Sarahah

Sarahah (Arabic: صراحة, romanized: ṣarāḥa) is a Saudi Arabian social networking service for providing constructive feedback. In Arabic, sarahah means "frankness" or "honesty".[1] It was created by Zain-Alabdin Tawfiq at the end of 2016 and reached a sudden worldwide success by mid-2017.[1] This growth is considered to be deeply related with the release of a Snapchat update that allowed people to share URLs on their snaps.[1][2]

Sarahah
Type of businessSocial networking
Type of site
Social Networking
Available in13 languages
FoundedNovember 2016 (2016-11)[1]
Dissolved15 December 2021 (2021-12-15)
Headquarters
Saudi Arabia[1]
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Zain-Alabdin Tawfiq[1]
IndustryInternet
URLwww.sarahah.top
AdvertisingYes
RegistrationRequired for receiving feedback; optional for giving it
Users14 million (August 2017)[1]
Current statusDefunct

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.

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]

Spam was frequent, sent by third-party apps claiming to be able to reveal the usernames of anonymous senders.

On 12 January 2018, it was reported that a woman in Queensland, Australia had started a petition to have the app and others like it banned, after friends of her 13-year-old daughter sent her abusive messages, including ones suggesting that she kill herself. A news report from the Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) stated that the child's mother, Katrina, "called on Apple's App Store and Google Play to stop downloads of Sarahah, which allows people to leave anonymous feedback for each other".[5] On 21 February, Katrina posted a message declaring success, saying that both Apple and Google had removed the app from their stores.[6][7] On 15 December 2021, Zain-Alabdin Tawfiq announced via Twitter:

"...I regret to share with you that we're shutting down the Sarahah platform

Thank you for helping us achieve unprecedented growth and making us proud, for your support and patience

I hope to see you again..."

This was retweeted by Sarahah's Twitter account.

Notable uses

NGOs

An Indian NGO, Ungender, has used Sarahah to tackle the issue of sexual harassment[8]

See also

References
  1. Bell, Karissa (23 July 2017). "The story of Sarahah, the app that's dominating the App Store". Mashable. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  2. Bradshaw, Tim (28 July 2017). "Can Sarahah survive the trolls?". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  3. Google Trends
  4. Grauer, Yael (27 August 2017). "Hit App Sarahah Quietly Uploads Your Address Book". The Intercept. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  5. "'Did I miss something?': Dolly's friend makes emotional statement". Special Broadcasting Service . 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  6. "Sarahah: Anonymous app dropped from Apple and Google stores after bullying accusations". BBC. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  7. "Sarahah: Popular anonymous messaging app blamed for making abuse easy is kicked off iPhone and Android". The Independent. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  8. "Ungender". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
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