Yubo Wants To Replace Performative Social Media With Real Time Social Discovery

Channel: Alex Kantrowitz

Published at: 2024-04-29

YouTube video id: 3DYfkzQQKBQ

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DYfkzQQKBQ

let's talk with the CEO and co-founder
of yubo Sasha lazimi about A Better Way
Forward for social apps one that's less
lonely more connective and even fun
we're here for a YouTube exclusive
sponsored by yubo and Sasha welcome to
the show than you thank you adex very
happy to be here great to have you good
to see you again I'd love to talk a
little bit about what yubo is for those
of us who haven't heard of it before and
how you started it because it's a that's
been around since
2015 and for some people may be
surprising but it really is a large one
and we'd love to hear the story of how
you began the company and who it serves
and why it's been able to
grow right right so so yo is a social
discovery platform that enable anyone to
just hang out and have fun with people
that don't know and just have a
meaningful
interactions um anywhere in the world at
any time and hang online like live on
video yes exactly online live on video
live on audio also on one one chat text
but you you could have messaging other
people but the idea is really that you
connect with people that are not from
your network people you don't know
people that can be in other country or
in another city you just need to speak
the same languages and if you are at
home and you just want to start a
conversation with a group of people from
the same age
with someone with the same interest you
can just do that in one minute by using
yubo great and so I think that most of
social media today they would argue like
the big companies would argue Facebook
would argue we're connecting people as
well so but those have we we can
probably both agree have had a a
negative effect on society there's this
Jonathan hate book about that's coming
out and there's some argument about
whether or not his arguments that social
media has made us disconnected and
making teens depressed uh but you are
positioning yours as this antidote to
some of those problems and I think it
really starts and ends with the fact
that people can connect live and talk
with each other as opposed to read posts
and get
angry yes yes exactly and and to be
honest social network today fail at
being social and making people socialize
online and that exactly how and why we
created yubo as a platform because on
social network today you are connected
but you bro video content and you look
for media for brand but you are very
passive on what you are doing and you
feel more and more lonely and there is
really no way to socialize like you
would do if you were going to a festival
to a bar and to meet new people to make
new friends this is really a different
uh experience and on you our go is ready
to empow the way of how you socialize
online by adding the power of new
technology to reproduce exactly how you
have interaction with people in real
life and let's talk a little bit more
about social media is it interesting to
you that it's sort of trended away from
the newsfeed interactions or like
posting on people's wall towards a more
of a Tik Tock style feed I mean that is
it's interesting that it's even become
more media and less social what do you
think about that
Trend yeah it's true it's true I think
it mainly because of their business
model where they want you to to spend as
many time as you can watching ads
basically and so the more you watch
content and videos that are interesting
for you the more you will stay on the
platform and this is really linked to
their ad business model and this is
exactly why we didn't go to the add
business model on our side and why we
have a very different business model
which is through inapp chases and and
subscription and I also think that those
platform are more now like TV like media
like brand where you don't really
connect anymore with people and with
your network which is why people feel
more and more money in those day and
talk a little bit about how yubo works
and how you decided to build it and how
it evolved over
time yes so I've been on the mission of
improving the way of how people connect
and interact with the same cofounder
since almost 15 years now and uh yubo is
is our third product before yubo we
failed with two previous prod product
and and and yubo was really the
iteration of what we learned on building
consumer application and when we started
uh yubo and this platform we notice that
even and and it's happening even today
that millions of people are showing
their social handles to find new
followers to make new friends and to
find new people to interact with because
there is no way to do that on social
media today it's really really
complicated to to connect with people
from that are not from your network and
we focus on on that part and at the
beginning you yubo was really a way to
find new social handles and find new
usernames that you could add to your to
your own Network and we didn't know at
the beginning that it was all about
socialization we had the hypothesis that
might be also to become an influencer or
to find new content to to follow but
after a year launching the platform we
reach 10 millions of signups and we
understood that our Target was the
Generation Z because back in the day we
have 99% of people between 13 to to 17
we still Target the Generation Z because
but they are older now we
target mainly adult and people between
18 to to 25 years old but this
generation and the Next Generation and
even us today are more and more
connected and we more and more have this
need of socializing online like we are
socializing offline because this is part
of our life and this need wasn't told by
the social network and that's why those
people and people are still doing that
today sharing their social handles and
trying to add people they don't know on
those Network that are not mean for that
and so when I'm in the product how do I
end up connecting with different people
joining group chats joining one-on-one
chats so it's exactly like in in in in
real life so let's say that you enter in
a fesal or in a bar where everyone want
to socialize what would happen you would
have more group of people that will be
together naturally naturally speaking
about a different subject speaking about
the the interest speaking about a movie
or debating and it's exactly the same on
the platform so you can see a list of
group of people based on their profile
based on the topic of the conversation
