Untold Success Story of Sarahah: The Anonymous Honesty App That Took The App Store By Storm

Are you on Sarahah? The anonymous messaging app is on top of the download charts these days and here’s everything that you might be looking for about this mysterious app!

Downloaded by millions of people across the globe, the app has managed to hit #1 in App Store in 30 countries including the US, UK, and France (As per the 1 month stats mentioned in its official tweet). Within its very first month of launch, Sarahah enjoyed more than 250 millions visitors and 1 billion page views!!!

The phenomenal performance of the honesty app seems pretty startling and of course mind-bending to app makers. Given the record-breaking figures, people are trying to know more about its usability, origin, and what made it so successful!

You too interested? Dive in and find out every nook and cranny about this new, most hyped honesty app.

So basically what’s Sarahah and Honesty App?

Meaning honesty in Arabic, Sarahah is an interesting concept created as an anonymous way to offer supportive criticism in the workplace. It is meant for team members for somewhat secret one-way communication…at least that was the idea of the makers initially!

Here are some enticing facts about the app in brief:

Developed by Tawfiq, the concept was finally launched as an app after its success in Arab. With contribution of a third-party company, an iOS app was introduced to the App Store on June 13, 2017. That was the time the app first became available in English. Within its first week only, it received over 2 mn unique visitors.

On July 5, Snapchat also released a new update and just three days after this, for the first time, Sarahah jumped to top 1500 apps in App Store (as stated by analytics by Sensor Tower). Post 4 days, it again promoted to 104th position. Then 2 days later, the rank was #17 and finally three days later, Sarahah surpassed the records and claimed #1 position on the App Store. This made it leave behind all the major social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and rest of the popular platforms.

 

What made Sarahah buzz of the town?

Only positive word of mouth couldn’t be credited as the sole reason for record-breaking performance of the app. Coming over to the business point of view, there’s something more than the hypes. We tried to look deep on to the app and other factors and here’s what we found equally responsible for its success.

For a regular user, the app brings a new, innovative, and engaging app which offers them a way to connect to the people they know without those people knowing anything about “who sent what!” This is the first reason why Sarahah gained so much popularity from users across the globe. Yes we know that there have been some similar like Yik Yak, After School, and Secret in the recent and far away past, yet there’s something about it that lures the people.

Also, the idea that it’s the latest option available right now and has somewhat brought back the old concept the new way has also triggered users to secretly share their thoughts about the people they know.

This idea of an anonymous app at the time when people are so involved in social networks and communication is yet another plus point.

 

From the business eye…THE SNOWBALL EFFECT…

The app seems to have followed the snowball effect, which is characterized by people being influenced by their friends and colleagues for something and then joining the same row. Let’s make it clear to you with the help of an example.

 

You are probably on Sarahah now…ever guessed why!!!

Let’s say one of your friend shared his/her Sarahah profile link with you inviting you to share your thoughts about them secretly. You ignored first but tempted to find out what it is and finally clicked the link.

You saw the page and found it interesting to leave comments about your friends that they wouldn’t find out you sent. Then you thought why you should be different and you created an account and shared your profile link with your friend as well.

That’s where the whole game begins. This SHARING is the base of Sarahah getting viral tremendously all over the social media as users have been posting the comments they received ever since they joined the app.

***A few people checked out the app, they shared the link and comments with their friends or public on different social networks, and then more people joined it….and the series continued***

Now interestingly, a normal user doesn’t calculate and do the aftermath. People try something for a reason or for nothing, they like it and they connect with it. But business doesn’t go like that. If the app is at the top of App Store today, it is owing to several factors that contributed towards its success.

From marketing perspective, Sarahah seems to have been successful due to the hype created by people and strong presence of social networks to promote and share it.

If you understand the idea, you will be able to know why the previous apps couldn’t be that successful…due to less craze and role of social media in their lives.

There are some other things as well that make it somewhat better:

• Revived version of the old concept
• Better interface and UI
• Social media kick
• Of course, positive word of mouth and the viral stage

And it’s secret you know~!

 

What can be improved?

Even though the app is on the hitlist of users these days, there are a few points we’d like it to add or improve, including:

• No options to delete sent comments.
• If you don’t have app version, you won’t be able to share the comments directly from within the app.
• Too many spams.

 

Beware of the SPAMS…

Soon after people joined the app, they have been receiving spam messages with the name of Sarahah for eg, Sarahahcheck.com, Sarahahemoji.com.

These spams invite you to download third-party apps in exchange of revealing usernames of anonymous senders. Users are recommended to ignore and keep a check on such spams and share no information on such sites.

These spams invite you to download third-party apps in exchange of revealing usernames of anonymous senders. Users are recommended to ignore and keep a check on such spams and share no information on such sites.

 

Our Opinion

Well it might be too early to comment anything on the app yet the benchmark it has set within such a short span is worth analysis. So we paid a little attention and came to the thought that Sarahah seems to be an interesting app with potential to sustain longer. Yet for now, it is no exception to flaws and needs a couple of improvements in some aspects.

Despite the doubts regarding how anonymous the app really is or the involvement of spammy third-party apps and ads, the platform is anyhow able to engage users and might be expected to come up with something different and new features in the near future (that’s what we hope). Keeping all this aside, Sarahah seems fun and something unusual than the regular FB, Twitter, or WhatsApp, which makes it more appealing to us and to everyone around.