Yubo

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Yubo (app)
Developer(s)Twelve APP
Operating systemiOS[1] & Android[2]
Available in9 languages
List of languages
English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish and Swedish
Websiteyubo.live/en

Yubo (formerly known as Yellow) is a French social networking app developed by TWELVE APP in 2015. designed to "meet new people" and create a sense of community.[3] The app has 60 million users worldwide in 2022.[4]

History[edit]

Yubo was created by Sacha Lazimi, Jérémie Aouate, and Arthur Patora when they were engineering students at CentraleSupélec Graduate school of the Paris-Saclay University and Télécom Paris.[5] Formerly known as Yellow, it was first launched in 2015.[6][7] According to the founders, the app seeks to create a space for "socializing online" and to "facilitate communication between people all over the world who share mutual interests."[8]

In December 2019, the app raised $12.3 million (€11.2 million) in a funding round led by French private equity firms like Iris Capital, Idinvest Partners, Alven, Sweet Capital and Village Global.[9] The funds will be used to develop its technology and expand its global user base.[10]

Between 2015 and December 2019, app users have created an estimated 2 billion friendships, along with exchanging more than 10 billion messages and launching 30 million livestreams.[11]

In 2019, the startup has generated $10 million in revenue.[11]

In 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yubo recorded a significant rise in use due to quarantined teenagers, with 550% increase in time spent in video discussion groups.[12] And Yubo doubled the number of new daily signups, which reached 30,000 per day in mid-April. In October 2020, the app had 40 million users worldwide, 60% of whom are Americans and Canadians.[13][14][15]

In September 2020, Yubo established its U.S. headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida.[16] At the same time, Yubo opened a new office in London.[15][17] In November 2020, Yubo carries out a new fundraising, raising $47.5 million (€40 million) from its historical investors and a new entrant, Gaia Capital Partner. The announced objective is in particular to strengthen moderation and develop the Asian market.[18][19] In addition, Jerry Murdock, co-founder of Insight Partners who invested in Twitter and Snapchat, joined the board of directors of Yubo.[20][19]

In November 2021, Yubo opened a second office in the U.S., in New York City.[21]

Features[edit]

Core functionalities[edit]

Livestreaming[edit]

Live streaming video is one of the main features of the app. Each session can host up to ten streamers with an unlimited number of viewers. Streamers can only join a session room if they are invited by another streamer or if they create it. Viewers can send comments to interact with the streamers. Viewers and streamers can become friends. Viewers can choose the live they want to join based on a variety of topics or the nationality of the participants. The app includes a swiping feature to swipe on other people profiles with similar age and messaging features. Users can choose to see only profiles with specific location, or specific gender.[22][13] Unlike many social networks other than Yubo, Yubo does not offer a "like" function on its app, and the app is not based on the "followers" count .[23][11] Yubo is alike to ainternet forum,[3] a place where users can socialize in a group setting. It is described to be like "real life".[13][24]

Snap Camera Inc.[edit]

In December 2020, Yubo through its partnership with Snapchat, the AR lenses from the Snap Inc. camera kit were included directly in the app.[25][26]

Gender and pronouns[edit]

For Pride Month of 2021, Yubo has added 35 new gender options for users to identify with on the app. The list has been compiled with the UK NGO Mermaids.[27]

Pixels[edit]

In Mid-July 2021, Yubo launched its Pixels collection. This was a collaboration with pixel artist Banfan to create collectible digital art representing qualities, moods and personalities. Yubo users were purchase these in-app and can start their own collection or send it to their friends.[28]

YuBucks[edit]

In July 2021, Yubo launched its Virtual currency. The application's business model is based on in-app microtransaction system and not advertisements. Available in the Yubo store, YuBucks can be purchased in packs or via a weekly or monthly subscription system.[29][28]

Add by tag[edit]

Tags are categories that allows users to share their interests. In November 2021, Yubo launched Add by Tag. Using the feature users can search for people with specific tags to find friends.[30][31]

Communities[edit]

Yubo consists of two communities, one for young people aged 13–17 and an adult community for people aged 18 and over. Members of one community can only interact with other people in their group and cannot communicate with anyone of the opposite community for safety reasons and child protection.[22][32]

Verified Profiles[edit]

The app uses face-recognition and age-estimation technology on every photo uploaded during sign up. The website app says if a user is under 13 or if an adult has given a wrong age. Moreover, Yubo scans Google to see if user has collected a photo on internet to feed his profile, and every message is scanned in real time to identify problems. Flagged accounts have to download another app named Yoti to get their age verified.[8][33] Verified users are marked with a yellow badge on their profile.

