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 mates — even when their cellphone is locked.
Whether or not you suppose that’s a recipe for catastrophe or the good 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 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 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 obtainable 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 mates however there’s no good friend restrict, we’re seeing individuals 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 search 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 development driver; TikTok “performed an vital position,” Comar mentioned.
Ten ten’s obtain numbers have undoubtedly stored on rising throughout the weekend: ten ten has been all around the French media currently. Not all the time with a constructive spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, as an example, known as it “worrying.” “I used to be very shocked,” Comar mentioned. “There’s nothing “harmful” about ten ten!”
It’s not simply articles wanting on the app in a detrimental 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 obtained wrongly accused of “spying” and “stealing information”…”
Ten ten isn’t Chinese language, although. The corporate has been duly registered in France, since 2021, that means it is usually topic to GDPR. Its present phrases and situations are formulaic, however point out that the group 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 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 money. “We now have a whole lot 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 means 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 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 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 arduous to explain however that a couple of fortunate ones have felt, it looks like all the pieces goes so quick and so sluggish on the identical time, adrenaline blended with pleasure, gratitude and tasks, you are feeling huge and small on the identical time — You may solely really feel this in client social, as a result of it might hit you if you least count on 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 return.
Comar and ten ten co-founder and CTO Antoine Baché have been sleeping little or no currently. A smiley-ridden electronic 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 must 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 looks like they’re speaking about some sort of new drug going round in class!” 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 happened 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 thus far” regardless of the app “getting a whole lot 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 trainer, 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 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‘ probably 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 gaggle of shut mates, 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 below 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, dad and mom will see the worth in that as effectively. Who is aware of, possibly they’ll use it to say out loud that dinner is prepared. That’s, if their teen accepts them as a contact.