Facebook wants to acquire more teenage users so it just acquired TBH, an anonymous feedback app, very popular among high school kids.

TBH, the app for giving anonymous (positive) feedback to friends, was the social media hit of the summer among teenagers. A free app, TBH stayed on top of the download charts on iOS for weeks after its launch on August 3rd, 2017. Today the app counts over 5 million downloads.

For Facebook, this seemed like an obvious buy: the company is worried its user base is ageing fast and it has always been Facebook’s goal to “recruit” the next wave of teenagers. Instagram certainly helped retaining active teenagers within the Facebook ecosystem but it needed something more.

On the TBH side, Facebook will bring resources that the startup could not have even imagined gaining access to when it launched just two months ago. With the support of the Facebook machine, TBH will be able to grow and reach more people. The app will remain active, independently ran by its founders. However, I’m confident there will soon be links to other Facebook properties floating around the app UX…

All in all, it seems both sides shared many of the same core values about connecting people through positive interactions. While this is 100% true for TBH, Facebook (and other social media apps for that matter) has not been as good from keeping trolls and bullies away from its feeds.