Will BeReal repeat the fate of Clubhouse?

One of the biggest surprises this year was the arrival of BeReal, a simple social app (for lack of a better word) where friends share one candid photo once a day.

The concept was really simple and there was no monetization strategy.

But there were downloads. Lots of downloads!

BeReal was launched back in 2020. It was downloaded until 2022, but not so much. AppFigures estimates that BeReal was downloaded about 1,000 times a week in January.

The app became popular at the end of March and the number of downloads began to grow rapidly. BeReal peaked in October with 3.6 million weekly installs. That’s a 359.900% increase if you’re into big numbers.

At the same time, BeReal raised $60 million in funding.

The number of downloads began to decline almost immediately after the teens switched to a new sensation – Gas , which competes with the photo network not in features, but rather in target audience.

By mid-December, BeReal’s weekly downloads had fallen over 50% to 1.4 million.

But where is BeReal going? Using (recent) history as an example, the answer is more or less obvious…

Clubhouse followed much the same path just a year earlier. Both apps became popular, raised tons of money with no focus on monetization, and fell out of favor almost immediately as all of them left.

But on a positive note, Clubhouse introduced collective podcasting to the world. There might be a better name for it, but that’s how it can be explained. This feature has appeared on most social platforms. BeReal is following the same path. Shooting on command is now a feature of most competing apps , and even a separate app from TikTok .

One can only hope that BeReal does not disappear and outgrow its only feature by developing a monetization strategy. It’s definitely possible because Gas has already done it.