Criticism about security[edit]

Following various incidents on app's safety, harassment, nudity and incidents between minors and adults,[34][35][36][37] various measures were taken by Yubo. Yubo entered into a partnership with Yoti in February 2019 to use their age estimation technology to analyze faces and estimate how old users are. The company claimed it has already checked more than 22 million profile pictures and removed a "few thousand" profiles belonging to under-13s as a result.[38][33] Safety advocates and governments have supported Yubo's efforts to place safeguards on the app, such as by creating a proactive "engage and educate" approach for their community, a mix between AI and human moderators, banning sexually explicit profile content and auto-blocking fake profiles.[39][40][41][42]

In 2018, Yubo joined the eSafety Commissioner's Tier 1 social media scheme in Australia for resolving cyberbullying. Australian eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, declared: "I applaud Yubo for extensively reworking its safety features to make its platform safer for teens. Altering its age restrictions, improving its real identity policy, setting clear policies around inappropriate content and cyberbullying, and giving users the ability to turn location data off demonstrates that Yubo is taking user safety seriously".[39]

In 2020, Yubo implemented an algorithm which scans livestreams. If the algorithm detects inappropriate content in a livestream, the livestream is automatically removed.[16] In February 2020 in the United Kingdom, an independent report on child sexual abuse (ndependent inquiry into child sexual abuse) estimates that "the value of human moderation is evident from the success achieved by the social network Yubo, whose moderators interrupt livestreams to tell underage users to put their clothes on".[43]

In February 2021, Yubo launched pop-up alerts in an attempt to prevent inappropriate requests in private chat.  When a user is about to share private information, such as their phone number or location, they receive a pop-up message warning them of the risks of sharing private information.[44][45]

In July 2021, Yubo was updated with the Muted Words feature. Users can choose any word, abbreviation or emoji that they find offensive to them and contents containing those information would be hidden from the user. Users are also able to choose from whom to mute the words – they can block from all users or just those who are not in their friends. Then the comments with these words will be automatically hidden from the user’s view.[46]

Partnership[edit]

The company has established partnerships in several countries with associations engaged in the fight against online harassment and child protection.[35]

In April 2020, Yubo announced a partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), an American NGO dedicated to the search for missing children. Yubo will share data in the event of "suspected illegal activity involving minors". And the NCMEC participates in the "Safety Board" of the social network, a committee of ten international experts in cybersecurity and child protection.[35][47]

In July 2021 to accompany the release of its new "Muted Word" feature, Yubo launched an in-app campaign to raise awareness about sexual harassment. This campaign was carried out in partnership with the NCMEC in the U.S., Childnet and the Diana Award in the UK, E-Enfance in France and Red Barnet in Denmark.[48]

Controversy[edit]

Following the Robb Elementary School shooting on 24 May 2022 in Uvalde, Texas, the app came under criticism for failing to remove the perpetator's profile from their platform quickly, leaving the profile up for four days after the shooting.[49][50] Multiple sources reported that Ramos boasted about purchasing a firearm, and posted threatening messages, having been nicknamed "school shooter" in the platform before committing the school shooting.[51]

Economic model[edit]

