AUSTIN — Don’t think of Yik Yak as a ravel - of - the - mill anonymous app . The social net has alreadyconquered college campuses , and its founder are setting their stack higher : becoming the next Twitter .
Yik Yak founder Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington are n’t your distinctive social internet CEOs . They endure in Atlanta , generally ward off the press , and are focused more on mother the app into more college - aged hired man than designing something pretty . Yik Yak was glance over over the coals in its early days for being kind of hideous , but incredibly effective . That foreigner position could be why Droll and Buffington do n’t think double about take on Twitter .
Yik Yak was quite active during its founder ’ SXSW panel .
Yik Yak is a position - based meeting place that dribble chatter to your locating ( or up to 10 miles off ) . Despite criticism over its define characteristic , anonymity , which has the potential to lead to bullying , Droll and Buffington believe cast name levels the playing study for users to have conversation . They also claim location is a more utilitarian conversation filter than a hashtag .
Twitter latterly previewed alocation - based timeline , which Yik Yak considers a signaling that location will be the next heavy matter .
“ We did n’t know it was coming but it was a nice shoutout from Twitter , ” Droll enunciate during a panel at South by Southwest Interactive . “ It highlight the power of sourcing capacity from the priming around a news situation , versus follow a hashtag that could descend from anywhere in the worldly concern . I ’m curious to see how it plays out , because it ’s not core to their experience . People come up on to play along private profiles , whereas on Yik Yak people come on to follow a location . ”
Yik Yak also has a “ Peek Anywhere ” feature that get you check in on what drug user in other situation are talking about , which has the potential to be useful in breaking word situations . Yik Yak seems ripe for skill , but Twitter has n’t tried to buy the company ( yet ) .
Stopping the spread of cyberbullying
About 95 percent of Yik Yak exploiter are in college , so the app has a vastly unlike demographic than Twitter . But as the app expand to post - grad students and then metropolis in the next yr , Droll and Buffington are prepared to make changes so anonymity does n’t lead to viciousness .
So far , the society has create a leaning of blackball word that can never be posted in any context of use . It has an in - house team to deal with serious effect on the platform , plus an outsourced regular army of moderators . repetition offender will be suspend from the app . When you ’re composing a cackle , the app scans your text edition for cardinal discussion , like menacing language and real names , in reception to eminent - visibility incidents of cyber - intimidation and fake threat .
“ We have n’t had afake dud threaton Yik Yak in a foresighted clock time , ” Buffington say . “ If we observe you ’re posting something potentially threatening , a pop - up comes up and allege , ‘ It looks like you ’re posting something threatening . Just want you to know that Yik Yak and law enforcement take this hooey seriously . ’ All of the instances where it happened , they determine the kid and the soul said , ‘ I thought it would be funny . ’ Thomas Kid are kind of stupid sometimes . ”
Yik Yak also employ geofencing to block high schools from being able to open up the app because they ’re not ripe enough to cover namelessness responsibly . When the app expands internationally , commence with Canada , Britain , and Australia , the company will geofence every school prior to launch . The society is sticking to college kids as its master audience , at least for now .
“ That ’s the most powerful demographic to have , college campuses , ” Buffington said . “ In a lot of ways , they ’re tastemakers for not only America , but the world . Any large societal internet has to pass the sniff exam by college students before it goes anywhere else . ”
College students want to share picture and videos , so anticipate Yik Yak to add that capability soon — once the company figures out how to appropriate video- and photo - sharing while maintaining anonymity .
