BeReal-ity Check! Social Media App Is Dubbed A Threat To Instagram, TikTok But There Is More To The Story Than 50M Downloads

BeReal, a social media app that encourages users to take a photo every day in an effort to create a daily habit, has amassed more than 53 million downloads across Apple Inc.’s AAPL iOS App Store and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google Play Store, globally.

What Happened: BeReal, which is compared to social media apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Meta Platforms Inc's META Facebook, has been downloaded over 53 million times. Despite that, just a small number of people actually use the app daily. According to a report in Sensor Tower, only 9% of its active Android installs open the app every day as of the third quarter of this year.

See Also: TikTok's Answer To BeReal Launches In Multiple Countries After U.S. Debut

BeReal saw a steady increase in adoption in 2022. Early on in September, the app saw about 14.7 million downloads, a 20% month-over-month increase from 12.3 million in August. 

At the time of writing, BeReal was in the first position in Apple’s U.S. App Store downloads chart, compared to TikTok’s fourth and Instagram’s fifth place.  

Why It's Important: BeReal trailed Instagram and TikTok in terms of users who downloaded the app and are actively using it, the Sensor Tower report said. While Instagram had 39% of its active installs opening the app daily, TikTok was at 29%. Facebook came in third with 27%, with Snap Inc.'s SNAP Snapchat on its heels at 26%.

BeReal has just 9% of its installs as daily users and there's an opportunity to grow as the app sees a steady rise in monthly active users, SensorTower noted. 

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