About

Sarahah is an anonymous social network and mobile messaging app created by Saudi Arabian developer Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq that originally launched as a web-based application in November 2016. Following its initial viral takeoff in the Arabic-speaking region, the service expanded into mobile with the release of a messaging app on Apple iTunes and Google Play in June 2017. Upon its release, the app quickly gained traction among teenagers in the English-speaking region.

History

Sarahah^[1] (meaning "honesty" or "freakness" in Arabic) was developed by Saudi Arabian computer scientist Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq, who originally envisioned the service as a way for employees to anonymously share their honest feedback about their employers, and initially launched as a social networking site in November 2016.

"Are you ready for honesty? Get constructive criticism from friends and colleagues, in total anonymity."

After its debut, Sarahah saw moderate success in Arabic-speaking countries, though THE SERVICE didn't quite take off until January 2017, when Tawfiq decided to take a different approach in marketing the service by sharing it with his friends whom he considered to be "connectors," or social influencers, as defined in Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 nonfiction book The Tipping Point.

Regional Success

Tawfiq's new approach in spreading the words of his website proved to be quite effective, with the number of signups skyrocketing from around 70 users to over 1,000 users in the span of just a few days in January 2017. Shortly after its viral spread across Saudi Arabia, Sarahah quickly snowballed into one of the most popular up-and-coming social networks across the Arabic-speaking region at large, including Lebanon, Tunisia, and most notably, Egypt. According to Tawfiq, by the time Sarahah reached Egypt, the service had more than 3 million registered users.

Mobile App

Encouraged by the widespread success of Sarahah in Arab countries, Tawfiq then proceeded to expand beyond the regional market by developing an English-language version of the service as a mobile messaging app in the spring of 2017. The app was released for both iOS and Android on June 13th. Upon its mobile debut, Sarahah saw a notable influx of signups from Canada, a trend which Tawfiq has since attributed to the Arab expatriates living in the country, followed by widespread adoption in other English-speaking countries like the United States and Australia, particularly among gossip-obsessed teenagers who were drawn by the anonymous commentary feature of the app.

Features

The app allows users to search for others on the platform who they may know and send them anonymous messages, mostly questions or comments on the recipient, either anonymously or using their profile names. As with many other similar services, the ability to share anonymous commentaries has been the main drive behind the popularity of Sarahah, although the success of the app in the English-speaking regions has been also attributed to its close integration with the popular messaging service Snapchat. The app also allows users to apply filters to control who can send them messages.

Reception

Upon the initial release of the English-language mobile app in June 2017, the website received more than two million unique daily visitors during the first week. Following Snapchat's update on July 5th, which enabled its users to import messages from Sarahah into their snaps, the app began to rapidly climb the charts on Apple iTunes and Google Play stores, where it soon became the most downloaded app for both iOS and Android users in the span of just about two weeks.

Concerns

Similar to its predecessors like Formspring, Ask.fm, Yik Yak, the app has drawn concerns about cyberbullying, mainly due to its popular usage among teenagers and the anonymous nature of interactions that take place on the platform. On July 18th, Business Insider reported on the risk of cyberbullying on Sarahah, quoting several wary reviews of the app from iTunes^[2] and Google Play^[3] stores. On July 27th, New York Magazine^[7] interviewed several teenagers who have use the app, most of whom acknowledged its susceptibility to online harassment, though they "didn’t seem too concerned" about it being an issue (shown below).

Traffic

According to Tawfiq, the app has accrued more than 14 million registered users since its launch, as well as over 20 million unique daily visitors to the app and the website in aggregate. As of late July 2017, Sarahah.com is ranked as the 102nd most popular website in Saudi Arabia, according to Alexa.

Search Interest

External References