Just over a year ago, it appeared that the popular new social app BeReal was on the upswing, with reportedly 20 million users downloading it daily to take their candid pictures. However, despite the launch of new features like messaging, the ability to submit more photographs, and a “Friends of Friends” discovery feed, BeReal’s traction has decreased during the intervening months, according to new research from Similarweb.
According to data from the research firm Similarweb, BeReal has experienced a decline in subscribers in the United States. The number of monthly active iOS and Android users has decreased from 3.7 million in November 2022 to slightly above 3 million in August of this year. When asked for comment, BeReal said the estimate was off, but it would not divulge any segmented market figures.
Additionally, Similarweb informed TechCrunch that BeReal now only has 16.06 million monthly active users worldwide. That would be a decrease from last year’s reported 20 million users, which corresponds to Similarweb’s projections from January 2022. Except for the fact that BeReal usage has continued to increase in its native market of France, where the app is close to 615,000 monthly active users in August on Android, up from around 500,000 last year, Similarweb reported, this fall would have been even more pronounced.
BeReal also disputed these statistics, claiming that there are more than 25 million active users of its software worldwide. It also emphasized that its internal data are more reliable and that third-party reports are merely estimations.
Naturally, it’s typical for new social apps to have a spike in activity and usage before things calm down, as some early adopters abandon the platform and only devoted users are kept. However, BeReal has reportedly had retention issues despite introducing new features and becoming more well-known due to more prominent social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snap copying its front-and-back photo model.
Former GoPro employees Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau built the app, which had its market debut in December 2019 with a user interface that mirrored an earlier social app called Frontback that similarly made use of both of the smartphone’s cameras to shoot pictures simultaneously. BeReal’s college ambassador program and features like WidgetMoji and RealMoji, or the ability to react with stickers in iMessage discussions, helped the company grow somewhat through word-of-mouth. But rather than purely organic adoption, its quick increase in 2022 was at a level that generally required marketing or ad investment.
In the end, BeReal had the cash on hand. Earlier in 2022, the startup closed a $60 million Series B financing, valuing the business at just about $587 million.
BeReal’s endurance is unfortunately hampered by the fact that images of people’s activities at odd times of day, whenever BeReal sends out a push notification, are ultimately not necessarily as engaging as the carefully chosen photos of memorable events posted by users on other photo-sharing websites, like Instagram. Some BeReal users realized this and started staging their BeReals or postponing them until they engaged in something noteworthy, like going out with friends.
In addition to competition from the major social media platforms, BeReal is also dealing with an explosion of new social apps vying for users’ attention as several rivals have emerged to challenge Twitter, now known as X.
With roughly 7.3 million users, Instagram’s new app Threads has more than twice as many users as BeReal in the United States, according to Similarweb. That’s despite Threads experiencing a sharp decline in usage quickly after launch. According to market intelligence company data.ai, Threads reached 150 million downloads in its first week in early July of the third quarter, 5.5 times quicker than any other app. It even overtook TikTok as the #1 app in terms of downloads for the quarter, moving up to take its place.
Additionally, there is a brand-new app called BeFake, where users can publish generative AI photographs daily. $3 million has been invested in the app. However, BeReal cannot take advantage of consumer demand for productive AI apps because doing so would contradict the company’s core message that social media is phoney and that its app is all about authenticity.
According to Similarweb, the Instagram flagship app continues to have more than 48 times as many users in the United States as BeReal.
However, according to the research, BeReal is outperforming Twitter/X competitor Bluesky, which has roughly four times as many monthly active users. Though not a fair comparison, Bluesky is in private beta, and users must be invited to join.
Even still, the increase from 20 million to 25 million daily active users in a little over a year is not significant, even if BeReal’s internal measures are reliable. BeReal may need to consider ways to get more people to use the app, which would require testing and developing new features more quickly.
