All work stopped in the Music Ally office yesterday, briefly, as we tried to get our heads around a new iPhone app called Yo. It’s so simple it seems like a parody: you add friends, then tap on their names to send them single-word ‘Yo’ messages. And they can ‘Yo’ you back. It does nothing else. An amusing satire of overhyped social apps, you might think, but now for the surprises. At the time of writing, Yo is the 12th most popular free iPhone app in the US, ahead of Facebook, YouTube, Google Maps, WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook’s new Slingshot app (which is down in 72nd, incidentally). Surprise two: Yo has raised $1m of seed funding. ONE MILLION DOLLARS for an app that says ‘Yo’. Again, not satire. Tech site Valleywag has an interview with one of its investors: “It’s crazy, it’s viral, the engagement is unbelievable,” explains Moshe Hogeg, CEO of apps firm Mobli who personally chipped in $200k. “Yo is more than a yo. I have no idea if it’s going to succeed.” We’re now abandoning our World Cup sweepstake to bet instead on which musicians will be first to adopt the platform. Snoop Dogg, OK Go or Justin Bieber: place your bets now.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…