As if it wasn’t already hard to keep up with Gen Z on social media, Yubo, a relatively unknown livestream app has emerged as one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in recent years.
With comparisons made to Zoom, Snapchat, TikTok and even Tinder, let’s take a look at what Yubo really is.
What is Yubo?
Founded by Sacha Lazimi, Jérémie Aouate, and Arthur Patora in 2015, Yubo is first and foremost a livestream platform. Livestreams on Yubo are more like conversational chat rooms, rather than broadcast performances, where users can video call with those of a similar age who share their interests.
Of all the comparisons made, perhaps Yubo can be most likened to Clubhouse, a live audio-chat platform that has seen similar growth in the past few years.
A Platform for Gen Z
Yubo claims 50 million users worldwide, with 99% of their users aged 13 to 25. With such a firm hold on Gen Z, some of the platform’s safety features include age filters set by users to determine who they would like to interact with, and talks of regular checks to verify the real age of users.
Bearing the catchphrase, “Get Friends. Get Real. Go Live”, Yubo seeks to connect young people for genuine digital socialising, which has proved successful in the climate of COVID-19.
According to Co-Founder and CEO Sacha Lazimi, the platform is “really about socializing with other people”, rather than performing.
Yubo vs TikTok
While a video-based app aimed at Gen Z rings a bell with TikTok, there are actually several ways that Yubo and TikTok differ.
Lazimi has said blatantly that Yubo “[is] not a content platform,” where users aim to make a name for themselves. Livestreams disappear at the end of the day, unlike TikTok videos that form a users’ profile.
Also unlike TikTok, Yubo also doesn’t rely on advertising for their revenue. Instead, they use a “freemium” model, where the app is free to use, but additional features can be unlocked by those who pay.
One last point of difference is that Yubo rewards well-performing users with “Pixels” – NFT-adjacent trading-card-style images. These can be used to purchase “YuBucks” – Yubo’s internal currency which is used to pay for features like boosting a livestream.
While Yubo and TikTok both seem to target Gen Z, the differences between the two are substantial enough to say that the two platforms are not direct rivals.