Last year, it raised US$30 million ($43.6 million) from venture capital investors, the kind of backers who will be patient but also eventually demand a return. Yet even assuming BeReal can succeed on this front and build a loyal and substantial user base, there are questions about its ability to leverage this into a viable business. And then TikTok emerged, seemingly from nowhere, to dent its growth and steal away the attention of some of its most important users - people under the age of 24. Not that long ago, Facebook’s dominance seemed unassailable. But it remains to be seen whether it has a chance to become a true force on the internet or if its current popularity is merely a flash in the pan. Industry sites report it counting 8 million users a day.

One analysis firm, Apptopia, has charts of its users curving upwards like a hockey stick. It just doesn’t exist on Facebook any more, let alone Instagram.īeReal, on the other hand, is experiencing a moment. The context of these posts has been lost to time, as has that kind of candour. “It’s really true, I love drama so much,” one friend posted on Facebook in 2010. The atmosphere around BeReal is a little like Facebook a decade ago, where people looked at the default “what’s on your mind?” prompt to post on their wall and, because social media was new and we were wonderfully naive, simply answered.

The resulting photos of people at work, or in university lectures or in their PJs have been described, in one of the buzzwords of the moment, as authentic, unlike the often carefully curated images on the likes of Instagram. BeReal encourages people to post daily at the same time, which is randomly determined, using their phone’s front and rear cameras.

Microsoft sudoku not saving