Voodoo, the hypercasual mobile games publisher behind Helix Jump and Crowd City, among others, announced today that it has acquired BeReal for €500 million, or about $537 million. Voodoo reportedly plans to broaden its reach with BeReal while helping the social network build out new features and infrastructure, as well as “accelerate product development and user growth.” As part of the acquisition, BeReal founder and CEO Alexis Barreyat plans to step down into a different role.
BeReal is a social network in which users are prompted once a day to share photos of their immediate surroundings or anything they might be doing. The window for posting such an update, also called a “BeReal,” is about two minutes. The idea is to give users an unedited look at your life. The app first rose in popularity in 2022, and, according to Voodoo, has over 40 million active users.
Alexandre Yazdi, Voodoo’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement, “BeReal achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, showing there is a universal need to share real, unfiltered experiences with close friends. We are very excited to bring our teams together and leverage Voodoo’s know-how and differentiated technologies to scale BeReal into the iconic social network for authenticity.”
Barreyat will be replaced as CEO with Aymeric Roffé, currently CEO of Voodoo-owned social media app Wizz. Barreyat plans to stay on to ensure a smooth transition, before “going back to building new products.”
Source link
