Are you yakking yet? No, not a reference to throwing up as part of a venomous post-Christmas-party hangover. Yik Yak is the latest messaging app to take US college campuses by storm, and then Silicon Valley.
The app, which makes anonymity a key feature, launched in November 2013, had 100,000 users by February 2014, and then raised a startling $61m funding round in November.
This, for what its founders describe as “the only way to create a localised social forum without prior relationships or friendships for the purpose of delivering relevant, timely content to hyper-local areas of people”.
Or, once it gets into the hands of Brits, one of the many ways to boast about how you’re throwing up as part of a venomous hangover. But also pornstar moans, arsehole cats, toasters and Shoreditch’s nascent lobster/vinyl mash-up scene.
At least, that’s what using Yik Yak’s “Peek” feature to see what people are yakking about in specific locations threw up when I looked at 10 of the largest cities in the UK, curious to see what Brits were making of the $61m messaging app.
And? Lots of students, lots of drinking, and some very good news for budget-challenged crisp lovers in Edinburgh. Which might just be the first sight of what Yik Yak hopes is “another layer to news tracking that supplements on-the-ground reporting”.
Here’s the evidence: each image shows the newest messages on the left, and the “hot” list of messages upvoted by Yik Yak users on the right.
London
Lobster-munching DJs, man flu, and drinking...
Birmingham
Orgasms, bad grammar, and drinking...
Leeds
FUCKING toasters, advent calendars, and drinking...
Glasgow
Morning steel, ketchup, and drinking...
Sheffield
Christmas shopping, snogging, but not drinking...
Bradford
Arsehole cats, toenails, and drinking...
Liverpool
Condoms, trains, but not drinking...
Edinburgh
Crisps, punching neighbours, and drinking...
Manchester
Music, ice cream, and drinking...
Bristol
One-way asses, foot-long subways, and drinking...
As snapshots of Britain in 2014 go – albeit a snapshot without a sniff of UKIP, ice buckets, Russell Brand, and one based entirely on the anonymous musings of early-adopter students – it takes some beating. Your move, Snapchat.
