The origin of Secret

"Secret originated from the idea that another founder of us wrote an anonymous love letter to a girlfriend."

Secret founder and CEO David Byttow talked about Secret this popular App. Secret lives in a small gray building in downtown San Francisco with no logo on the outside. His voice was very light and slow, it seems that he could not hear the mood swings, and a dozen of Secret's employees around him were working intensely. Secret is an anonymous social application that is currently popular in the United States. It is an anonymous information-sharing based on the acquaintance relationship chain. This app was co-founded by David and friend Chrys Bader-Wechseler in October 2013. Prior to founding Secret, David was a key employee at Square, another San Francisco technology company that led Square Square's flagship product, Square Wallet. Earlier, he was a Google engineer who was involved in developing Wave and Google ++ products. Founder Chrys is David's former colleague at Google. As a product manager, Chrys and David worked closely together on projects like Google+.

Secret application interface screenshots

Secret started development in October 2013, when only David and Chrys were two people, David was responsible for the technical architecture, Chrys responsible for visual and interface interaction. January 30, two months later, this application officially landed in the iOS store.

Anonymous social networking in the United States

Speaking of Secret, have to mention the PostSecret, before the advent of smart phones, PostSecret almost carry the secret social full functionality. The site, which was born almost simultaneously with Facebook, has taken a completely different approach to Facebook from the start. According to the sources, it was originally a social experiment tentatively initiated by founder Frank Warren: he distributed postcards around the area in which he lived, leaving people to write their secrets anonymously and mail them back to him, after his selection, on the PostSecret website on. Since its inception, PostSecret quickly spread in the Internet world, and the wooden mail box at the door of Warren became a tree-hole for people to pour out secrets. By 2011, PostSecret's Web site will receive 4 million weekly hits. This 10-year-old website is even more bizarre nowadays: every year, Warren picks some of the most creative postcards for the book. He also spoke in the form of a psychiatrist and organized a team of volunteers to respond to anonymous individuals who commit suicide. He has become a modest public figure in the United States.

September 2011 was the turning point for PostSecret, when Warren responded to the mobile tide by launching an app of the same name on the iOS app store, immediately blazing. However, due to the lack of audit mechanisms, everyone can submit applications and problems come one after another. Although Warren got a lot of volunteers to review the content, a lot of information such as defamation and pornography still put a great strain on PostSecret, including users, Apple, and even the FBI. Just three months later, PostSecret was offline from the store. And soon, PostSecret's Web site also declined rapidly with the rise of the mobile Internet.

"99% of the secrets are good, but unfortunately the remaining 1% of the bad secrets eventually crushed us," Warren later concluded in his blog.

One year later, in November 2012, an app called Whisper was launched. This completely mobile-based application was based on anonymous socialization among strangers. People could post anonymously anonymously, and everyone could comment anonymously. This application is also rapidly gaining popularity once released.

Secret, one year later than Whisper, goes further than Whipser, anonymous information sharing based on an acquaintance chain similar to the secret communication in real life. "Secret is porting users offline experiences, such as telling friends about a little secret when drinking and eating," said David.

In preparation for the PostSecret initiative, Whisper hired 92 part-time Filipino workers and 32 full-time employees to review messages on the Web.

Secret, on the other hand, completely dispenses with manual work. The rule they make is that as long as two people report a secret, the secret is automatically blocked and no one can see it except the publisher.

David commented: "The rules are very important in any community, online or offline, which is why we're always creating simple, understandable community rules and making sure it works."

"Here you are like wearing a mask with a ball," David said.

When Secret meets Secret

Otaku David some strangers to China, had only been to Shanghai before. But David was still a little surprised when his friend put a Chinese app called "secret" in front of him and told him the fire in China.

"We spent a lot of time and worked hard to get Secret on the line and get caught up.

You can imagine, when we see in China appear exactly the same with us when the product is what the mood. Although David's facial expression is calm, a slight amount of emotion can still be heard from the sound.

But the appearance of secrecy also reinforces David's idea of ​​introducing Secret into China. "But it also lets us know that Secret can be very popular in China."

But David understands that entering China is not easy. After some time, David and his team actively understand the Chinese market, and from time to time to find some understanding of the Chinese market friends exchange. When she learned that the "secret" started to spread rapidly through Wechat's circle of friends, he downloaded WeChat with some team members and quickly became an active user. She also contacted several former Google colleagues working in China.

After comparing the contents of China Secret and Secret, David said that in fact the users of the two countries did not make much difference. "Humanity is interlinked," concludes David.

