CAPTURING MOMENTS IN TECH: HOW BEREAL'S UNIQUE CAMERA TWIST ATTRACTED A €500 MILLION ACQUISITION

As the playground of social media networks constantly evolved and competed with each other on new features and gimmicks, ‘Just be real’ stood out. The app that knew how to own that promise of sincerity was called BeReal. And just as its name promised, its key differentiator was a simple use of the cameras built into smartphones by default. With this little innovation, a group of young French entrepreneurs managed an acquisition by the mobile games publisher Voodoo for €500 million. This is the story of innovative growth and acquisition – all built around the cameras on our mobile devices. This is a type of tech engagement that I call the ‘camera turn’.

THE RISE OF BEREAL: A SNAPSHOT OF AUTHENTICITY

BeReal was founded in 2019 but really hit its stride in 2022, charmed its way into the Zeitgeist, and landed on the smartphones of the younger generations. With its novel app, BeReal was asking users to capture a selfie from their front-facing camera at the same time as a photo from their rear-facing camera to form a dual-perspective take on our real lives. Thus, the app relied on our ubiquitous image-making mobile devices, usually reserved for showcasing highlights or deception, to become a tool for authenticity.

VOODOO'S STRATEGIC PLAY: EXPANDING BEYOND GAMES

Voodoo is a massive player in the mobile games space with a catalogue of around 160 ad-supported, free-to-play games. Movies and books tend to ponder what happens when tech giants acquire social media companies (think Apple and Instagram, or Disney and TikTok). But the acquisition of BeReal suggests that Voodoo isn’t just diversifying its portfolio – it might be priming itself for a raid on the socials sector more broadly. BeReal’s camera-first approach to social interaction, and Voodoo’s expertise in scaling up large communities, could point to a future that sees more intricate integrations of game-like design with the messy world of sharing on social media.

UNPACKING THE DEAL: INSIGHTS AND IMPACTS

Estimated to be worth about €500 million, Voodoo’s acquisition of BeReal is not merely about money. Captured by the friction cameras raise by bringing the real world into digital spaces, the strategic implications for both companies – and the rest of the tech world – are huge. For BeReal, it is the potential to scale its use of cameras to new heights inside a mobile gaming colossus like Voodoo. For Voodoo, to experiment with social media engagement through gaming and offline worlds.

NAVIGATING THE TECH TERRAIN: WHAT LIES AHEAD

In a moment that heralded a new era for visible aspects of mental health, the dust settled on this unparalleled purchase, and our attention turned to the aftermath – in particular, to the next set of blueprints for apps that will use cameras to dictate our social connections through gaming and social media. Would there be more apps coming like BeReal that emphasised showing true, unfiltered aspects of ourselves through dual-camera captures? And how will Voodoo, the team behind the acquisition, leverage this technology to erode the boundaries between gaming and social networking even more?

PRESERVING AUTHENTICITY IN A DIGITAL AGE

Ultimately this acquisition signals our fundamental need to actually connect with real people and things. BeReal tapped into that authentic desire with its two-cameras-in-one approach, which remains unique and has enabled its rise as an intriguing offering among countless other apps on the market. A challenge for the BeReal rollup under the Voodoo umbrella will be to add features and tools that build on this impactful point of difference, while retaining the approachability and user experience that was the organic winning factor in the first place.

EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF CAMERA TECHNOLOGY IN APPS

It’s a tempting case study for the promise of camera-wielding apps going forward: not just as tools to take pictures, but as gateways for deeper connection and communication in the digital world. Whether it be ‘face-jacking’, augmented reality or frictionless social sharing, the potential is almost as endless as the terms used to describe it.

UNDERSTANDING CAMERAS: MORE THAN JUST CLICKING

In the aftermath of BeReal’s fortunes, and of its clever hack on the camera function, we can say that cameras are no longer simply photographic devices, but rather innovative, authentic and social digging tools: for miniature time-hopping memory collection lines; for mission control-to-gaming bridge broadcasts; and for putting the world at our fingertips in both directions.

In the end, BeReal’s sale to Voodoo shows it did just that, and is one more piece of evidence that cameras are – and always will be – necessary for creating compelling, real content. The future looks bright for camera technology and app use.