Sarahah Explained

Sarahah
Company Type:Social networking
Foundation:[1]
Location Country:Saudi Arabia
Area Served:Worldwide
Founder:Zain-Alabdin Tawfiq
Registration:Required for receiving feedback; optional for giving it
Current Status:Defunct
Industry:Internet
Language Count:13
Advertising:Yes
Website Type:Social Networking
Num Users:14 million

Sarahah (Arabic: صراحة|ṣarāḥa) was a Saudi Arabian social networking service for providing constructive feedback. In Arabic, sarahah means "frankness" or "honesty".

Sarahah allowed people to text messages to others and the person reading that could then reply anonymously. Initially, it was meant for workers to compliment their bosses. Spam was frequent, sent by third-party apps claiming to be able to reveal the usernames of anonymous senders.

History

It was created by Zain-Alabdin Tawfiq at the end of 2016 and reached a sudden worldwide success by mid-2017. This growth is considered to be deeply related with the release of a Snapchat update that allowed people to share URLs on their snaps.[2]

It was released on the US Apple App Store on 13 June 2017, and also had users in several other countries including Canada, India, and Lebanon. An update was released by Snapchat on July 5. Within two weeks, it was at the number 1 position. The rise was also seen in a Google Trends report.[3]

On 26 August 2017, it was reported that the Sarahah mobile app quietly uploads the user's address book to its web servers.[4]

On 12 January 2018, Katrina Collins, after friends of her 13-year-old daughter sent her abusive messages, started a petition to have the app banned.[5] The petition gained nearly 470,000 supporters. Both Apple and Google had removed the app from their stores.[6] [7]

In 2019, Sarahah launched a iOS app called Enoff (pronounced “enough”) which was aimed at employee activism and unfair practices.[8]

On 15 December 2021, Zain-Alabdin Tawfiq announced via Twitter: This was retweeted by Sarahah's Twitter account.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The story of Sarahah, the app that's dominating the App Store . Bell. Karissa. 23 July 2017. Mashable. 2 August 2017.
  2. Web site: Can Sarahah survive the trolls?. Bradshaw. Tim. 28 July 2017. Financial Times. 2 August 2017 .
  3. Web site: Google Trends . 2024-04-12 . Google Trends . en-GB.
  4. Web site: Hit App Sarahah Quietly Uploads Your Address Book. Grauer. Yael. 27 August 2017. The Intercept. 27 August 2017 .
  5. Web site: 'Did I miss something?': Dolly's friend makes emotional statement. 12 January 2018. Special Broadcasting Service . 12 January 2018.
  6. News: Sarahah: Anonymous app dropped from Apple and Google stores after bullying accusations . 26 February 2018 . . 27 February 2018.
  7. News: Sarahah: Popular anonymous messaging app blamed for making abuse easy is kicked off iPhone and Android . 26 February 2018 . . 27 February 2018.
  8. Web site: Lunden . Ingrid . 2019-01-31 . After bans from Apple and Google, Sarahah debuts Enoff, an iOS app for anonymous feedback at work . 2024-04-12 . TechCrunch . en-US.