Yubo is a live Social Discovery App popular with Generation Z. Created in 2015 by French engineering students, it was initially called Yellow, a Snapchat companion app, before becoming its social networking platform. There are over 75 million users on Yubo, the app that helps young people meet new friends and hang out online. It allows users to connect to new friends by way of livestreaming, gaming, or messaging.
Up to 10 people at a time can connect with a livestream from anywhere in the world. The platform embraces an interactive business model as opposed to an attention model. It sets itself apart from the majority of other social media platforms by removing vanity metrics and, therefore, the pressure to perform for likes and attract followers. Instead, its live social discovery model focuses on livestreaming, which makes it easier for users to make friends since they don’t have to wait for other people to log on to connect and engage.
“Yubo was created because we wanted to improve the way people were interacting with each other online. Around 10 years ago, we thought technology offered people the chance to connect in a better way — but the issue wasn’t being addressed by the sector,” said Sacha Lazimi, Yubo’s CEO and co-founder.
“In October 2015, we created a very simple app to make friends on Snapchat. Within a year, we reached 5 million users. From there, we developed what is now Yubo. With Yubo, we want to empower young people to socialize and create friendships in the digital world the same way they would in real life.”
Commerce is also prohibited, eliminating influencer marketing or celebrity spectatorship off the platform. That’s one more way the live social discovery app remains dedicated to maintaining the “social” in social media. However, in 2023, it did introduce native ads and reward-based advertising in a restricted form to some test markets.
And while other social media platforms tend to help users foster existing relationships, the live social discovery app concentrates on assisting its users in establishing new friendships. It’s an excellent way for Gen Zers to forge friendships with people from different backgrounds and countries who happen to share the same interests.
“Livestreaming is the future of social media and has undoubtedly been a huge driver behind our growth,” stated Lazimi. “As Gen Z, the digital native generation [looked] for new experiences online while being forced to stay at home during lockdowns — and livestreaming has boomed. It’s important to note though, Yubo’s vision for livestreaming was born well before the pandemic. It is our model which allows users to meet people with similar interests through livestreams, which has driven growth.”
Yubo Makes It Easy To Find New Friends
Gen Z is accustomed to rapid interactions. And since Gen Z makes up 99% of Yubo users, the live social discovery app has been designed to meet young people’s expectations. Users can put tags on their profiles to highlight their interests and attract like-minded users with the potential to become future friends.It is easy to become friends with fellow users. Simply swipe right on someone’s profile picture if you want to be friends, and swipe left if you’d rather not. When two people swipe right on each other, they become friends.
To create genuine connections and shared experiences, the social discovery platform can be a helpful tool. Since it fosters genuine connections, users can create profiles highlighting their interests, hobbies, and passions.
Yubo has a user base that spans more than 140 countries. It includes paid features, which operate much like those in the gaming culture that Gen Z is familiar with, to enhance users' experiences while interacting with friends on the platform. One example is its in-app currency, YuBucks.
Users can purchase YuBucks and use them to obtain the platform’s paid features like Boosts, which grow the visibility of livestreams for users looking to make new friends. YuBucks can also be used to acquire the Power and Elite Packs. The two combo packs provide an entourage of premium, exclusive features like being able to see which users have viewed your profile.
A Secure Social Media Experience
Since the platform is so popular with younger people, it’s reassuring that the Paris-based company is committed to making it as safe as possible for its users to express themselves authentically.Lazimi said the platform is “on a mission to create a space online where young people are empowered to socialize and create friendships in a safe environment.”
The CEO continued, “Gen Z and Gen Alpha are seeking authentic online interactions that focus on each other — away from the pressures that traditional social platforms can pose, e.g., influencers, followers, and likes. Yubo is a space where anyone can belong. We socially inspire and enable new generations to find out about the world and themselves.”
It takes a teaching approach to safety-risk mitigation. It proactively notifies users in real time of any violations of its community guidelines. This type of approach encourages positive behavioral change, which could be improved among most other social media platforms. Users receive pop-up alerts to caution them against sending messages that may contain personally identifiable information like their phone number or address.
Yubo is also the world’s first major social media platform to institute real-time content moderation for livestreams. And its human safety specialists are monitoring activities on the live discovery app 24/7. The platform strives to continually update and enforce its safety framework to mitigate and report risks.
According to Lazimi, the platform creates “a positive and welcoming community, with diverse users who come from all around the world. We are proud of our community. Our users are nonjudgmental and focus on having meaningful conversations on topics they care about while enjoying themselves. We work to maintain this through prioritizing safety as well as educating users on digital literacy. We take the responsibility to protect our community very seriously.”
