
Yo - rahij
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/18/yo-yo/
======
jacquesm
> Without ever having officially launched, co-founder and CEO Or Arbel managed
> to secure $1.2 million in funding from a list of unnamed investors, except
> for co-founder, angel, and Mobli CEO Moshe Hogeg, who participated in the
> round.

Stuff like that really gets me. I see tons of start-ups that would have a
fighting chance given that sort of investment and then lame stuff like this
gets funding. Of course they're entirely free to spend their money any way
they want, but was there really no place to spend that better?

Congratulations to the Yo team for furthering the research to the origins of
the term 'dumb money'.

I guess if you timed it right you could use Yo to communicate in Morse, but
that seems to be a waste of bits considering that each packet will activate a
very large number of bits being sent where one would suffice.

~~~
ry0ohki
I'm suspicious of the "unnamed investors". Has anyone done any fact finding,
I'm betting these guys are just looking for PR, and saying they got 1.2m for a
"Yo" app is a pretty good way to do it.

~~~
the_watcher
>>"unnamed investors" It's totally possible that these are legitimate,
respectable investors, investing on information we aren't aware of. It's also
possible (and more likely, in my opinion) that the unnamed investors are a
relative of a founder, who invested in this to give them runway to do
something else, or to potentially spur interest from other investors or
acquirers.

------
rlu
I just...what? I don't understand.

It's basically begging for you to switch apps after you get the "Yo" push
notification. I can't really imagine a conversation which goes like this:

Me: Yo

Them: Yo

Me: Yo

Them: Yo

...

What I can imagine is getting a Yo from someone, switching apps, and being
like "what's up? [p.s. dont fucking Yo me anymore. Just message me using a
real app.]".

That "wut" app is similar in that you can't have a real conversation with
anyone in particular, but it can at least be used for sharing secrets or
something. I guess. Yo doesn't have such a use case that I can see.

They could maybe pivot it to act like tinder where if both of the parties yo
eachother then it goes to a separate section of the app where they can
actually IM eachother. But...idk. That doesn't seem particularly
interesting/differentiating either.

I must be naive/short sighted.

~~~
esrauch
A very large amount of my phone messages are actually null-content messages:
my phone is very often a "I'm here" when picking someone up, or "let me in" or
"done shopping, waiting for you" if I'm grocery shopping with someone.

Basically any time someone says "message me when..." there is no conversation
when I message them. There is just a contentless phone call or text message.
This is filling a communication niche that isn't well supported by the
existing methods.

That said, I'm still not willing to install a new app just for that, but that
doesn't mean there isn't value there.

~~~
qq66
The existing method, of course, is a standard SMS message that says "Yo". I've
sent plenty of them.

~~~
hayksaakian
presumably the value of the OP is that it reduces that friction of opening
your SMS app and typing "Yo"

~~~
qq66
Given that a "Yo" usually follows a more detailed text message like "Text me
when you're downstairs," I think the total finger-on-screen time would be
higher to open the Yo app and search for the right contact.

I assume that Yo has another plan that they haven't gone public with yet,
since "Company that just says Yo raises $1m" is more newsworthy than "Company
to solve problem X raises $1m." They'll get people to download the app and
then add the new functionality with an automatic update.

------
increment_i
I'm actually kind of surprised at the large numbers of HNers running to defend
this thing, and those that expressed the equally valid opinion that this app
is garbage have been downvoted into oblivion.

In this thread I've seen lines like: "Filling a communication niche", "It
reduces that friction of opening your SMS app and typing 'Yo'"

What a surreal thread. It literally could have come straight from a script
from HBO's 'Silicon Valley'.

~~~
aswanson
Yeah, hilarious. Shit like this makes me wonder if we have reached "peak
human" on this planet. Even raising a hint of suspicion at an obviously
idiotic allocation of capital is regarded as "hating" or "not getting it". I
can imagine aliens watching the spectacle of our civilization from beyond our
view and wondering how we justify allocating 10x the NIH cancer research
budget to stuff like whatsapp, snapchat, etc and having biochem/physics phds
having better job prospects driving for Uber rather than advancing science.

------
fmendez
I'm not what's more disturbing. The fact that it secured 1.2M or the mental
gymnastics that people are doing to justify the existence of this app.

~~~
fizwhiz
This.

~~~
prawn
Not sure if this is a typical forum comment or an observation on the meaning
that can be given with a single word.

~~~
qu4z-2

      the meaning that can be given with a single word.
    

Very little in this case. There's a reason simple "This" comments are
discouraged on HN. Having said that, I do agree that single words can contain
a lot of meaning at times. This just ... isn't a great example.

~~~
prawn
Tens of thousands of people are finding some use for it, even if it's just
novelty.

I could imagine yo'ing my wife to say "Thinking of you" while at work, or my
brother to say "Not up to much if you want to Skype", etc.

I think they could easily start with something curious like this and then
slowly extend it to something else (e.g., single word/term conversation
elements where you get more choices the deeper the conversation goes).

How many naysayers were there (and still!) with something like Twitter? Yet I
use Twitter many times each day.

------
jmduke
It's Facebook's "poke" feature (which I honestly love) in 2014. There's
nothing wrong with it, but I struggle to find anything novel about it.

