Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Once mercilessly shut down by Facebook, it made a comeback five years later.

What is the newest social software among young Americans?

If you blurt out TikTok. So, Sorry, you are behind the times. Young Americans who have been playing TikTok short videos for two or three years seem to be a little tired, and they now prefer to discover social software with interesting games and novel angles.

Previously, the "anti-filter, anti-aesthetic" photo social platform BeReal once became popular, and recently, a social software called Gas has begun to rise rapidly. Since its launch in August, Gas has exceeded 1 million daily active users with almost no publicity or promotion, occupying the top spot of App Store downloads in the United States almost throughout October. Please note that the top of the list here refers not only to the social category, but also to the top of all categories.

What's even more interesting is that behind the development of this Gas App, there is still a love-hate struggle with Facebook, which makes many people think that Gas got the script "Da Shuangwen" and slapped the social giant in the face.

| boasting + anonymous socializing makes American teenagers love it. When many people first saw Gas, they thought it was a program to help people find gas stations. But in fact, behind the Gas does have the meaning of refueling, but through the "boast" way to cheer on the people around you.

In recent years, both Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have been widely criticized because of the negative content on the platform. What makes Gas different from them is that it is a proper positive energy social App.

Gas's model is mainly to socialize with acquaintances, where users can interact anonymously with people in schools, communities, or other groups. After joining the group, users can create a series of questions for others to vote anonymously, and then Gas will push the result to the user. Sounds simple and a little boring? Don't worry, follow the Silicon Man to see how Gas plays this kind of questionnaire game.

First of all, the questions that users can choose to list are pre-set in the program and cannot be modified, and these questions are all "exaggeration". For example, "who do you think is an athlete?" "whose smile is the most beautiful?" , "whose dress is the best?"whose Halloween costume do you like best?" Wait.

Second, Gas does not have the ability to send messages directly point-to-point, and all users' votes are conducted anonymously. When pushing the result, it will only give some very vague information, such as if the vote of the girl is red flame, the vote of boy is blue flame, and the level information of the user.

With these two simple characteristics, it can be said that it accurately grasps the psychology of users, especially young people. Imagine that when a high school student receives a message that many people in your class like what you wear today, although you don't know who said you like it, will you feel happy and confident? In addition, there are some "secret love questions" in Gas, which make teenagers crazy.

The picture comes from the slogan "See who likes you" from Gas AppGas, which can be said to be very simple and "rude", hitting the secret corner of everyone's heart that yearns to be noticed, recognized and liked.

So after its launch in August, Gas quickly became popular, especially among teenagers, setting off a "look who praised me today" trend. In the official introduction of Gas, it was stressed that the significance of the software is to better inspire everyone, so that people can gain confidence and happiness from praise. Judging from the current user feedback, Gas is really doing a good job in this matter.

Some users wrote: "Gas lets me know that someone around me loves us and cares about us. Whenever I feel sad or uncomfortable, Gas is a place to cheer me up." Some people say they feel energized after reading Gas messages every morning. Some users say that some students in their school have committed suicide before, but with Gas, students who think they are not cared about can gain more love and hope.

Pictures from Gas Twitter in addition to attracting many teenagers to play, Gas has also begun to "make money" through subscription services.

Because the votes in Gas are anonymous, people naturally wonder who is voting for them and whether there are any people they like. Seizing the curiosity of users, Gas also launched a monthly GodMode subscription service for $6.99, which mainly includes: the system will prompt you to vote for your friend's initials an unlimited number of times, check the opportunity to vote for your friend's full name twice a month, and you will be reminded when someone sets a priority display for your name, and you will enter completely anonymous mode.

According to Gas, the subscription service is so popular that many people are willing to spend a few yuan to find out who Pick them.

| the team behind Gas: never give up anonymous social networking, abandoned after being acquired by Facebook. Although Gas has only opened pilot projects in more than a dozen states in the United States, Gas has spread "viral" on major campuses in the United States since October. It firmly occupies the first place on the download list of Apple Store, leaving TikTok and Instagram behind.

