How Slick Is Building India’s Version Of Gas-Like Compliment Based Social Media

If we look back at the early days of social media, platforms such as Orkut and Facebook were used to connect with people online and forge stronger social relationships with friends, acquaintances and others. As social media evolved with applications like Instagram, Snapchat, and others, despite their specific focus, the core fundamentals remained the same — facilitating connections and networking.

However, with the advent of video-sharing platforms like TikTok, the social media landscape has undergone a sea change. This is because the emphasis of social media users has now broadened to consuming content, along with building connections.

To substantiate this, we have examples of Youtube Shorts and Instagram Reels, which took little time to get ingrained in the lifestyles of millennials and GenZ, allowing them to share glimpses of their everyday experiences.

As the times they are a-changin’, a new social media platform called Gas seems to have captured the attention of teenagers in the US. Launched last year, the app lets its users anonymously compliment their friends. At one point, the platform gained so much popularity that it even dethroned TikTok to become the most downloaded social media app on the App Store.

Taking note of Gas’ fast popularity, messaging platform Discord acquired the app earlier this year for an undisclosed amount.

At a time when a number of Indian businesses across various segments are betting big on GenZ, along with the next-gen of buyers and consumers, two IIT Bombay alumni are endeavouring to build an app similar to Gas. Created by Archit Nanda and Rachit Bansal, the Slick app is trying to bridge the gap in personalised connection on social media platforms.

The second-time entrepreneurs moved from building crypto app CoinMint to the social networking app, Slick, last year. The duo decided to quit their crypto app project, CoinMint, due to increasing uncertainties engulfing the crypto ecosystem.

Launched in November 2022, Slick is trying to give a positive spin to social media through compliment-based interactions. “We started building the app when we realised that social media networking platforms today are not focussed on authentic or genuine moment sharing but rather on artificial moments,” Nanda said.

This is where  social media app Slick comes into the picture. With the app, users can compliment each other anonymously, thereby bringing back personalised connections on social media and boosting users’ confidence.

Rewriting Social Media Dynamics For GenZ

According to Nanda, 0.1% of people are creating most of the content on social media platforms and the rest 99.9% are consuming that content.

“Even when we are uploading our content on social media platforms, it is again a competition of likes and comments and who has the most number of people sharing their content. This is truly not a way to network and socialise with your friends. This is just a game of validation and that is not the real intent with which social media platforms were invented,” Nanda said.

Currently, users on the Slick App can engage with their friends via anonymous compliments. It has a database of over 3,000 pre-curated compliments, where users can pick their friends. If a user gets a poll on the app such as who is likely to be the first millionaire, the user will also get a couple of options of friends that he or she has to choose from.

When someone gets selected in these polls, then they earn a ‘Drip’. Through a Drip, users can show that they received a compliment from their friends. However, the majority of the experience today on the app is completely anonymous.

What’s The Monetisation Plan?

The cofounders said that if a user wants to see who has complimented them in a certain poll, then they will have to pay for that. That is the only monetisation model the app currently relies on.

According to Nanda, the app started monetising in March and has generated roughly INR 24 Lakh in revenue so far.

“Given the adoption of UPI, we decided this was the perfect time to get into microtransactions. We have seen the microtransaction model succeeding in other sectors such as real money gaming,” Nanda said.

Going forward, Slick App may also introduce a subscription model for specific features. However, the cofounders are still working on ideas that can be monetised.

“Talking about advertisements as a monetisation model, I am not saying that we will never have advertisements on the platform. But monetisation through advertisements typically leads to the full focus of your products from networking to media like it has been the case for most of the social media giants today such as Instagram, Facebook. So, that is the area we are still exploring,” Nanda said.

So far, Slick has raised $2.1 Mn in funding from WEH Ventures, iSeed Ventures, All In Capital, and Titan Capital, among others. The cofounders are now focussing on user experience and introducing new features to attract more users.

Since its full-fledged launch in January, the app has already onboarded 12 Lakh users. The platform currently has 7 Lakh monthly active users, 4 lakh weekly active users and around 2.5 Lakh daily active users. As shared by Nanda, the average time spent per active user per day on the app currently stands at 18 minutes.

Will Slick Be Able To Tick Gen Z?

Gen Z is the first truly digital native generation that grew up with social media and technology. Besides Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, they also witnessed the emergence of short-video apps led by TikTok. After TikTok got banned in India, a number of homegrown short video apps mushroomed, catching the attention of GenZ. After the initial enthusiasm subsided, the short video platforms gradually started seeing a decline in active users and monthly downloads — many of them even hit rock bottom last year.

Hence, it is just a matter of time before the journey of Slick makes headlines — either for emerging triumphant or losing it all — the fate of which is governed by GenZ.

Even in the US, although Gas has seen immense popularity, it was eventually acquired by Discord. Another polling compliment-based app built by Gas founders, TBH, was acquired by Facebook in 2017 and got shut within a year.

In Germany, another app of similar nature, Slay, was launched last year. As it quickly gained the attention of teens, it also caught the attention of investors like Accel.

However, what is common among all these apps is their focus on moving away from negative sentiments on social platforms to crafting positive experiences, making their users feel valued.

From a business standpoint, most emerging apps seldom find enduring success and market share. This is because GenZ today wants content-focussed social media experience, along with a brigade of followers. Given the current scheme of things, it would be interesting to see how long Slick’s USP of “authenticity” will work in its favour.