Facebook acquired on Monday a very famous app used nowadays by American teenagers: tbh, which stands for “to be honest.” This app lets users demonstrate what they think about other people anonymously. But unlike other apps that allow insulting and shaming, tbh only accepts positive comments.
Facebook also said that tbh would independently operate its own brand, unlike Instagram and Whatsapp.
This app allows people to answer personal polls – with questions about the user’s hair, style, knowledge, talent, and more. Anything they want the other’s opinion on, they’re able to find it through this app. What makes tbh unique is that third users are only allowed to give positive feedback, avoiding the askers to feel sad or ashamed.
Since its launch tbh has been very welcomed. Just these last nine weeks, tbh scored 5 million downloads and 2.5 million of daily active users. This is one of the first reasons why the Whatsapp’s owner also decided to buy tbh.
Both tbh and Facebook’s teams will work together to keep developing the positive-poll app. However, it would be a little bit different than the way Whatsapp and Instagram teams work.
Whatsapp and Instagram were allowed to have their own email addresses and buildings inside the Facebook’s installations. But tbh won’t have the same privileges. Anyways, they don’t see mad at all with this decision.
“When we met with Facebook, we realized that we shared many of the same core values about connecting people through positive interactions,” wrote tbh’s team in an announcement post. “Most of all, we were compelled by the ways they could help us realize our vision and bring it to more people.”
tbh under Facebook’s name
Although the price paid by Facebook for tbh wasn’t disclosed, TechCrunch suggested that it was under $100 million and that it won’t require any regulatory approval. We will soon start seeing the tbh’s four co-creators Bier, Erik Hazzard, Kyle Zaragoza, and Nicolas Ducdodon working at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters.
This acquirement comes after months of Facebook copying other’s app ideas. We just saw how it made something quite similar to Houseparty, and when Instagram started doing the “Stories,” almost identical to Snapchat Stories. But tbh is already a quite famous brand within the market, especially among teens. Facebook could have considered it better this way.
“tbh and Facebook share a common goal – of building community and enabling people to share in ways that bring us closer together,” Facebook wrote in a statement. “We’re impressed by the way tbh is doing this by using polling and messaging, and with Facebook’s resources tbh can continue to expand and build positive experiences.”
Ultimately, this will represent a new challenge for Facebook. Some teens already bother the fact that tbh only lets them answer a few question at a time, for example.
The app will remain free to download on iOS and Android, and the brand will remain the same.
Source: TechCrunch