1) What is Yo?
Yo is a mobile messaging app available for iOS and Android devices. You establish a username. Then a friend who also uses Yo can select your username inside his app and you will receive a push notification reading: "Yo" and featuring audio of a voice stating "Yo."
2) That's it?
Yes.
3) Is this a joke?
No. Yo is very real, I have downloaded it myself and Yo-ed with Vox.com senior UX developer Yuri Victor. According to the Financial Times the company recently raised $1 million in venture capital.
4) A million dollars?
Yep.
5) What are some non-app uses of Yo?
Yo is a popular informal English-language greeting. It's also the title of a Chris Brown song:
6) Who is behind Yo?
Yo is the brainchild of Or Arbel, a former iOS developer at the image-sharing company Mobli. Arbel had left Mobli to work on a not-yet-released product called Stox. Arbel's former boss at Mobli, Moshe Hogeg, asked Arbel to "to make an app with one big button that could call his assistant without having to pick up the phone or compose a text message." Arbel initially refused, pleading a lack of time, but then hit upon the idea of switching the conceit up slightly to the brief greeting that is now the app's namesake. The $1 million investment comes from Hogeg's angel investment fund.
7) Are people using Yo?
According to Tim Bradshaw, as of the end of June 17 "50,000 users have now signed up to Yo and sent a total of 4m messages — 2m of which were in the last month." Bradshaw's article has spurred considerable additional interest in the app so the numbers are surely much higher than that today.
8) Has the world gone entirely mad?
Perhaps. People have been looking for a new tech bubble for years long before there was any evidence of one, and now we have some real evidence — see Judd Legum for the case. Totally ridiculous novelty companies attracting seven figure investments. The smartphone product category in general was badly overestimated during the first couple of years of Apple's iPhone, and a range of smartphone app categories (gaming, messaging, etc.) have also badly outperformed the conventional wisdom. When that happens, the conventional wisdom tends to recalibrate. And now you have people investing a million bucks in an app that just sends "yo" to people.
In a non-novelty context, the idea is that people may want to sign up for ultra-simple notifications. If you add the user WORLDCUP on Yo, it will notify you every time a team scores a goal. Then you can make sure to look up and catch the replay. Arbel says he's hoping to commercialize Yo by turning it into a platform for companies to alert people to when they're running sales. Here's the Yo API for developers:
Some example use cases:
— A blog can Yo the readers whenever a new post is published. Imagine getting a Yo From PRODUCTHUNT.
— An online store can Yo its customers whenever a new product is offered. Imagine getting a Yo From JENNASHOPIFY.
— A football club can Yo the fans whenever the team scores a touchdown. Imagine getting a Yo From THE49ERS.
— An ice-cream truck can Yo the kids when it's around the corner.... Imagine getting a Yo From THEICECREAMTRUCK.
Keep in mind each service can only Yo its subscribers once per day and they can unsubscribe at anytime
9) That's the plan?
Apparently. You should probably think of this as a general illustration of the principle that investing in early-stage startups is not really a rational act. Hogeg has the money to spare (apparently), has a relationship with Arbel, probably enjoys this media attention, and stands at least a sliver of a chance of somehow making this investment pay off. So why not?
:lulz: :lulz: :lulz:
Oh fuck, this actually appears to be a real thing!
It's probably not even the stupidest thing you could throw cash at either which just makes it even funnier.
As an aside, some of the reviews for this app are hilarious.
In the Beginning
there was Chaos,
the vast immeasurable abyss,
Outrageous as a sea,
dark, wasteful, wild.
Did no one learn anything from the dotcom bust? ... people?... learn?... okay forget I said anything :lulz:
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on June 19, 2014, 10:05:06 PM
Did no one learn anything from the dotcom bust? ... people?... learn?... okay forget I said anything :lulz:
The dotcom bubble only burst because it relied on fiat currency. With the power of bitcoin its a straight shot from here to the singularity.
Maybe this thing is still young enough that I can take over the contextual notification space with a HODOR app.
That would be awesome.
In fact, getting a "HODOR" when a new game of thrones is about to air would also be quite amusing. There's certainly potential here for some things. If you can flip the app for a quick few million, why the fuck not?
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140612&id=17694864
Especially as 140 letters seems to be losing it's appeal.
I would only buy a Hodor app with dogecoins. Because, y'know, internet.
You would.
The world is built on people buying tat exactly like this. I'm predicting success as soon as you can send/customise your own word.
It's the penultimate evolution of Twitter. The ultimate evolution being the ability to send a single character.
!