And many people who know the story behind Gas development are lamenting that Gas finally took a "bad breath" to Facebook this time.

In fact, Gas is played in almost the same way as the social software TBH (To Be Honest), which was briefly popular five years ago, and they are all written by a team. TBH also featured acquaintances socializing anonymously, always giving users positive questions to choose from, and the chosen person would receive a message saying "A boy / girl chooses you as the answer to XXXX's question," but doesn't know who chose it.

The picture is from TBH. The situation of TBH at that time is almost exactly the same as that of Gas. Three days after the release, it became popular in 3000 schools, with 5 million downloads within nine weeks, with 2.5 million daily active users and more than 1 billion messages sent, occupying the top spot in the download rankings.

Many young people use TBH as a supplement to the popular "truth or dare" game on Instagram. For example, whenever someone likes your picture, you have to tell him the truth with TBH. At that time, Facebook also noticed the software, which was popular among young people. TBH was announced by Facebook for about $100 million just two months after its release.

Now, however, it seems that Facebook's acquisition was just about curbing the rise of new social software and competing with the limelight of Snap, rather than really betting on the anonymous social model. After the merger and acquisition of "big fish eat small fish", the popularity of TBH declined rapidly, and only eight months later, Facebook announced that it had shut down TBH directly because of too few users. Four founders of TBH, including Nikita Bier, have also been transferred to Facebook's product department to do research and development.

Looking at the dismal end of his painstaking software, Nikita Bier always seems to have a bad taste and doesn't believe that there is no future for anonymous social networking. After three years at Facebook, Nikita Bier decided to go back to his old business, build on TBH, and continue to explore the possibility of anonymous socializing.

Judging from the current situation, Gas is clearly a great success. Five years later, almost the same model has recreated the splendor of TBH that year. This time, the Gas team obviously learned the lesson of being manipulated by others last time, and suffered from the acquired PTSD. So far, Gas has not accepted any form of financing, nor has it rejected all offers for acquisitions.

These days, founder Nikita Bier also likes the founder of recruitment platform Laskie on Twitter.

A teasing tweet posted by Chris Bakke read: "Zuckerberg is driving to @ nikitabier's home to beg the Gas App team to buy Meta at all costs."

Pictures from Chris Bakke Twitter | will the popularity of Gas be just a flash in the pan? Although Gas is sweeping the social circle of the United States recently, many people are skeptical and wait-and-see about the long-term development of Gas.

At present, the people who play Gas are mainly teenagers, but teenagers are often the most unstable user group, and their attention will soon be attracted to the next funny thing. You know, the number of downloads of BeReal, which was so popular some time ago, has fallen to more than 10 on the list of social downloads.

But Gas is also exploring some internal game mechanisms to keep the software alive. For example, in the introduction of coin mechanism, users can get "coins" by voting and make themselves more likely to be praised by others through the use of "coins", thus forming a positive cycle of use. In addition, in response to questions about whether gas's boasting mechanism aggravates marginal anxiety among teenagers, Gas also uses algorithms to give every user a chance to be praised, which means that if you haven't been chosen recently, Gas will show you more frequently in your voting options until you are Pick.

Overall, although Gas has some innovations in play aimed at teenagers, it has not jumped out of the inherent mode of anonymous social interaction. When we look back at "anonymous social" products over the years, we will find that many of them quickly met their Waterloo after a stunning start.

For example, Secret, an anonymous social software that Google invested in in 2014, caused quite a stir when it used to share friends anonymously based on its address book, but it was shut down only nine months after the surge in false news and bad information. For example, YIK YAK was founded by two high school students, allowing people to anonymously publish and discuss various topics and gossip within 1500 meters, which was once warmly sought after by the student community, but also announced that it was closed after more than three years of operation.

The picture is from YikYak, so can Gas break the death circle of anonymous social networking this time and always surpass TikTok? Everything remains to be verified by time.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Silicon Man (ID:guixingren123), author: Juny, Editor: VickyXiao

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.