based on their interest and as in real
life you can enter in the room you can
listen to what they are saying and they
can invite you to join the conversation
right away and you can start interacting
with video audio and chat everything in
real time and this is working great
because
95% of rooms have only streamers that
are speaking together and it's on
average four to five people that are
speaking together exactly like it would
be at a festival where people are just
discovering each other and speaking as a
group and so you really want to um
emphasize there's you know for this app
there's social discovery that happens
I've been hearing that in this
conversation right you talked earlier
about social discovery uh and clearly
the way that the product is set up is
for Discovery so can you talk a little
bit more about how people discover
others in the app and then why is
Discovery so important in some ways it
seems like the antidote to some of the
problems that we talked about with
mainstream social networking
now yes yes it's a good point so when
you sign up on the platform we are going
to at the beginning do a age estimation
of your profile because sa is very
important for us and even in real life
you want to meet people in a safe space
and this is exactly what we what we are
doing at so how do you do that because
that's an interesting you know your
ability to figure out how old people are
is an interesting point yes so so we are
using AI uh we have a A Partners called
Yi that provide a third party API that
we are using and you will enter you will
enter a datea of verth when you sign up
but we want to be sure that you enter
the right date of birth so we are going
to scan your faith and estimate your age
to compare it with the datea of birth
you enter and if it matches the data of
birth then you can enter the platform if
it doesn't match then we will ask you to
provide more detail like identity
document a video of yourself to ensure
that this is you you are the real person
and this is your real age to ensure that
you will go in the right age group
because in real life and and when you
you you you meet new people usually they
are from the same
age right and then talk a little bit
more about this idea of social discovery
so you you've been grouped with people
of the similar age and then where do we
go from
there yeah so so so so the goal on the
platform is really to make sure that you
will speak with as many people as you
want and you will be able to either
select an interest because you play
fortnite for example or you watch Batman
movie so you can click on this interest
and you can find people that have this
interest and you can send friend request
to those people you can enter in the
room with people that are debating um or
or or or having also the same interest
as you and people are coming on our
platform just to have conversation at
some point we don't really care if you
are making new friends and if you end up
having a friendship what we care is that
you have conversation with other people
and you are socializing with other
people right so you know it's very
different from the typical influencer
model right you talk about people who
are interested in games typical the
thing that that's worked most uh well on
social media has been you go on Twitch
and you watch somebody play fortnite not
that you speak with other people that
play fortnite So it's very
counterintuitive Insight right in terms
of the way that you want to handle how
did you come to that and why why is it
why is it working because you know you
look at the platforms with the biggest
scale and it seems like that influencer
model is working so well for them but it
leaves people a little bit empty right
yeah yeah exactly and and to be honest
we don't have any influencer on our
platform because it won't work for an
influencers to come on on yubo and we
even tried to bring them at some going
to test some marketing channel and user
acquisition but there were no interest
for them to use our platform because as
it's small group of people speaking
together and the go is for you to speak
with other people in oneon-one or in a
group there is no point for newer to
come out on our platform because they
won't have an audence and there is no
way to review the content there is no
like there is um no phers which is very
different so I would say that we are
doing doing exactly the opposite of what
actual social network is doing there is
no performance it's all about individual
Behavior there is no like no view no
comments it's all about real time
interactions and it's not about
individual Behavior like on social
network it's about group Behavior
because this is how the society works
today everything is about group behavior
when you are meeting new people when you
are going to work when you are going to
school to college everything is done by
group and this is exactly how we are
thinking about the product and how we
are working on it we want our users to
be able to connect within the minute to
new people and to start talking with
them as much as they can right and that
being able to connect within a minute is
a is a promise that you make right
effectively you you log in within a
minute you can be speaking with others
yeah even even within second like you
can just sign up and you can just go in
the in the room feed and you can click
in a room and start speaking with
someone you can create your own room and
start speaking with someone you can send
request to people and start piing with
someone in private so it can be in real
time it can be also uh as a chat and you
will receive a ton of messages from from
people and this is this is how it works
so we want you to spend time on your pH
and on the platform but by being active
and by having conversation and
discovering yourself and the World by
discussing with other people and not by
being passive and just we waiting in
front of um your phone and
sliding where this is because this is
why people are feeling lonely because
they are passive they don't speak with
other people and at some point at the
end of the of the day when you go out of
those platform you feel bad about
yourself because you said I didn't do
nothing and I was one hour watching
videos and and what did I I learn but
when you've done meaningful conversation
with a group of people and that have the
same interest when you learn sing when
you learn new things about new people
and their history and their life then
you feel good about yourself at the at
the end you know right absolutely even
Facebook's own research shows that
