BeReal, the purposefully unglamorous one-post-per-day social media platform, has been acquired by Voodoo, a French mobile apps and games publisher, for €500 million.
In a recent statement, Voodoo makes it clear that it believes BeReal has the potential to become a leading app, especially among Gen Z consumers.
At 40 million active users, BeReal has made various attempts over the past year to increase revenue by inviting brands and celebrities to the platform, but has fallen short of gaining the proper funding for future success. The company began publicly searching for a buyer in March.
Voodoo recognized that BeReal had “achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, showing there is a universal need to share real, unfiltered experiences with close friends,” according to a statement by CEO Alexandre Yazdi.
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Yazdi added that combining Voodoo’s team aims to help scale BeReal “into the iconic social network for authenticity.” According to Voodoo, the acquisition will allow BeReal to build and release new features while refocusing on growth “through organic and paid marketing across markets.” The social app is popular in Voodoo’s three key markets: the United States, Japan and France.
BeReal, known to many as the “anti-Instagram app,” officially launched in 2020 and has stayed close to its mission of presenting a more realistic representation of self by asking users to post simultaneous unfiltered glimpses into their daily lives.
To help ensure authenticity, the amount of time a user waits to snap a picture after the initial daily alert appears is included under their timeline photo. However, the platform has introduced several new features since its existence, like groups, mentions, multiple posts per day, pinned posts, and a “friends of friends” feed.
Per the acquisition, BeReal co-founder and CEO Alexis Barreyat will leave the company and be replaced by Aymeric Roffé, the current CEO of Wizz, a global online chat app owned by Voodoo.