BeReal thinks it can capitalize on TikTok’s uncertainty with ads. Are they even competitors?

We’ve come a long way since Facebook was the only social network on the web. Now we have a sizable handful of major platforms–and an even bigger handful of up-and-coming platforms, some of which, like Kick, have become adept at taking advantage of bigger fishes’ falterings.

BeReal is aiming to do just that. Launched in 2020, the French photo app pitched itself as a hub of candid authenticity, where users would post one unfiltered, unedited picture (of themselves, their surroundings, their loved ones, etc) every day in response to a timed prompt. Basically, it idealized itself as an escape from the uberglitz luxe lifestyle world of Instagram, and advertised to potential users with taglines like, “BeReal won’t make you famous.”

In its early days, BeReal was also pretty anti-ad. Operations over the past five years have been powered by $90 million in funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz. When Digiday asked BeReal in 2022 what it planned to do when that cash ran out, it didn’t answer.

Now, we know: It’s going to, like Instagram, start relying on ads.

To be clear, BeReal has been running ads outside the U.S. from over 200 brands for a while now, hitting regions like France, the U.K., Italy, and Germany. (It’s also worth noting that the usual digital-savvy brands, like Chipotle and e.l.f. cosmetics, have already been meeting U.S. consumers on BeReal, without the involvement of a formal ad program. Both brands jumped into TikTok ads early, too.) But this is the first time it’s targeting stateside users with marketing. Why choose this moment to debut American ads?

There are two reasons. Ben Moore, who is joining BeReal as Managing Director of U.S. and will be leading its U.S. ad push, told Digiday that (1) he sees marketing budgets growing tighter, and (2) the uncertainty around TikTok could have advertisers looking for somewhere else to run less polished, Gen Z-targeted marketing.

“From what I’ve heard from my contacts on the agency and brand side in the U.S., there’s a need for an alternative to the polished, less authentic content that users are consuming and they are seeing a rebalance of ecosystems,” he said about ad budgets. “Agencies are definitely reevaluating where they show up and that’s where we come in.”

About TikTok, he said that amidst the ongoing will-it-won’t-it ban talk, “we feel like friends and agencies are ready to pull the trigger and shift some of those budgets to BeReal.”

BeReal has been building its U.S. ad side for six months, testing with an undisclosed number of Fortune 500 companies and hiring an internal team of around 10 people. Digiday reports that advertisers who want to put their stuff on BeReal have to commit a minimum spend of $10,000. Once they do, they’ll get access to two ad formats–targeted in-feed ads and 24-hour, high-placement takeovers (the same vibe as YouTube’s masthead).

Moore advises brands start with in-feed ads, which are “one of our best-selling ad units because it’s the most seamless and non-intrusive format that has worked on other platforms in the past.” Both Instagram and TikTok–which BeReal appears to view as a competitor–run in-feed ads.

BeReal doesn’t intend to stop with in-feed and takeovers. Moore said it’s developing boosted posts, where brands will be able to pay to boost UGC from the app’s 40 million users.

The question is whether BeReal can actually sieve away some ad dollars from TikTok. The ByteDance-owned platform is technically on a tightrope, but it has a veritable smorgasbord of potential suitors, and seems confident about its ability to continue operations in the U.S.

BeReal and TikTok’s audiences were probably similar in 2020–Gen Z and young millennials looking for a rawer approach to social media–but TikTok has come far from its post-straight-from-your-phone roots. Sure, a fair share of candid, memeable videos go viral, but many top creators are putting high-quality production resources into their TikTok content. And if BeReal still thinks it can be a platform that doesn’t make people famous–aka a platform without creators–we’re not sure how far it’ll get.