Discord, a chat service, recently disclosed that it has purchased Gas, a popular app among teenagers for its upbeat take on social media.
Users of Gas register with their institution, add friends and respond to surveys about their peers. The poll questions, however, are meant to increase users’ confidence rather than undermine it. Teenagers may be asked to select one of four peers as the best DJ or smiler.
The chosen individual will then receive an anonymous message with a compliment from an ambiguous “guy in 10th grade” or “female in 11th grade” sender.
Nikita Bier, the creator of the app Gas, previously sold a similar one called tbh to Facebook in 2017. Tbh has since been discontinued.
Since its inception in the summer of 2022, Gas has had 7.4 million installs and approximately $7 million in user spending, according to statistics from Sensor Tower. A premium option called “God Mode,” which provides users with suggestions about who their secret flatterers are is available to users.
Gas got gassed up on the Today Show this morning https://t.co/qEJfMp7M2Z
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 10, 2023
In a statement, Discord stated that Gas will “currently continue as its own standalone app” and that the Gas team would “join Discord to help our efforts to continue to develop across new and core audiences.” Bier said that Gas has four team members as of October.
Gas has had a bumpy exit, despite its rapid rise in popularity. Even though the widespread sex trafficking rumor was untrue, it had an effect on the app’s download numbers.
As a result of this fraud, Bier informed the Washington Post that he and his crew got hundreds of violent death threats. IRL and WalkSafe, two other popular social media apps, have also been accused of human trafficking without evidence.
One of the anonymous apps that have gained popularity recently is Gas. Others are based on praise, while others are not. TechCrunch discovered, however, that apps like NGL and Sendit were simulating contact with bots. These apps let users pay to see who asked inquiries in a similar way to Gas.
When it was discovered that these questions hadn’t actually come from their friends, some customers understandably felt duped. In the meantime, 9count, the business behind Spark and Summer, is developing a product called nocapp that is comparable to Gas.
Discord recently announced that it would integrate a number of apps into its servers, despite the fact that it will continue to operate Gas as a standalone product for the time being. Therefore, it’s feasible that these favorable community surveys will eventually appear on the messaging platform.
The announcement from Discord stated, “We’re thrilled to welcome Gas to the Discord community as our next step to achieve that vision. We’re always working to create an inclusive world where no one feels like an outcast.
The financial details of Gas’s acquisition by Discord were not made public.
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