Challenges Facing Be Real: Authentic Social Media Struggles

Be Real, a new social media app, aims for authenticity but faces challenges due to inconvenience, lack of retention, monetization, and potential imitation.

### The Rise and Fall of Be Real: 5 Reasons for its Inevitable Demise
* 🕒 Be Real's requirement to post a photo at a **random time daily** is inconvenient, disrupting users' schedules and potentially hindering **authentic interactions**.
* 📱 The app's lack of features and engaging content results in low retention times, with users spending only about **5 minutes daily** compared to Instagram's **30 minutes** and TikTok's **95 minutes**.
* 💰 Be Real's non-monetizable model, without any advertising revenue, poses a **significant financial challenge**, as most social media companies rely heavily on ads for income.
* 🔄 The app's unique concept is easily replicable, as demonstrated by TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram already implementing similar features, making it **vulnerable to being copied**.
* 🔄 "While the concept of Be Real is unique, it's very easy to copy, and it **already has been**."
* 🚀 To potentially survive, Be Real could explore options such as **paid subscriptions**, **in-app purchases**, or **non-intrusive ad placements**, but it faces a tough road ahead in a **competitive social media landscape**.

ladies and gentlemen, this is be real. It's a new app aimed at being an honest social media, and it has exploded in popularity this year. It's been downloaded over 67 million times. It has 20 million daily active users. However, despite its popularity, it won't be around for much longer. But why? Well, we're going to cover the five main reasons why I think be real will fail, beginning with the small reasons and ending with the most detrimental roadblocks for the app. However, it's important to say that the idea and simplicity behind be real is impressive and like nothing we have ever seen before on any social media. While apps like Instagram and TikTok all try to battle for your attention, be real does the exact opposite. The premise is simple: every user simultaneously gets a notification from the app once a day. When you get the alert, you have two minutes to take a photo of whatever you're doing at that specific moment. Be real will take a picture from your front and back camera and then post it to your

closest friends. You then can see what all your friends are up to for a minute or so, then hop off the app. So essentially, B-Real forces you to be authentic instead of seeing over the curated content your feed is full of ordinary activities like lying in bed, being in the office, and watching TV. It's a boring app, but it's supposed to be boring and soapy. B-Real was created the only content you would see on social media was highly edited and often faked, but B-Real stripped all of that away, including all of the features, and left its users with nothing else to see besides their closest friends and the boring activities they do. In my opinion, this comes with a ton of great benefits. There's no incentive to chase followers or likes, so people will actually be authentic. It incentivizes you to only keep in touch with your good friends. It might actually inspire you to go hang out with them. It creates less anxiety and FOMO because instead of seeing a highlight reel, you see that

your friends are also doing the same day-to-day boring stuff as you. But while there are undoubtedly benefits for an app like be real, it will still fail, and there are 5 reasons why. First and foremost, be real is inconvenient. A benefit of traditional social media is the fact that you can use it anytime you want, but be behavioral demands you use it at a random time every day. You could get the notification while sleeping, in a meeting, or while trying to get some serious work done. And if you post late, it sends a notification to all of your friends, which could be inconvenient for them. On top of that, be real encourages you to have your phone on you with the sound on constantly, so you're essentially on call all day just to post a picture, which will likely be of you doing something your friends just don't care about. An app that disturbs you at random times to post random pictures can get annoying after a while, but it's also counterproductive. Picture yourself hanging out with your close friends and having some good conversation when all

of a sudden, everyone's be real goes off and demands them to take a picture of whatever they're doing. Then, everyone goes on their phone and interrupts the authentic real-life conversation you are all just having. If the premise of be real is to be more real, then isn't it doing the exact opposite here? Of course, you can obviously mute your phone when you're with friends, but it's still counterproductive even when you're alone. What be real is trying to avoid is being fake like most social media, but what's stopping someone from faking their picture? Even if they only have two minutes to do so, that's still plenty of time to fix yourself up, find some good lighting or a cool background, and then go right back to whatever boring thing you were just doing. Not to mention, you could always wait to post later when you're actually doing something fun, like being at a party, but that ruins the whole point of the app. The truth is, it's hard to be authentic on any form of social media, even with a concept like be

real. No one is stopping you from making your life look better than it actually is, or being addicted to seeing what other people are doing. But even if the concept of be real sounds sketchy, there's no doubt it's horrible at doing something else: keeping users on their app. There's a reason why the most successful social media apps strive to have the most addicting algorithms and have the best features. That reason is retention time. The longer they can get a user to stay on their app, the more money they make. That's because these social media Giants make most of their money through advertising, and if a user is on their app longer, they can show them more ads, which in turn makes them more money. But be real does the exact opposite. They offer very few features and give no incentive for users to stay on their app. They don't have any filters, videos, stories, direct messaging, likes, your followers, and the profiles are very plain. There are only two tabs to explore: the friends tab, where you see your closest friends, and the Discover tab.

