Yubo Suicide: Suicide livestreamed on French social media app Yubo

Yubo Suicide: Suicide livestreamed on French social media app Yubo.

A user of the French social media app Yubo committed suicide live on Saturday night, November 4, 2023. A person reportedly committed suicide on live stream and was pronounced dead.

After the event, numerous users attempted to watch the video, but the app server failed. The video, which has since been removed, featured a man sobbing and complaining about being bullied.

Further details about the incident is yet to be made available, as investigation is ongoing.

Yubo (formerly known as Yellow) is a French social networking app developed by TWELVE APP in 2015. It is designed to “meet new people” and “create a sense of community”. The app had 60 million users as of 2022.

Yubo was created by Sacha Lazimi, Jérémie Aouate, and Arthur Patora when they were engineering students at CentraleSupélec Graduate school of the Paris-Saclay University and Télécom Paris. Formerly known as Yellow, it was first launched in 2015. According to the founders, the app seeks to create a space for “socializing online” and to “facilitate communication between people all over the world who share mutual interests.”

In December 2019, the app raised $12.3 million in a funding round led by French private equity firms like Iris Capital, Idinvest Partners, Alven, Sweet Capital and Village Global. The funds will be used to develop its technology and expand its global user base.

Between 2015 and December 2019, app users have created an estimated 2 billion friendships, along with exchanging more than 10 billion messages and launching 30 million livestreams.

In 2019, the startup has generated $10 million in revenue.