WeAre8 ‘spent $60m to get 500k monthly users’
The founder of social media app WeAre8 says the startup is now close to breaking even, having spent $60m over eight years.
WeAre8’s Zoe Kalar revealed this week that the network’s entire Australian team — nine people — had been laid off. Speaking with Mumbrella, Kalar said that despite the retreat from Australia, the company was not contracting.
Instead the resource was being reallocated to Europe and the US.
Zoe Kalar
“It’s always very difficult doing these things,” she said. “I feel we were as fair and generous and supportive as we possibly could be.”
Weare8’s main product is a phone app which displays a content feed to users, along with an advertising feed. Users are paid for watching the ads.
Kalar said the app had around 500,000 active monthly users, and had been downloaded around 2m times.
The product has been marketed as an ethical and non-addictive alternative to mainstream competitors such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, or TikTok.
“The product itself is like TikTok and Instagram had a love baby with a conscience,” Kalar said. “Instagram’s like a giant casino, they control who sees your stuff. We don’t need to control people or keep them captured. We can allow them off-platform.”
The app cost $60m to develop, $15m of which was Kalar’s own money.
Kalar, who now lives in the UK, founded and launched the Standard Media Index (SMI) in Australia in 2009. At that time, and until recently, her name was Sue Fennessy (see earlier coverage for an explanation).
“I grew up in North Dandenong and have been building businesses for 35 years. So I’ve been in training for this for a long time.”
She praised WeAre8’s Australian team — which included CMO Luke Robinson and Chief Commercial Officer Danika Johnston — who she called “just amazing people.”
”Even though the world is closer because of technology, it’s very difficult being in another time zone. And not having that human ability to have that contact regularly. We needed just to really focus the resources that we have in the Northern Hemisphere.”
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