# With 22 ratings, it reached the top 100 of the US social Top Grossing chart: BRB isn't a hit, it's a paid-chat business just starting paid acquisition

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/ios_6775422121.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> It didn't grow from word of mouth; it runs ads in several countries, including the US and Israel. The US social Top Grossing bar is low, so a paid chat app with a few dozen ratings can rank around #100.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · iOS · written 11-6

B

BRB — Make new friends · Molvis Limited

# With 22 ratings, it reached the top 100 of the US social Top Grossing chart: BRB isn't a hit, it's a paid-chat business just starting paid acquisition

**What it is** A 18+ dating app: you record a 15-second video as your profile, and messaging, calling, or sending gifts to people you haven't friended costs virtual currency, Gems.

**Why it's getting attention** It didn't grow by word of mouth. It's buying ads in the US, Israel, and a few other countries. The US social Top Grossing chart has a low bar: a paid-chat app with a few dozen ratings can reach around #100.

**C** **How you could follow it** Not recommended as a direct copy. Teams already doing stranger-social going global can borrow its playbook: prove the model in small markets first, write compliance details thoroughly, test multiple price tiers, sell through web checkout, and use daily check-ins.

C grade: paid chat is already crowded, BRB itself has only just started paid acquisition, and its October revenue is estimated under $5,000. You can learn from its packaging and market selection, but following it requires paid acquisition, review, and risk-control capabilities, which isn't worth it for a small team. Few people know about it yet

Data (updated daily) · launched 2026-09-10 · US store rating 26 · charted in 11-08 of 6 stores

iOS · best category chart rank · by store

US store Spain UK

Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day

iOS · rating count · US store

Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.

BRB is a "make friends with 15-second videos" app that launched on Sep 10. By Nov 6 it had only 22 ratings in the US, yet had reached #95 on the US social Top Grossing chart on the App Store, and its Israel social Top Free peak was #18. It looks like a new social product on the rise, but a closer look shows something else: a Cypriot company registered only in March this year is running paid chat using a proven playbook, and has only just started buying ads in a few countries. This piece covers how it makes money, why its rankings don't mean much, and whether you should follow it.

### Nov 5 update: daily check-in

On Nov 5, BRB shipped version 1.0.3, with a three-line changelog: "Daily rewards: come back every day to claim yours", "Now supports German, French, Italian and Turkish", "Performance improvements and bug fixes".

This was its 4st version in the first 8 weeks after launch. On Oct 22, 1.0.2 added Spanish, simplified login, and added block and report. Five languages and a check-in feature in one month doesn't look like a new product still testing ideas. It looks like a team that knows what to do next, executing it.

### What it is: a dating-app shell over a paid-chat ledger

The store page is gentle in tone: loneliness is rising, BRB wants to help you meet new people, "no swiping, no matching, no pressure". You record a 15-second video introducing yourself, and others see your face and personality rather than a photo. It has a dedicated section titled "Built for friendship, not dating". (Interestingly, the second step on the website brb.online reads "find friends by swiping short video profiles".)

The money trail is in its community guidelines: two people who aren't friends need Gems to send messages, and unlocking friend-request cards, calls, and gifts also costs Gems. Gems sell on the App Store for $1.99 to $59.99, with the top tier at 2,900. Several SKUs share the same price (550 and 275 both at $6.99), which suggests it is testing pricing. The terms also mention "web purchases", naming payment processors Solidgate, PayPal, and Stripe: you can buy on the web and skip Apple's commission.

Another passage in the guidelines is worth reading: Gems "have no cash value and cannot be cashed out", and gifts are "only a way to express appreciation". Users must be 18 or older, face-based age verification is required, and it states plainly that "BRB is not an adult platform". For pay-per-message stranger-chat apps, whether they survive on the App Store depends largely on how thoroughly these rules are written.

### Why the rankings don't mean much

| Metric | Metric | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| US social Top Grossing | 10-28 #131 → 10-30 #104 → 11-06 #95 | App Store charts |
| US social Top Free | 10-29 #202 → 11-06 #160 | App Store charts |
| Israel social Top Free | 10-31 peak #18,11-06 #32 | App Store charts |
| US rating count | 10-28 was 9 → 11-06 is 22, average rating 4.9 | App Store |
| Countries charted | 11-06 total 7: US, Israel, UK, Canada, Australia, Spain, Ukraine | App Store charts |
| October revenue and downloads | Both under 5,000 (per US dollar) | AppGazers estimates, 10-02 to 11-01 |

The bar to hold around #100 on the US social Top Grossing chart is low. In the Nov 6 data, #81 was Chatty: One to One (a company in the Dubai free zone, 52 ratings), and #98 was Cicade: Chat & Make Friends (a Vietnamese company, launched only in July, 60 ratings). Both are the same kind of thing as BRB: newly launched one-to-one paid chat with few ratings and high rankings. A third-party estimate puts Chatty's October revenue between $12k and $100k. So a #95 spot on the US social Top Grossing chart probably corresponds to tens of thousands of dollars in monthly revenue: enough to sustain a small team, but hardly a breakout (inference).