Like Chinese secrets, there are often rumors on Secret. A Secret in February said Evernote, a well-known cloud services company in Silicon Valley, will be acquired, causing an uproar, and Evernote CEO Phil Libin had to privately tweet on twitter.

And for the secret of a major rival in China, David first thought of solving the problem by legal means. Their lawyer advised them to send a solicitor's letter to each other, which is a common practice in the United States. David agreed, but the feedback the lawyer's letter was sent was that the lawyer for the one party denied plagiarism.

Soon April 5, there has been "secret" things that Apple shelves, and caused a lot of speculation in the media. In this regard, David stressed that Apple made the decision to "secret" off the shelf. "We are very close cooperation with Apple, they know what the secret did, but we have no way to influence their decisions."

Although David insisted "plagiarism" plagiarism, he acknowledged that some of the secret improvements were good. "Their products are doing very well," David commented.

In the beginning, the Secret team actually had the idea of ​​working with a "secret" team. "We just want to make sure there is only one Secret in the world." David said that before Secret went to other countries, it did a simple language optimization and China was very special. "We know China is very different from the rest of the world and I understand that there must be a team there and we do not mind working with China's" secrets "team." David also stressed that it is a common practice for hair counselors in the United States to It may not be proper to think of what I was doing now. To this end, he also specifically looking for someone as an intermediary to the "secret" founder Lin Chengren convey goodwill. But soon, the middleman told him the "secret" team refused to talk to Secret.

David does not seem concerned about this, saying he has identified potential partners in China, a large Chinese game company that will be responsible for Secret's promotion and operations in China and direct competition with "secrets."

And in terms of funding, Secret recently not bad money, in March just completed a $ 10 million Series A financing, investors Kleiner Perkins, Google Venture and so on.

And recently there are rumors that Facebook wants to 100 million acquisition of Secret was rejected, but David did not confirm this statement.

On the Chinese side, it is learned that after the shelves, "secret" seize the time to improve the version for the Apple to reproduce the shelves, on the one hand also find a good team of lawyers ready to fight. In the next few days off the shelf, there are several and secret almost identical products quickly log iOS app store.

Although Secret has not officially landed in China, it is conceivable that in the near future, outsider Secret and a group of Chinese "secrets" will inevitably come together.

May 20, "secret" was renamed "no secret", and make a drastic adjustment in the layout and interface, the Apple shelves again, I sent a letter to tell David David. The message he came back was like he was talking to himself:

"No secret, oh, no secret."

[Dialogue David] "Here you can do it yourself"

Q: When do you plan on going online in China?

David: We are doing some preparatory work, our team is working very hard to create a good experience for Chinese users, and very much looking forward to Chinese users to accept and use Secret.

Q: How do you think "secret"?

David: I believe "secret" proves that what we create is very popular in China - a new way to share thoughts and experiences that inspires honest conversations among friends.

Q: What are your goals and planning in China?

David: First, we think Secret is a very important part of a global platform. As of today, Secret has landed all Android and iOS stores except China. We are very focused on creating a platform that people all over the world can embrace. Of course, China will be among them, but we are very concerned about the special experience of Chinese users, but also wait for some time.

Q: After the PostSecret landed in the iOS store in 2011, what did you learn from just too much false information in just three months?

David: Rules are very important in any community, whether online or offline, which is why we're always creating simple, understandable community rules and making sure it works. Secret is a very safe place, and will always be maintained.

Q: You and Chrys both have experience working in big companies and startups. What did you learn from this experience?

David: Working in a variety of companies, such as Google, Square and other startups, taught us a lot. I've summed up three points: 1) Design: How to create a charming, intuitively appealing product that everyone likes 2) Security: Google and Square teach us how important it is to protect your data and privacy 3) Humanity: Understanding people's psychology is just as important as creating a product. Some product engineers think too much, in the eyes of ordinary users is very unnatural. Secret is the user's offline experience - such as drinking a small secret to tell friends, porting to the Internet.

Q: How did you think of Secret at first?

David: Secret originated from an anonymous love letter that our other founders wanted to give to his girlfriend. The experience of sending and receiving such anonymous letters is amazing and exciting. This reminds them that in fact many ideas are quietly carried out. For example, we realize that both parties love each other. We are looking for a job for the first time, interviewing, traveling together and dreaming. One day, we realize the end of a relationship. We feel entangled in a quarrel with friends. Although many of these things are shared on social networks , But there is no sense of belonging. Secret found a place to be inhabited for the secrets between these friends. When you remove your name, here you can do it yourself.