where you can see random people, but their lack of features isn't their only problem with retention time. The content itself on the app is just plain boring. On be real, you'll mostly just see pictures of your friends in bed or at work, which won't be fun to look at over time. But apps like Instagram and Tick Tock offer infinitely more enticing content and a novel experience every time. While users of be real spend maybe five minutes on the app a day, Instagram gets roughly 30 minutes, and Tick Tock gets a whopping 95 minutes a day on average. But you might be wondering why retention time is such an important issue. It makes sense that these social media companies make more money by showing more ads, but just how important is it to show more ads? Well, it's not just a part of their business, it is their business. And if be real doesn't start to get a part of the action, they'll go bankrupt in no time. To give some kind context, 79% of Google's total company revenue comes from advertising.

for Twitter, it's 90. For Meta, it's 97, and for Snapchat, it's 99. Social media apps essentially make all of their money from ads. But Be Real makes zero dollars from advertising. As a matter of fact, they're not making money at all. The only money they've received has been from investors, but that money can only last for so long. This is a significant problem for Be Real. The value of Be Real comes from the fact that it's supposed to be an authentic social media and not plastered with ads. But there's no way for them to make money if they continue this way. But if they end up putting in ads, Be Real loses its value and becomes another typical social media. But even if Be Real finds an authentic way to start generating revenue, they can do absolutely nothing about my final point being copied. While the concept of Be Real is unique, it's very easy to copy, and it already has been. Tick Tock unveiled a new feature called Tick Tock Now, a feature that prompts users daily.

to post a photo or a short video using both the front and back camera. Snapchat has already rolled out a dual camera setting, and Instagram is working on a feature called Candid stories, which in true Instagram fashion has copied every single detail from Be Real. They copy the daily notification, the dual camera, the lack of filters, and even the two-minute timer. So what can Be Real do? Do they have a chance to stay alive despite being inconvenient, counterproductive, boring, non-monetizable, and copied? Well, a few ideas come to mind. They can offer a paid monthly subscription to users in exchange for premium benefits. Maybe they could offer in-app purchases to unlock some new features. They could also find a way to include ads but in a less intrusive way, like only having them on the Discovery tab. Regardless of what they do, Be Real has a steep uphill battle in front of them, but I'm interested to see what they do and if they can pull it off.

Is BeReal Going To Fail?

BC Productions

Be Real has rapidly gained popularity with 67 million downloads and 20 million daily active users.

However, the app's unique concept of authentic and uncurated content is also a key reason for its projected failure.

Be Real's focus on mundane and unexciting activities goes against the typical engaging content on other social media platforms.

This approach, while aiming for authenticity, lacks the appeal to retain users in the long run.

Be Real is inconvenient, as it requires users to post at random times and keep their phones on with the sound constantly, disrupting real-life interactions.

The app's premise of promoting authenticity is contradicted by its disruptive nature.

It's challenging to truly be authentic on any social media platform, raising questions about the app's core purpose and effectiveness.

The Impact of Be Real's Lack of User Retention

Be Real's minimal features and unengaging content result in very low user retention, with only about 5 minutes spent on the app per day.

In contrast, Instagram and TikTok boast much higher average daily retention times of 30 and 95 minutes respectively.

The longer retention times on these platforms are crucial for generating ad revenue, which is the primary source of income for social media giants.

Be Real is struggling to make money without relying on advertising, putting its future in jeopardy due to limited investor funds.

The company's value lies in its ad-free and authentic approach, but it faces the risk of losing this identity if it introduces ads.

Additionally, Be Real is vulnerable to having its unique features copied by other social media platforms, as seen with Tick Tock replicating its concept.

Strategies for Be Real to Stay Competitive Against Snapchat and Instagram

Be Real can consider offering a paid monthly subscription for premium benefits, introducing in-app purchases for new features, and incorporating non-intrusive ads, such as on the Discovery tab.

These strategies may help Be Real stay alive in the face of intense competition, although the company faces a challenging road ahead.