~~~
rhizome
The innovation, such as it is, is to get a zillion people to install an app
that gives the company a direct line into your notification bar. Think they'll
never put an ad there?

~~~
kunaalarya
well they're not allowed on iOS so no

------
notduncansmith
The onboarding process was really jarring. I expected to be able to use it
instantly. Instead, I had to wait ~30 seconds while my username was
registered, and now I'm sitting on my hands waiting for some SMS with a code
that will allow me to login. Also, there's no easy way for me to use the app
with other people without inviting them first (which, given my circle of
friends and family, would have to be preceded by a sales pitch on why they
should download this stupid thing in the first place).

As an app that prioritizes ease-of-use and fast communication, Yo really falls
flat on it's face.

I'm not going to comment on the potential usefulness of this app, because I'm
sure others will and I don't think it'll yield any particularly interesting
discussion. References will be made to Snapchat and WhatsApp, the word
"bubble" might come up, etc.

~~~
fastest963
That's weird I didn't have to do an SMS code on Android.

~~~
superuser2
You presumably gave the app permission to (among other things) read all of
your texts when you installed it.

iOS's sandboxing mechanism doesn't expose text messages to third-party apps.

~~~
fastest963
It doesn't have that permission on Android to read texts.

------
pavlov
One of the author's jibes at Facebook is that it "causes depression among its
users".

But what about TechCrunch itself? I would bet money that there's a correlation
between TC readership and depression. Reading about pointless apps is a waste
of anyone's time and will make you feel worse in the long run.

------
reamsofgleam
Technology has a tendency to distill everything to its essence. This is just
another step towards a world in which the number one film in the country is
called "Ass" [1].

I'm 50/50 on this happening within a decade.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy)

------
minimaxir
New startup idea: an app that only lets you say "hey" to people. It's called
Navi.

I can't wait until the hackathons where everyone makes Yo clones unironically.
It's going to create an innovation black hole.

~~~
eric_bullington
>New startup idea: an app that only lets you say "hey" to people.

"It's like Yo, only with 'Hey' instead of 'Yo'"

~~~
afriend4lyfe
It's "Yo" for "Hey"

~~~
DonHopkins
Scott Brown would have something to say about that:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNkMwnsWdjc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNkMwnsWdjc)

------
InclinedPlane
Whether intentional or not this is essentially the "Transformative
Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" of app development.

~~~
rhizome
The Sokal App-fair.

------
stu_k
I'm hoping that this app and the investment are really some kind of
performance art project.

------
Mz
Excerpt:

 _“It’s really lightweight,” said Arbel. “You don’t have anything to open. The
Yo is everything, it’s all there is. You don’t have a badge you need to remove
or any hidden content. Just a Yo.”_

Words fail me.

------
aashishkoirala
What this is, I believe, is a tell-tale sign of the second bubble.

------
edanm
Ridiculous as this sounds, there's a very interesting conversation happening
on Twitter with Marc Andreessen about this apps' uses.

Apparently, the "missed call" phenomenon, where people will call someone else
and hang up, is incredibly popular, especially in other countries (e.g.
Bangladesh). It's a free way to communicate 1 bit of information, which in
many cases is enough if the people know beforehand what they want to
communicate. E.g., "come downstairs", "call me back on another line", etc.

I think one article mentioned that missed calls are _70%_ of the traffic of
cellular operators in Bangladesh!

~~~
axisK
When I was in high school our local mobile networks brought out a feature
called "Please call me" in which you used USSD to send an unbilled
notification for another number to call you - you only got around 20 per day
but that was more than enough. Most people seemed to use it to notify their
parents that they were ready to be picked up from a prearranged place much
like you're describing with missed calls.

------
free2rhyme214
The co-founder of Yo could sell ice to Eskimos. That's my kind of sales guy on
my team.

------
ashrust
In Europe and a lot of developing countries, where missed calls aren't charged
for - this kind of 'nudge' communication is pretty common. I have no idea if
it'll work in the US but it's certainly valuable when both parties already
have known context, e.g. 'I'll missed call you when I'm outside'

------
melvinmt
1693 words about an app that doesn't say much.

------
natural219
Please, please, _please_ somebody buy this company for $10 million. This is
the best chance in human history to bring Poe's Law to its absurdist
conclusion.

~~~
pingburg
I think your shooting too low. Million is so 2013. $10 Billion minimum!

------
dep_b
What sparked my interest is that indeed there seem to be some words that are
like a swiss army knife in possibilities. Yo is a prime example. It can mean
hi, okay, no thanks, what's that, hey, a warning and the list goes on forever.

Trying the app it said to me that I could connect to Facebook through my
settings. The app didn't have settings.

 _sad trombone_

Don't snort the 1.2 million at once, yo.

------
prezjordan
Seeing all these deep critiques/breakdowns of this product makes me feel like
I'm in 10th grade english class again.

------
shekhar101
By far, this is the dumbest article I came across. Couldn't read it after
first few lines. But god! This was huge article on an app that sends two
words! :D Hah! Although comments on the article tickled me a bit.

------
javajosh
Facebook renames poke->yo, and eats their lunch.

------
ethana
I don't know why I'm having a crack out of this. It's just so silly.

------
relampago
A harbinger of a tech bubble?

------
brk
This just needs 1 more feature: the ability to reply "lo".

------
oneeyedpigeon
They should've got to Aaron Paul before Microsoft did

------
jasonwilk
I just Yo'd about 15 times back and forth with a friend.

He just texted me "What's Up"

Mission accomplished I guess?

~~~
olympian
Everybody is laughing now but soon they launch:

Yo, buy this! Yo, emoji pack, Yo, plus! Yo, for enterprise.

Then suddenly their the next whatsapp.

~~~
DonHopkins
"Yo Glass!" \+ "Gee, Yo Location" = "Yobiquitous Computing"

------
fiatjaf
Ortega y Gasset was right.

------
rmrfrmrf
Yo is already used by Yeoman, though...

------
cwhy
Yooooooooo If you know what I mean...

------
nijiko
Yo

------
jordanthoms
WAT?

------
hakcermani
Yo :-)

