Game publisher Voodoo (known for free-to-play mobile titles stuffed with ads) has bought the social platform BeReal<\/a> (known for a scorching hot 15 minutes of fame in 2022) for \u20ac500 million. Although BeReal has fallen off the radar since its much-hyped peak, Voodoo says the app has grown to 40 million active users.<\/p>\n \u201cBeReal achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, showing there is a universal need to share real, unfiltered experiences with close friends,\u201d Voodoo CEO Alexandre Yazdi wrote in a press release. \u201cWe are very excited to bring our teams together and leverage Voodoo\u2019s know-how and differentiated technologies to scale BeReal into the iconic social network for authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve forgotten, BeReal\u2019s gimmick is that it promotes \u201cspontaneous authenticity\u201d by prompting users to capture dual-camera pictures (a selfie and whatever the rear camera is aimed at) during two-minute windows at random times throughout the day. It won Apple\u2019s iPhone App of the Year award<\/a> in 2022 as younger users (especially) appreciated its less choreographed user content.<\/p>\n The app\u2019s marketing spiel is that the short and sudden posting window forces spontaneous, unmanicured content (unlike, say, Instagram). On the downside, authenticity isn\u2019t always engaging: Some users complained that its content could get downright boring. (Care to peruse an adrenaline-pumping pic of… somebody looking half asleep as they sit at a computer?)<\/p>\n Although BeReal\u2019s buzz has died down significantly since its 2022 heyday (partially thanks to Instagram<\/a> and TikTok<\/a> cloning its gimmick while it was still hot), the company says its user base is growing more than you might expect. Voodoo\u2019s 40 million active users figure is double the 20 million daily active users BeReal claimed<\/a> in April 2023.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that Voodoo\u2019s press release on Tuesday describes BeReal as having 40 million active users, not daily<\/em> active users, suggesting those figures may not be apples to apples. And around the time BeReal claimed 20 million daily active users last year, The New York Times<\/em> published a report<\/a> citing an analytics firm that said the app\u2019s daily use had dropped 61 percent from its peak: from about 15 million users in October 2022 to \u201cless than six million\u201d in March 2023.<\/p>\n No matter whose figures are accurate, BeReal is now in the hands of the French gaming publisher Voodoo. Founded in 2013, the mobile gaming titan\u2019s ultra-casual titles tend to do quite well. By 2022, it claimed<\/a> to have passed six billion total downloads, and it says its apps trail only Google and Meta in mobile app installations.<\/p>\n However, Voodoo\u2019s games are infested with ads, and it isn\u2019t above stealing others\u2019 ideas. For example, Voodoo\u2019s free Hole.io<\/em> is a knockoff of the $5 Donut County<\/em><\/a> from Los Angeles-based indie developer Ben Esposito, Apple\u2019s 2018 iPhone Game of the Year<\/a> and one of Engadget\u2019s favorite games from six years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Voodoo says Aymeric Roff\u00e9, CEO of its social app Wizz, will take over as BeReal\u2019s CEO. The company says BeReal\u2019s founder and previous CEO Alexis Barreyat will \u201cremain involved in BeReal in the short term\u201d before shuffling off to work on new products.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n