Have you heard of an app called “Poparazzi”? It’s a booming teen sensation and now #1 on the App Store. Ninety-three million selfies are taken every day, which works out to 64,583 narcissistic photos per minute. The selfie craze has plagued the world for decades. It fueled a never-ending quest for the perfect photo of yourself to share with the world in a self-aggrandizing pursuit of a glamorous existence. So much so that we even have a selfie day – June 21! Like Bill Nye, the man of science, if you feel like “selfie fatigue” is shortening your life, Poparazzi is a way to put the photographer in you behind.
What is Poparazzi?
There’s no front camera, so selfies are a no-brainer. Instead, users take photos of their friends and tag them, mimicking a paparazzi shot.
A user’s profile consists of photos taken by their friends. Users also have the ability to limit who can take pictures of them and which photos appear on their profile.
“We built Poparazzi to remove the pressure to be perfect,” the company wrote in a Medium post announcing its launch. “We did this by not letting you post photos of yourself and putting the focus where it should have been all along: the people you’re with.
In a way, Poparazzi is similar to Dispo in that they both promote candid images with an element of sharing. Both are less about tweaking for Instagram and more about capturing the moment as it is.
Co-founded by popular YouTuber David Dobrik, Dispo was a hot new photo-sharing app a few months ago when it raised $20 million in Series A led by Spark Capital in February. However, the following month, the app became embroiled in controversy after allegations of rape were made against one of Dobrik’s former associates.
Poparazzi’s public launch comes as more people receive their COVID-19 vaccines and the company begins to reopen. According to SignalFire lead investor and chief content officer Josh Constine, Poparazzi could be “the perfect app for the ‘hot summer of vax.’
“The app could epitomize post-pandemic gatherings with friends the way the Clubhouse epitomized physical isolation from friends at the start of the lockdown last year,” Constine wrote in a blog post yesterday.
Here’s how Poparazzi works
A user’s Poparazzi profile is split between photos they take of their friends and photos they take themselves. The profile also shows which users are most often caught on camera.
In the app, users simply take a quick photo and then tag their friends. The photos are designed to be candid and the app does not allow cropping, captioning, filters or editing.
Tagged photos don’t appear on a user’s account unless the accounts follow each other, although the app automatically tracks everyone in an individual’s phonebook once downloaded. Each profile also gets a “pop” score that tracks how many photos you take. Co-founders Poparazzi Austen and Alex Ma. Paparazzi But two years after Poparazzi’s splashy launch, the company said on April 28 that it was shutting down its app in an announcement posted to Medium. While the app amassed 1.1 million monthly active users (MAUs) in 2021, that number has dropped to around 3,000, according to data from Sensor Tower.
“Our journey to Poparazzi began 4 years ago with a simple goal: to authentically connect people,” wrote Alex Ma in a Medium post. What started as a weekend hustle turned into something much bigger than we could have ever imagined. Along the way, millions of people joined us and they built a more authentic, honest online community—one that eased the pressure of social media and celebrated our friendships.”
Overall, unlike most social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat, which focus on adding more filters and elements, Poparazzi is all about limiting features and simplifying the platform.. And none of this would be possible without the support of the most supportive group of world-class investors,” Alex Ma wrote in the announcement. “To our community, we are so grateful for the support and faith you have shown us throughout our journey.
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