Why Investors Value a BeReal User Double That of Snap

The siren song of a fast-growing social media network still holds investors spellbound.

Take BeReal. The French social app, which once a day urges users to take and share a photo—wherever they are, regardless of what they’re doing—has become a breakout hit, particularly for people in their early 20s. Daily active users reached 7.9 million in July, up from 2 million in January and 10,000 in March 2021, according to a person familiar with the app.

That’s attracted investors at a time when many are passing on deals. This spring, BeReal raised a Series B funding at a pre-money valuation of $600 million in a round led by DST Global, the person said. That price valued BeReal at roughly $100 per daily active user at the time, even before it had generated so much as a penny of revenue. This valuation is less than for digital ad goliath Meta Platforms, where each person using at least one of its apps—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger—every day is worth about $149, according to The Information’s analysis. But it’s more than two times as much as for Snap and Pinterest, likely reflecting BeReal investors’ anticipation of future growth.