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Less than one year after its iOS launch , French startupten tenhas move viral with a walkie - talking picture app that allow teens to send voice messages to their near supporter — even when their phone is locked .
Whether you consider that ’s a formula for cataclysm or the coolest affair you ’ve heard may depend on your age radical , and teens clearly get word of that one long before we did ; although walkie - talkie are clear not a new conception , evenin app form . Ten ten is doing the same , but in 2024 .
“ We ’re fugacious by design , ” ten ten carbon monoxide - founder and CEO , Jule Comar enounce in a spell interview with TechCrunch . He sum up that in CB codes , 1010 means “ Transmission completed , standing by . ” consort to Comar , this is just one of “ multiple meaning that align with our values and the concept . ” It seems to be vibrate ; the app is free and quickly climb rankings .
Ten ten ’s sudden advance is particularly detectable in France , where it has been download 1 million time . include on Android , where it became available a few week ago , the app saw 6 million downloads since its launch , accord to data shared by market intelligence firmSensor Towerwith TechCrunch on Friday .
The conception could also meet tweaks along the way . The current UX suggests a nine - protagonist cap , but that ’s not the casing . “ Ten ten is for close friends but there ’s no champion terminal point ; we ’re seeing people deal their PINs on social medium so we ’re make for on a better champion direction organisation , ” Comar read .
The PINs that Comar is referring to are the IDs that users can expend to find each other . The app also inquire for access to the drug user ’s impinging ( but nobody gets added without drug user action . ) There ’s implicit in virality in this exemplar , but that ’s not the only growth driver;TikTok“played an important office , ” Comar said .
Ten ten ’s download numbers have undoubtedly kept on rising during the weekend : The startup has been all over the Gallic medium lately . Not always with a positive spin ; French newspaper Le Figaro , for instance , call it “ care . ” “ I was very surprised , ” Comar said . “ There ’s nothing “ life-threatening ” about ten ten ! ”
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It ’s not just article looking at the app in a negative light ; there is also fake news circulating , Comar say . “ There were some rumors going around that we were a Formosan app because of the name “ ten ten ” and we got wrongly criminate of “ spy ” and “ steal data … ”
Ten ten is not Chinese , though . The troupe has beenduly registeredin France , since 2021 , meaning it is also subject to the GDPR . Its currentterms and conditionsare formulaic , but remark that the team is in the process of writing better ones . More importantly , the startup’sprivacy policyis adamant about two points :
Besides that decision not to betray information , it is unclear how ten ten will make money . “ We have a caboodle of nerveless ideas on how we could monetize at a late point , ” Comar said . There ’s no doubt that their current success will corrupt them prison term — and avail them secure speculation Das Kapital to get to that late degree .
ask if his startup already had or was in the process of raise support , Comar reply affirmatively . But , he added with a smiley , “ we ca n’t really bring out how much and [ from ] whom yet . ”
In reception to TechCrunch , French VC Hugo Amsellem indicated that although his firm Intuition is n’t one of these backers , he come across ten ten as part of a larger trend among Gallic startups .
For Amsellem , the common thread is that “ France is king at status plot plays . ” Individuals are seeking to increase their social status , and Gallic entrepreneurs are glad to serve , whether that ’s on the software package sideBeReal , Yubo or Zenly , or on the ironware side with sumptuousness equipment .
It remains to be view how long ten ten can continue its cool cistron , but its CEO is aware that its current perspective is both privileged and slight . Comar say :
It ’s exhilarating , it ’s a spirit that is hard to describe but that a few prosperous ones have feel , it feel like everything is pass so tight and so slow at the same time , adrenaline mixed with superbia , gratitude and obligation , you find big and humble at the same meter — you’re able to only feel this in consumer societal , because it can come to you when you least anticipate it and there ’s no ceiling . But we have to keep our heads on our shoulder , it ’s just the beginning , the hardest is yet to follow .
Comar and ten ten co - founding father and CTO Antoine Baché have been catch some Z’s very little lately . A smiley - ridden email machine - reply warns that they are “ having issues with our servers due to a huge number of user at the same time ” and “ working on it day and dark to secure it once and for all . ”
waiter striving away , a generational gap is one hurdle that ten ten will have to navigate smartly . More than privacy , it is often the fact that ten ten is used by teens and in classrooms that ’s being discussed . “ When you learn these articles it feel like they ’re talking about some kind of new drug go bad around in school ! ” Comar read .
It ’s easy to see why teacher were the first adult to notice the app . Since ten ten can short-circuit a lock sieve to play a content out loud , it can be used for caper and make diminished disruptions in classrooms . But having to learn telephone set hygiene is n’t new , and kid are savvy enough to figure it out , too .
In a French subreddit for teacher , adiscussiontook place as to whether member had had any problems with ten ten in classrooms . One participant mark that there had been “ no major incidents so far ” despite the app “ getting a circle of tending ” at their school . But , that individual added , “ I call for the students to put their headphone on aeroplane mode . ” ( We have n’t reached out to swear that this individual is a teacher , but their visibility seems to confirm it ’s the case . )
Instead of start a new moral terror , perhaps ten ten could be an chance for parent to marvel at the fact that some of our favorite cultural artifacts are making a riposte , whether that ’s cassettes , Dungeons & Dragons , or now walkie - talkies .
There ’s only one little step from obsolete to vintage , and the success of“Stranger Things”likely helped . But app - based walkie - talkie would get no actual adhesive friction if there was no real enjoyment case around them . Comar thinks there is , and that ’s what revolutionise him .
“ I ’ve always had a grouping of tight acquaintance , we babble everyday on multiple medium , but I feel like they all had some variety of friction , ” he said . “ I want us to be able-bodied to intercommunicate like if we were always under the same roof , like roommates : You just pop up in their room when you want to say something , if their door is closed you knock , if it ’s overt you just tattle ! ”
Hopefully for ten ten , parents will see the economic value in that as well . Who knows , mayhap they can use it to say out loud that dinner party is quick . That is , if their teen accepts them as a contact .
