BeReal—not the MC from Cypress Hill, though that would’ve been more fun—has officially caved. After five years of proudly flying the no-ads flag, the once-viral Gen Z app is now rolling out ads in the U.S. Because nothing screams “authenticity” like branded content from Nike and Netflix sandwiched between dual-camera selfies and “look how real I’m being” photos.
Fresh off its €500 million acquisition by Voodoo, BeReal’s finally getting serious about making money. They’ve launched in-feed ads and full-day brand takeovers, tested with the usual suspects—Amazon, Levi’s, and Nike. The formats are designed to “match the vibe,” which is corporate speak for: please don’t hate us for monetizing your morning bedhead photo.
Ben Moore—ex-TikTok, ex-Walmart Connect—is now running the U.S. side of the biz, betting that TikTok’s regulatory headaches will drive ad dollars his way. Bold move, but if you’ve ever worked in digital ads, you know there’s always budget for “authentic Gen Z engagement,” no matter how ironic that sounds.
BeReal claims 40 million monthly users (5 million in the U.S.), with Gen Z making up 85%. But third-party data throws cold water on that hype. Sensor Tower clocks them under 23 MAU. Appfigures says 2024 downloads tanked 60%. If this were a stock, we’d be calling it a sell.
But here’s the thing—we’re not just dunking on BeReal for selling out. We get it. Here at The Streaming Wars, we’re proudly ad-free. We know what it’s like to try to do something different. Journalism is an art. Okay, we’re not journalists—but still, we believe in storytelling. And nothing ruins a mic-drop like a banner ad wedged between your paragraph and your punchline. We’re trying to avoid that fate.
The Take
Why are we talking about a social media app when we’re called The Streaming Wars? Because labels are dead. The battle for attention is the only war that matters.
Streaming? That’s just one front. Social? Gaming? News? Sleep? All fair game now. Reed Hastings wasn’t lying—Netflix isn’t just competing with Disney+; it’s competing with your REM cycle.
So yeah, BeReal isn’t a streamer. But it’s competing for the same attention as Disney+, Hulu, Max, and YouTube. And it’s losing that battle, which makes it worth covering. Because even if you’ve never heard of BeReal (and let’s be honest, some of you haven’t), you need to understand this: “Anything is Everything” now, which seemed to be a common theme at NAB this year.
Social is entertainment. Entertainment is gaming. Gaming is social. Look at Plex. Look at Netflix. Look at literally any company that has “content” and a user base.
The media industry loves tidy acronyms. FAST. AVOD. SVOD. But SVOD has AVOD now. FAST is AVOD. Netflix is making games. The categories are collapsing faster than BeReal’s download numbers.
The streaming wars aren’t over—they were just never what you thought they were. You were busy counting global subscribers while TikTok was quietly devouring ad budgets. You cheered when Netflix hit 200 million subs, but missed the part where YouTube became the king of screen time. And now, a CTV platform (which shall remain nameless—for now) is extorting its partners for new terms just to push app updates.
That’s the real war. The backroom deals. The platform chokeholds. The attention economy power grabs.
So yeah, BeReal launching ads matters. Not because they’re the next big thing. But even the smallest players are now pawns in the larger war for attention. And whether you’re streaming, scrolling, gaming, or just trying to sleep, someone, somewhere, is trying to monetize it
The Streaming Wars is intentionally ad-free
We don’t run display ads. Not because we can’t, but because we don’t believe in them.
They interrupt the reading experience. They cheapen the work. And they burn advertisers’ money on impressions nobody actually wants.
So we chose a different model.
We say the things people in this industry are already thinking but don’t say out loud. We connect the dots beyond the headline and focus on explaining why things matter to the people working in this business.
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