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 buddies — even when their telephone is locked.
Whether or not you suppose that’s a recipe for catastrophe or the good 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 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 accordance 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 instances. Together with on Android, the place it grew to become 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 may 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 buddies however there’s no good friend restrict, we’re seeing folks 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 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 vital function,” Comar mentioned.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly stored on rising through the weekend: ten ten has been everywhere in the French media these days. Not all the time with a optimistic spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, as an illustration, referred to 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 detrimental gentle; there may be additionally pretend information circulating, Comar mentioned. “There have been some rumors going round that we have been a Chinese language app due to the identify “ten ten” and we received wrongly accused of “spying” and “stealing information”…”
Ten ten just isn’t 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 circumstances are formulaic, however point out that the staff 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 information!!
Moreover that call to not promote information, it’s unclear how ten ten will make cash. “We now have loads of cool concepts on how we may 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 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 development amongst French startups.
For Amsellem, the widespread thread is that “France is king at standing recreation performs.” People are looking 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 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 seems like the whole lot goes so quick and so sluggish on the identical time, adrenaline blended with satisfaction, 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 could actually hit you whenever you least anticipate it and there’s no ceiling. However we’ve got 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 electronic mail auto-reply warns that they’re “having points with our servers as a consequence 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 neatly. Greater than privateness, it’s typically the truth that ten ten is utilized by teenagers and in school rooms that’s being mentioned. “Whenever you learn these articles it seems like they’re speaking about some form of new drug going round in class!” Comar mentioned.
It’s simple to see why lecturers 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 telephone hygiene isn’t new, and children are savvy sufficient to determine it out, too.
In a French subreddit for lecturers, a dialogue occurred as as to if 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 loads 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 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 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‘ 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 gaggle of shut buddies, we speak on a regular basis on a number of mediums, however I felt like all of them had some form of friction,” he mentioned. “I wished us to have the ability to talk like if we have been all the time below the identical roof, like roommates: you simply pop of their room whenever you need to say one thing, if their door is closed you knock, if it’s open you simply speak!”
Hopefully for ten ten, mother and father will see the worth in that as properly. 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.
