Saudi’s viral app Sarahah is going strong and worldwide
Collage: Sarahah logo and its creator Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq
In June, when the anonymous feedback app Sarahah went viral and shot to the No.1 spot among the top free apps in Apple’s App Store, its creator, Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq, was hailed as a maverick. The Saudi programmer had built an app that had beaten the likes of Snapchat and Instagram to the top of the App store.
Sarahah’s success was especially important for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been trying to move out of its oil-based economy and focus on technological innovation and entrepreneurship under ambitious reform programmes. But the app was quickly mired in controversy when The Intercept reported in late August that it was quietly uploading users’ contacts to Sarahah’s servers.
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Seban Scaria