passive media consumption leaves people
worse off and that's why they went
through this whole moment
meaningful social interactions but they
ended up pivoting right back to this
tiktock style of media yeah exactly and
and at some point even with the the
streaming platform and there is a lot of
studies that that shows that at some
point and even in the in the US that you
will buy a big house and you will stay
in your house you will watch a streaming
platform you will order food to your
place and you will stay at your place
and everything is made for you to stay
at your place and to watch a scream and
being passive but nothing is made for
you to just interact with other people
and having meaningful conversation like
we had 50 years ago when we not didn't
have internet and we didn't have phone
and we had to go out to do things
because we were bored well today with
all of this connection you feel more and
more lonely and that's why we are really
yubo and and and we think that social
discovery is the next vertical of social
platform because people need a way to
socialize also online when they're home
yeah it is it is crazy and the way that
you outline that makes me say well it's
no surprise that Society has a
loneliness problem it's like you're
right you work hard to get more space to
yourself to further isolate yourself
from people you sign up for you know
Netflix and HBO and Disney plus and
whatever it is uh to be able to watch
things in the privacy of your own home
you don't even have to go to the
restaurant anymore cuz you can order in
and on eats and then when you're done
with all that and ready to go to sleep
you go on Tic Tac and it's like yeah
exactly and even if you when you go
working you you take the subway and you
are on your phone you don't watch the
face of other people when you go to the
restaurant and you are alone you watch
your phone and when you go in holidays
and you are in the beach you watch your
phone you know you don't anything is
done for you to just speak with other
people you know definitely and it's like
I was also gonna ask you why do you
think people find it so hard so
difficult to um why do people find so
much difficulty offline to connect with
people and it's just because that we we
have like had this is like the way that
you outline our society has isolated us
and we don't have those type of inperson
interactions that we do before and the
options in front of us are often those
mainstream social networks it's like
yeah exactly and and Z even study if you
for for for very young people uh at um
at school when they have a break at some
point they don't even play together they
don't play football they don't play
soccer everyone is on his seat and they
don't do nothing because they are not
used to do activities you know not used
to to speak together and and and I think
that's why this is very important and
and and this is and it has always been a
primary need to socialize with other
people in real life now it's also
primary need to also socialize online in
a very safe way and this is our mission
at at the company and it's interesting
because the Jonathan hey book that's out
about how social media has made teens
depressed uh talks about how if you're
one person in the group who are to
delete let's say some of these passive
uh media channels you would feel cut off
uh but if everybody were to delete it
people would be happier so I think this
idea of like there is this desire for
that type of social connection and
that's a place where you guys really
come in and say hey we have a a better
alternative as opposed to the stuff that
you might be seeing you know in the
primary feeds yeah yeah exactly and at
some point it it it might also to to do
that online it might be a good step also
to do that offline because when you are
on our platform it's safe you have your
profile you meet other people from the
same age from the same interest and you
can start speaking with them on online
and then go offline because we we've
done users interviews and we we we met
with users from the US that were not in
the same state it was like 19 people um
young adults that meet on the platform
three years ago and were meeting in the
first time after spending three years on
the platform sticking together and and
and and having those important kind of
interaction you need in your life to to
to to grow and and to express your set
right and as we're talking there are
some other startups that come to mind
thinking about house party Clubhouse
even this new air chat right and they
all seem to be a way to try to connect
Community uh online they they've gone
through their struggles so what do you
think makes yubo
different yeah so so it's true that we
we have some common common things on the
platform I would say what is almost the
same is the interaction part we with the
live and the fact that everything is in
real time and you are speaking with
other people with with video or with
audio for a clubhouse for for example
but the big difference between those
platform is the first one with a house
party it was that it was with your close
friends and it was the same graph of
people you know and that you are
speaking to on other messaging platform
like WhatsApp FaceTime Snapchat so at
some point house party was just a
feature that those other big platform
could implement and this is what
happened and this is what killed house
party at this at this time and for
Clubhouse so they didn't have video but
they have audio if I if I remember well
I think they still they still exist but
the thing is with uh a clubhouse is that
it was about performance and it was on
the graph of Twitter and it was
something to be connected with your
followers and the followers of your
followers and it wasn't natural
conversation you would have with someone
you don't know and it wasn't it was a
prepared conversation like a talks you
know and you could review the content
you could like the content you could
share the content so for all of those
things again it wasn't a conversation
you would have at a festival at a bar
where with someone you don't know or
with a group of people you don't know
and it was about performance so it was
again a kind of a feature that all
social network could could Implement on
their platform and this is also what
they did you know Spotify implemented a
way to to do a clubhouse and other PL
platform did it h because it was about
performance it was on the same graph of
those platform and it wasn't about
interacting and socializing with other
people yeah it's so interesting as we
