🤳 The struggle is BeReal

Time to BeReal… During the pandemic, anti-Instagram social app BeReal gained massive traction with college students for showcasing “real” moments (#NoFilter). Every day, BeReal users were prompted to take a spontaneous selfie and front-facing pic at a random time (impossible to Facetune). But after a huge boom in BeReal downloads (it was No. 1 on the Apple App Store for much of summer 2022), growth has dropped off. Now:

• BeBought: French mobile-apps publisher Voodoo is buying BeReal for about $540M, and BeReal’s CEO and cofounder will leave the company.

• Real struggle: After its fleeting success, BeReal was struggling to grow its users and running out of cash. It was reportedly searching for a buyer.

• Enter the buyer: Voodoo said it plans to implement a “sustainable business model,” including bringing ads to BeReal for the first time.

Not a highlight reel… Unlike TikTok, Instagram, and other endlessly scrollable social platforms, BeReal doesn’t allow “likes,” photos disappear after a day, and users must post to see their friends’ pictures. BeReal feeds aren’t filled with content from influencers, advertisers, and celebs, which was part of its initial appeal. But that appears to have faded: BeReal’s monthly users dropped from 15M in October 2022 to 6M in March 2023, according to Platformer (Voodoo says BeReal has 40M+ active users).

• Despite BeReal’s decline, its early success suggests that younger gens may be starting to resent traditional social apps. Social-media use has been linked to anxiety and depression in teens.

Outlook not so good… Fisker, the US EV startup flirting with bankruptcy, has hit another pothole: 11K Ocean SUVs (Fisker’s only model in production) have a software malfunction that could lead to a loss of motor power. Now it’s recalling 18K SUVs for over-the-air updates. The once buzzy automaker was valued at $8B just a few years ago but has since plummeted to a market cap of about $25M — less than the price of its founder’s Hollywood mansion. In March, Fisker said it could go under soon, and a month later it was delisted from the NYSE. Some of the problems that have analysts on a “death watch”:

• A rough start: US deliveries started about a year ago, but Fisker was accused of fixing customer cars with parts stripped from executives’ personal vehicles. Fisker denied that. The company’s delivered just ~7K SUVs to date.

• Lotta probes: US regulators have opened four investigations into the Ocean SUV this year. One is looking into reports that its doors sometimes don’t open. Another centers on complaints of its emergency braking system activating without warning.

EVs ain’t EZ… When Fisker went public in 2020, investors were looking to get in on the ground floor of the next Tesla. But the EVironment has shifted: at least 30 EV companies have shut down or faced bankruptcy in the past decade, including Lordstown Motors, Arrival, and Protera. In February, Apple junked its EV ambitions, and Rivian and Lucid offered disappointing production outlooks. It’s not just startups: Tesla’s sales have declined 13% YoY, and its unsold inventory is piling up.