Alright I signed up for Yo
This is the dumbest app ever, and it's hysterical
I was blasting my girlfriend with Yo's until she took away my phone
It has that "oh my god this is so dumb I immediately have to sign up and tell 10 friends" kind of feeling that I had when somebody told me about Myspace in 2003. They were like "IT'S A SITE WHERE WE CAN BE FRIENDS. NOT LIKE THE REAL WORLD, LIKE INTERNET FRIENDS. AND WHEN I POST PICTURES OF MY FACE YOU CAN COMMENT ON THEM"
at the time, we laughed, because that sounded stupid as fuck. It would never work!
Okay so my Yo name is "CRAMULUS". I expect all of you assholes to download Yo and Yo me immediately.
The only thing stopping me from getting this right now is how badly I abused the "Mr. T in your pocket". Junkenwife nearly beat me to death with my own shins because of how much and often I pitied fools.
Quote from: Cramulus on June 20, 2014, 03:41:55 PM
Alright I signed up for Yo
This is the dumbest app ever, and it's hysterical
I was blasting my girlfriend with Yo's until she took away my phone
It has that "oh my god this is so dumb I immediately have to sign up and tell 10 friends" kind of feeling that I had when somebody told me about Myspace in 2003. They were like "IT'S A SITE WHERE WE CAN BE FRIENDS. NOT LIKE THE REAL WORLD, LIKE INTERNET FRIENDS. AND WHEN I POST PICTURES OF MY FACE YOU CAN COMMENT ON THEM"
at the time, we laughed, because that sounded stupid as fuck. It would never work!
Okay so my Yo name is "CRAMULUS". I expect all of you assholes to download Yo and Yo me immediately.
I, also, downloaded Yo. My friends are going to kill me. I view it as revenge for Twitter.
TWITTER = OVER
FACEBOOK = OVER
TUMBLR = OVER
MYSPACE = OVER
WIKIPEDIA = OVER
ALL MADE REDUNDANT BY YO APP
my coworkers have gotta be getting pretty pissed at this point. My phone won't stop Yo'ing. Whatever, fuck them.
You're a crazy asshole, and that's why I love you.
I don't know how, but you've made the dumbest app in the world actually sound appealing.
The app has been hacked already: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459816,00.asp
Awwww
Yeah, but the hack made it so instead of "Yo", it looped Rick Astley. :lol:
Quote from: Sita on June 20, 2014, 07:48:02 PM
The app has been hacked already: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459816,00.asp
Oh man, this is impressive!
Is this a generic weakness in apps or is it just that the makers of Yo decided that support for anything other than text and soundfiles would be a good idea?
No wait, I just realised that access to teh code would allow you to do anything with this that any other app could.
I has teh dumb, its a good thing i don't have a smartphone i would make every stupid mistake there is.
WHOEVER MADE MY PHONE SAY "YO" x 10
AT 4 IN THE MORNING
TOUCHE
:lulz: :lulz: :lulz:
BEST INVENTION THIS YEAR.
DATA BREACH.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-joke-is-on-yo-and-all-its-users/
Quote from: The American Conservative
Yo is what happens when a creative economy spirals so far into self-parody that such distinctions are forgotten, and it takes the most absurd of reminders to reinforce them.
I've got that reminder right here: Yo
Between Yo and the tickle-fetish conspiracy, I am loving the way the 21st century is shaping up.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on June 23, 2014, 08:46:59 PM
DATA BREACH.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-joke-is-on-yo-and-all-its-users/
from the article:
QuoteThe culture that produced Yo is grappling with what Nathan Jurgenson has called "digital dualism," the idea that "online" and "offline," "physical" and "digital," are meaningful and separate categories that can be mapped onto different parts of life. Yo is what happens when a creative economy spirals so far into self-parody that such distinctions are forgotten, and it takes the most absurd of reminders to reinforce them.
that's apt
And people say Yo (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/07/10/history_s_most_pointless_app_will_tell_you_about_rocket_strikes_in_israel) is pointless:
QuoteThe popular mobile app "Yo" has been described as the most pointless tech start-up to recently receive major funding. The idea is like a parody of post-modern life: An app for "post-text" communication that does nothing but send the message "yo" to your friends. That's it -- and it has $1 million in funding. Now, it's been reimagined as a tool in Israel's war against Hamas.
Developed by Israeli coders, Red Alert complements the army's warning sirens that alerts Israelis to incoming rockets. Now, Red Alert has partnered with Yo to send "yo"s anytime a siren sounds in Israel. The idea is to use this form of "post-text" communication to keep users informed of events around Israel. Each time a rocket triggers the system, you get a "yo"
Edited to undo the stupid threadjack.
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