talk about it I'm like oh yeah Clubhouse
really was an influencer platform it
wasn't really a conversation platform it
was a influencer platform disguised as
Aver
platform whereas what you're doing is
like quite
different yeah exactly and that's why we
don't have any trans that's why the room
have on average four to five people and
and they they never we we don't have
room with thousand of people in it like
it three small rooms of people
interacting together hanging out having
fun and playing games debating like you
would do if you were in your living room
uh and having a party and with other
people yeah and now let's talk I have
two more topics I want to cover uh the
first is is artificial intelligence
you've brought it up a little bit in
terms of using computer vision to assess
the ages of the people that are signing
up and put them in cohorts I imagine
there's an AI safety uh uh element that
you have as well I would love to hear
about how you're using AI for safety and
then also does it combine into your
Discovery at
all yeah so so to be honest in the
background we use AI everywhere so
mostly on the safety also on the
recommendation part and and also for for
for some pain feature that I will speak
about AIT a bit later but let's start
with safety so everything that is Visual
textural and audio is scan by algorithm
that which flag the bad content to our
safety specialist to either
automatically delete the the bad content
or help our safety specialist to
investigate is there funy to do on the
on the platform we also use AI
proactively for example if you want to
send your phone number privately to
someone on our platform we will warn you
to say hey this is a private information
are you sure you want to share this
information because at some point it can
be dangerous if you if you if you do
that and so we use AI for that we also
use Ai and gen AI for a specific feature
we have on the platform called pixels so
pixels is basically a a feature where
you can offer pixel art to other users
so they can put those pixel art in their
profile and before generative AI we we
were asking artist to create uh those
pixels and we have collection every
month with artist and now we are using
generative AI to create new collection
every every month uh which is uh very
powerful uh we are gaining a lot of time
and um we are capable of creating much
more collection within a month uh and
and having a lot more uh creativity with
that because we don't have to take care
about contract findings artist and it's
we don't pay for that so it's a it's
it's quite crazy and we are also working
on
um assisting our users when they are
making new friends so for the for for
example we we are assisting them when
they are sending private information to
inform them and educate them on what is
dangerous on the application and maybe
at some point we will also help them
start the conversation giving topics of
conversation and helping them
translating what they they translating
things because in real time there is 25%
of users that are speaking with other
users from different country and
sometimes they don't speak the same
languages to be honest for example the
French people they don't speak well
English so it can be complicated for
them to interact with American people so
AI can really help for that that's so
cool yeah just this ability for AI to
help break down these boundaries is
awesome it reminds me of there was this
Google uh I think it was a prototype or
commercial that they teased a couple
years ago where they had these glasses
that trans would translate what people
are saying in real time and help break
down language boundaries and I think
we're just getting closer and closer to
that so it's very cool to hear that
you're thinking about that speaking of
France uh here we are we're speaking
with a French uh tech company your
website says something like made uh From
Paris With Love
and isn't this a moment for French Tech
I mean speaking with you there's mrr
which is really making some noise in the
artificial intelligence World talk a
little bit about what it's like being a
tech entrepreneur in France and am I
right in thinking your country is really
having a moment right now as far as Tech
development
goes no no you're right right it's true
it's true it's been almost 10 years I
would say even more that the French
entrepreneurs are raising and especially
in a consumer and AI field because there
is more and more entrepreneur that are
succeeding investing in the in other
entrepreneurs giving advices to to to to
us and there is a lot of meetups and
more and more money from the VC to
invest and the government is also
helping a lot uh with uh with taxes and
and giving loan with very low rate for
company to to to to stop so there is
everything in France to succeed at some
point and we also have the best engineer
and they are not expensive I mean it's
four time less expensive than in the US
but engine are very very good especially
on the research and development field
and on the coding field we are quite
good I think that Facebook and apple
open um and also Google open research
and development in AI in France because
we have very strong uh Engineers here
and I can attest me and munder we come
from engineer school and we know that we
have very strong uh potential here so I
think that's why um we we we are
succeeding so so far yeah and of course
one of my favorite uh thinkers to speak
with on AI is Yan Lon another man from
France yeah exactly ex definitely
elevating um elevating the whole field
really uh and uh it's been cool to watch
this rise well Sasha yeah there is also
photo
photo I know the guys that photo is are
great there is also a lot of gaming comp
like mad BS H gam that are very very
poor F and and emerging today I think I
need to you know book a flight uh over
to go see the country which I've been to
once and very much enjoyed and also meet
the terrific Tech entrepreneurs out
there Sasha thank you so much for
joining it was great speaking with you
congrats with everything that you're
doing with yubo uh for people who are
interested in downloading the app and
getting started what would you recommend
they do
I recommend they they go on our website.
live they can go on the Apple store or
on the Play store and they can download
the app right away and within a minute
start speaking with with other people
Sasha aimi great speaking with you
thanks for joining us here on YouTube
thank you thank you thank you edex all
right everybody thanks for watching
we'll be back with a new video shortly