaic, however point out that the group 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’ll by no means promote your knowledge!!
In addition to that call to not promote knowledge, it’s unclear how ten ten will earn cash. “We’ve a number 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 one in all these backers, he sees ten ten as half of a bigger development 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 comfortable 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 onerous to explain however that a couple of fortunate ones have felt, it appears like the whole lot goes so quick and so gradual on the similar time, adrenaline combined with satisfaction, gratitude and duties, you are feeling huge and small on the similar time — You’ll be able to solely really feel this in shopper social, as a result of it might probably 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 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 currently. 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 similar 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 usually the truth that ten ten is utilized by teenagers and in school rooms that’s being mentioned. “While you learn these articles it appears like they’re speaking about some type of new drug going round at school!” Comar mentioned.
It’s straightforward to see why academics had 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 school rooms. However having to show telephone hygiene isn’t new, and children are savvy sufficient to determine it out, too.
In a French subreddit for academics, a dialogue occurred 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 up to now” regardless of the app “getting a number of consideration” at their faculty. 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 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‘ 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 at all times had a gaggle 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 wished us to have the ability to talk like if we had been at all times underneath the identical roof, like roommates: you simply pop of their room once 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 properly. 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.