Yubo has a freemium model which originated in video games, where users spend real-world currency to get in-app upgrades. Yubo is based around microtransactions which allow users to, for example, give more visibility to their profile.[23][3] Yubo has a virtual currency called "YuBucks" which users can buy with real life money.[28] The app is not supported by advertisements.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Yubo: Make real friends live". App Store. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  2. ^ "Yubo – Livestream, chat, joue, fais-toi des amis". App Store. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  3. ^ a b c "Yubo is a social network about socializing". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  4. ^ Klein, Alyson (2022-06-06). "Yubo and Other Social Apps Popular With Kids: Facts and Cautions for Educators". Education Week. ISSN 0277-4232. Retrieved 2022-09-07.
  5. ^ "Sacha Lazimi (Yubo) : la social discovery à la française". Planete Business (in French). 2020-04-06. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  6. ^ "Yubo, l'application pour ados qui inquiète les parents". www.cnews.fr (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  7. ^ "Yubo lève 11 millions pour développer sa plateforme pour la génération Z". Challenges (in French). 12 December 2019. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  8. ^ a b Bindley, Katherine (2020-02-24). "Don't Talk to Strangers? These Apps Encourage It". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  9. ^ Tucker, Charlotte (2019-12-12). "Paris-based Yubo, the live video platform for Gen Z, snaps up €11 million to expand globally". EU-Startups. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  10. ^ "#Yubo raises the stakes for established social media". EU Reporter. 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  11. ^ a b c "Yubo raises $12.3 million for its social app for teens". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  12. ^ "Yubo adds digital currency to Gen Z social app". Business of Apps. 2021-07-07. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  13. ^ a b c Bosilkovski, Igor (2020-04-18). "Social Platform For Teens Yubo Triples Its Daily New Users Amid The Coronavirus Crisis". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  14. ^ "Comment Yubo a réussi à s'expatrier aux États-Unis en restant si discret en France". Maddyness - Le Magazine sur l’actualité des Startups Françaises (in French). 2020-10-14. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  15. ^ a b Guihéneuf, Léna (2020-10-09). "Le réseau social français Yubo s'implante à Londres". French Morning London (in French). Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  16. ^ a b Gibbons, Timothy (28 September 2020). "French social media app Yubo sets up U.S. headquarters in Jacksonville". Jacksonville Business Journal. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  17. ^ "Yubo, the Leading Social Space for Gen Z, Opens New London HQ". MarTech Series. 2020-09-16. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  18. ^ "Yubo, le réseau social de la génération Z, lève 40 millions d'euros". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2020-11-18. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  19. ^ a b Rauline, Nicolas (2020-11-18). "Yubo, le réseau social qui concurrence les Américains sur leur terrain". Les Echos Executives (in French). Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  20. ^ "Yubo : le nouveau grand réseau social français tendance chez les jeunes ?". Siècle Digital (in French). 2020-11-19. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  21. ^ "Un bureau à New York pour Yubo, le réseau social des ados". French Morning US (in French). 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  22. ^ a b "The Yubo social app". Internet Matters. 2018-03-16. Archived from the original on 2020-04-03. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  23. ^ a b Waters, Michael (2020-09-30). "Can you fund a social media company like a video game?". The Hustle. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  24. ^ "Sacha Lazimi : " La cible de Yubo, c'est la génération Z ! "". Petit Journal. 2020-11-08.
  25. ^ Cohen, Jamie. "How Yubo's Creators Designed An App For Gen Z And Gen Alpha". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  26. ^ Geekzilla.tech (2020-11-20). "Yubo: La novedosa red social para las nuevas generaciones". GeekZilla (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  27. ^ "Yubo launches new features including 35 gender and 50 pronoun options". Mumbrella. 2021-06-15. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  28. ^ a b c "Yubo Launches 'YuBucks', A New Virtual Online Currency". B&T. 2021-07-08. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  29. ^ "Yubo lance sa monnaie virtuelle et des badges à collectionner". Stratégies (in French). 2021-07-07. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  30. ^ "Yubo Launches a New Update: Here's What's New". MUO. 2021-11-23. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  31. ^ WEBJORNALISMO (19 December 2021). "Juntos e amigáveis: app da Geração Z cria ferramentas para conectar jovens pelos interesses". Manezinho News (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  32. ^ https://support.yubo.live/hc/en-us/articles/115003788591-Why-do-you-have-separate-communities-for-13-to-18-year-olds-and-adults-
  33. ^ a b "Teen social media app uses facial recognition to check users' ages". www.telegraph.co.uk. 28 April 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  34. ^ O'Brien, Carl. "Teens using Yubo may be at risk – study". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  35. ^ a b c "Yubo ne veut plus qu'on l'appelle "le Tinder des adolescents"". RTL.fr (in French). 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  36. ^ Signoret, Perrine (2019-12-12). "On a testé Yubo, l'appli française de rencontres " amicales " utilisée par 25 millions de jeunes". Numerama (in French). Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  37. ^ "Man accused of sexually exploiting 12-year-old he met on Yubo app". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  38. ^ "Using AI for good with Yubo". www.yoti.com. 5 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  39. ^ a b "Roblox and Yubo join Australian efforts to tackle cyberbullying | Office of the eSafety Commissioner". 2018-08-14. Archived from the original on 2018-08-14. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  40. ^ "Everything Parents Need To Know About Yubo - The Tinder for Teens App!". Mobicip. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  41. ^ Baguette, Rude (2019-09-27). "YUBO: "We set limits and make users accountable for their behaviour"". Rude Baguette. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  42. ^ says, Online Safety Briefing: Term 1 2017-18 #eSafety | Kent Online Safety Blog (2017-08-08). "Yellow app: Signs of smarter digital safety". NetFamilyNews.org. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  43. ^ "Inquiry calls for web pre-screening to end UK child abuse 'explosion'". the Guardian. 2020-03-12. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  44. ^ "A day in the life of... Sacha Lazimi, co-founder and CEO at Yubo, the social video live-streaming app". Econsultancy. 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  45. ^ Page (CMO), Rosalyn. "Privacy and security the focus on Safer Internet Day 2021". www.cmo.com.au. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  46. ^ "Yubo launches ability to mute words to increase user safety". Mumbrella. 2021-07-16. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  47. ^ "Yubo s'associe à l'ONG NCMEC pour renforcer la sécurité de ses utilisateurs". TechGuru (in French). 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  48. ^ "Yubo takes steps to tackle online bullying | Mobile Marketing Magazine". mobilemarketingmagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  49. ^ "Texas gunman was nicknamed 'the Yubo school shooter' on messaging app". Sky News. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  50. ^ "Yubo explained and why it has emerged as part of Uvalde shooting probe". ABC News. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  51. ^ "Texas shooter Salvador Ramos threatened to kill teens on Yubo: report". New York Post. 2022-05-28. Retrieved 2022-05-28.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yubo&oldid=1117177468"