30,000 new users per hour

Tbh founder Nikita Bier is back with Gas, a new social app that de-throned TikTok and BeReal. Read more below.

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“My first thought when I saw this thing was: Does this really exist?” one user commented on Movio’s launch. Same, Lucas, same.

“A savant for understanding the psychology of 15 year olds” is the consensus we’ve been seeing on Twitter about maker Nikita Bier.

You might remember Bier as the founder of tbh, the anonymous social network for complimenting others, but also one of the fastest acquisitions – tbh got acquired by Meta (Facebook back then) 48 days after launch.

Gas, which dethroned TikTok and BeReal as the #1 social app on the App Store, goes by the same principles, inviting high schoolers to boost each other up by answering multiple-choice prompts like “always looks good in pictures.” Despite the app’s roll-out being limited to only a few US states so far, as of this morning, Gas is acquiring a whopping 30,000 users per hour who are answering a total of over 3M+ polls (yes, per hour).

Hyper-growth like that doesn’t just go unnoticed, especially when we’re talking competitors. Gas is reportedly battling a human trafficking hoax, which, according to the team’s initial investigations, seems to be linked to “many IPs originating from China.”

The consumer social space is notoriously tough to be in. BeReal’s recent success is proof of that. According to research from Sensor Tower, despite its high number of installs (14M in September alone), only 9% of Android users open the app daily, compared to an average of 30% for behemoths like Instagram and TikTok.

After a year of news of the ultra-wealthy trying to acquire social platforms, it’s refreshing to see a product wanting to bring positivity into the world. Let’s hope the big players take note.