Yodel (app)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Globe icon of the infobox
Yodel
Website logo
The Hyperlocal App
social network
languages German , English , French , Finnish
founder Alessio Borgmeyer
operator The Jodel Venture GmbH
Registration No
On-line October 2014
https://jodel.com/
Example of a yodel : on the right the difference between the upvotes and downvotes, below the age, the number of comments and the "proximity" of the yodel ("near" means within 10 km)

Yodel is a mobile social media - application . The app enables its users to publish anonymized posts (yodel) that are visible to other users within a radius of ten kilometers. A contribution can either be a text (limited in length), a captured photo with a short comment or a video. Each contribution can then be rated positively and negatively and commented on by other users in the vicinity. The app is thus similar to the Yik Yak application , which ceased operations in May 2017.

Jodel Venture GmbH is based in Berlin and has 30 employees. Alessio Borgmeyer is the founder and managing director.

history

Jodel was published in October 2014 by the German Alessio Borgmeyer, a former student at RWTH Aachen . Tim Schmitz is responsible for finances, Niklas Henckell manages the community and Alexander Linewitsch heads product development.

The app had around 100,000 users in April 2015 and around one million in October of the same year. The company expanded to Austria , Sweden , Norway , Denmark and Switzerland . In May 2016, 600,000 yodels were written every day . In June 2017, the start-up received six million dollars from investors in Silicon Valley and is planning to expand in the US. In August 2017, the app had around 1.5 million users.

functionality

Screenshot of a comment that was hidden and shown again.
Example of hidden comments. Left: An answer was hidden because it received too many negative reviews. Right: The answer was opened manually by the user.

Jodel uses GPS to determine the user's location. Then the contributions of other users in the vicinity (up to ten kilometers) are displayed. These can be sorted according to the age of the posts, number of comments or their rating.

Contributions, including your own, can be rated positively or negatively once per user, according to the principle of Reddit . The total of these votes is shown in the post. If the score is too low, the contribution will be automatically removed. Since August 2018, answers within a yodel that have received too many negative reviews are no longer completely removed, but simply hidden. As a user, you can display these messages again individually. This is to prevent discussions within a yodel no longer being comprehensible due to deleted answers.

Since all contributions and comments are anonymized, no registration is required. However, users can collect points ("karma") by voting up contributions made by other users.

The so-called “home function” has existed since November 2016. It enables users to read and write posts in a location they are not currently in (for example, their hometown). However, this location must be specified once by the user and can then usually no longer be changed. Only the user's current location can be set as the home location. One way to get around this is to use apps that simulate the end device in the wrong location.

At the same time, the so-called “Traveler Feed” has been available since summer 2017, which makes it possible to communicate abroad with other users of the app who are also tourists in this city.

Similar to Twitter , hashtags can be used in the posts. In addition, so-called channels allow you to create your own areas on specific topics.

Every now and then a black yodel is displayed in the feed, which indicates the position "Jodel HQ". The operators of the app are thus aimed at the users. Greetings, bans or other messages are communicated about it.

anonymity

A research group from the University of Passau has succeeded in determining the location in 96% of the cases with an accuracy of 10 meters from a sample of around 38,000 yodel messages. The researchers used an association of three clients with falsified location data: One stays in the same place and requests messages within a radius of 10 km. The other two are positioned to the north and west of it so that they do not receive the messages from the pinned client. They are now brought closer to the location of the fixed client bit by bit until they can receive its messages. The location of the examined message can then be determined from the intersection of the 10 km radius of the migrating clients. This allows a message to be assigned to a person or a group of people who live in a certain location. Further procedures can then possibly be used to infer the identity of the user.

De-anonymization and cooperation with security authorities

Despite the lack of explicit registration, the operator of Jodel is able to identify users and in some cases also cooperates with security authorities. In November 2017, for example, Jodel identified a student at the University of Trier who had posted a gunfire threat. His home was then stormed by the SEK and he was arrested. The company had already announced that it would cooperate with the police in other cases.

Business model

According to the company, the first monetization of the app has been in progress since March 2018. Here, advertisements are occasionally displayed in the so-called image feed. Since January 2019, it has also been possible to book the fourth position in the feed for 1, 12 or 24 hours and advertise products or services locally. For the first time, it is possible to attach a link to a post. In addition, financing is provided by the following investors: Redalpine Venture Partners, Global Founders Capital , Christophe Maire, Felix Haas . The app is free to use.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Why students love the Jodel app - and so do celebrity investors. Gründerszene, August 25, 2015, accessed December 29, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Biz Carson: The Yik Yak app is officially dead. In: businessinsider.de. April 28, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b Alexander Demling: When Americans learn to yodel. In: handelsblatt .com. June 6, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b yodel: German campus slapstick conquers abroad. In: WiWo founder. October 21, 2016, accessed May 2, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Why students love the Jodel app - and so do celebrity investors. In: gruenderszene.de. Retrieved February 23, 2017 .
  6. ^ Viola Diem: Friends with benefits. In: Zeit Campus . July 24, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Redalpine joins the hyped yodel app. In: gruenderszene.de. January 29, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Jodel: Why the app is popular with students. In: Wirtschaftswoche. May 10, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Sara Kreuter: The “Jodel” app: frustration and fun for everyone. In: faz.net . August 7, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  10. ^ Fabian Riedner: Jodel: Trash Talk or Twitter Competition? In: quota meter . August 11, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Sebastian Wochnik: With karma points for the yodel diploma. In: golem.de . December 16, 2015, accessed August 23, 2017 .
  12. ↑ prøver å passe inn i det nye sosiale mediumet yodel. In: twitter.com. 2015, accessed July 29, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Alexander Böhm, Benjamin Taubmann, Hans P. Reiser: Geographic Localization of an Anonymous Social Network Message Data Set . In: 2016 11th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES) . 2016, ISBN 978-1-5090-0990-9 , pp. 844-850 , doi : 10.1109 / ares.2016.47 .
  14. ↑ m.volksfreund.de: Amok threat at Trier University - 23-year-old suspect arrested
  15. ↑ Jodel - Jodel Grows Up. Retrieved February 28, 2019 (American English).
  16. ↑ Jodel - Jodel Grows Up. Retrieved February 28, 2019 (American English).
  17. ↑ Jodel - The Digital Ad Column. Retrieved February 28, 2019 (American English).
  18. ↑ Jodel - The Digital Ad Column. Retrieved February 28, 2019 (American English).
  19. ↑ Instead of Twitter and Facebook: Jodel, the campus floor radio. In: MacLife. August 10, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Simon Lanzerath: This is how the inventor of “Jodel” wants to earn money with his app. In: Orange by Handelsblatt . June 2, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .