Zenly

Zenly, a social mapping application, was established in Paris, France, in 2011 by co-founders Antoine Martin and Alexis Bonillo. The duo, who met during their studies, identified a gap in the market for a seamless way for friends to share their real-time locations, inspired by Martin's experience as a youth event organizer and their shared interest in early location-based apps like Foursquare. Their initial product, Alert.us, launched in 2013 and was geared towards family safety but faced challenges with high battery consumption. Following a significant period of research and development to create a battery-efficient, real-time tracking algorithm, they relaunched as Zenly in 2015, shifting focus to a younger, social audience.

The company's core offering was a mobile application for iOS and Android that allowed users to see their friends' precise locations on a live map. This was designed to facilitate spontaneous real-world meetups. Key features included viewing friends' battery levels, their real-time movement speed, and an in-app chat function. To address privacy, Zenly incorporated a "Ghost Mode," which allowed users to either freeze or blur their location. The business model was not centered on monetization but on user growth, which it achieved significantly, reaching 35 million monthly active users by early 2022.

Zenly's trajectory saw a major milestone on June 21, 2017, when it was acquired by Snap Inc. for approximately $213 million in cash, with reports suggesting the total deal could be higher with stock and other incentives. The acquisition aimed to integrate Zenly's technology into Snapchat's new Snap Map feature, though Zenly continued to operate as a standalone app. Despite its growing user base, particularly in Europe and Asia, Snap announced the shutdown of Zenly, which officially ceased operations on February 3, 2023. The decision was part of a broader corporate restructuring at Snap, which aimed to cut costs by discontinuing projects that were not generating significant profit. Following the shutdown, co-founder Antoine Martin launched a new social media venture called Amo.

Keywords: location sharing, social mapping, mobile application, real-time tracking, social networking, Snap Inc., user engagement, startup acquisition, mobile technology, user privacy