### Where users come from: bought

Put these clues together and the answer is clear:

- Israel, the UK, Spain, and Canada all charted, but in each of these countries the rating count has stayed at 0. Users who arrive organically almost always leave a rating; zero ratings points to users coming in through ads.

- The privacy policy's "marketing partners" are Google Ads and Facebook Ads, with ad IDs and purchase data shared with them. The store privacy label lists purchase history and device identifiers under "used to track you", which is standard for paid acquisition attribution.

- We found no organic discussion anywhere: no one mentioned it on X, TikTok, Reddit, or in the press. The name "BRB" also makes it nearly impossible to pick up traffic from store search, since the term is internet slang.

- The market selection is deliberate: small markets like Israel, where people are few but willing to pay, let a small budget push an app into the top 20 of a category chart. The website's download button links to the Ukraine store.

We have not seen its ad creative directly. The evidence above is indirect, but strong.

### Who made it

The developer on the store is Molvis Limited, a Cypriot company registered in 2026 March 25. Its address is a common registered-agent address in Nicosia, and the store page lists a UK phone number. The registered director is linked to dozens of companies, from solar to holding firms, which is typical of nominee directors. So her other companies don't reveal any sister apps for BRB.

The team itself stays out of view. The website links to the Ukraine store, Solidgate for payments is common among Ukrainian teams, and the stack is Flutter, WebRTC, Symfony, and Kubernetes. Our inference is an Eastern European team going global through a Cypriot company, unverified. Whoever they are, shipping 4 versions in 8 weeks, multiple languages, web checkout, and price testing are all things done by people who have built this kind of product before.

### Who it's competing with

The "meet new people" category has two groups. One is the big dating and social apps: Yubo (375k US ratings, #20 on social Top Grossing), Azar (Match Group, 102k ratings, #31), Hoop (684k ratings), Bumble For Friends, plus Timeleft, which does offline dinners. The other is pay-per-message apps using virtual currency: Chatty, Cicade, C24 Club, OMGHey, Lucky1, ChatBeam... most have only a few to a few dozen ratings.

BRB belongs to the second group. The App Store's "customers also bought" list is full of video-chat and live-streaming paid-chat apps, with no Bumble-style dating product. Its 15-second video profiles and Stories are packaging that makes the place feel more authentic and safer. What actually drives its rankings is ads plus virtual currency. In terms of product form, it brings nothing new.

### If it were you

**Verdict: C.** You can learn a playbook from it, but copying it isn't worth the effort. This isn't a new opportunity. It's one more player in an old, crowded track, and it hasn't yet proven it can scale.

**Who it fits** : teams already running paid chat, live streaming, or stranger-social products going global, who have paid acquisition capacity and experience with content moderation and payment risk control, and who want to see how peers are recently packaging their apps and picking markets.

**Not for:** indie devs who've never run paid ads; small teams that can't handle 7×24 review and anti-fraud; anyone unwilling to touch the gray zone of "paid chat with strangers." The risk with this kind of app isn't failing to build it. It's delisting, chargebacks, and complaints.

**What you can take:**

- If you want to chart in a category, check the category Top Grossing bar first: around #100 on the US Social Networking Top Grossing chart, and apps with a few dozen ratings can hold a spot.

- Test the ad model in small markets first. In countries like Israel, a cheap budget can push you into the top 20 of the category Top Free chart, then scale spend into bigger markets.

- Put compliance up front: non-dating positioning, 18+ age rating, face-based age verification, gifts that can't be cashed out, and detailed community rules.

- Test several quantities at the same price tier; use web payments to bypass Apple's commission; use daily check-in rewards to pull users back.

**How to acquire users:** this category runs on paid acquisition only (Meta, Google). There's no organic traffic to speak of. Adjust creatives, target countries, pricing, and retention design together.

**Window:** none. The category has been here all along, and it's crowded.

**What would show you're wrong:** (1) BRB breaks into the top 50 of the US Social Networking Top Grossing chart after January and its rating count keeps climbing noticeably, which would mean the video-profile packaging really converts better and deserves a second look; (2) organic discussion appears (users posting about it on TikTok or Reddit), which would mean it's more than paid spend; (3) the reverse: if it drops off the charts in most countries after January, paid acquisition isn't paying off, and this category is harder for newcomers than it looks.

[iOS store page ↗](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6775422121)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yubo | iOS | 2015 | US 375k ratings, #20 on Social Networking Top Grossing | Live video plus swipe-based dating for younger users, much bigger scale. BRB is capped at 18+ and charges per message. |
| Azar (Match Group) | iOS | 2015 | US 102k ratings, #31 on Social Networking Top Grossing | Random video calls. BRB is pre-recorded video profiles plus DMs. |
| Hoop | iOS | 2019 | US 684k ratings | Snapchat profiles plus friend-adding. BRB is short video profiles in a standalone app. |
| Bumble For Friends | Big-company features | 2023 | Bumble ecosystem, much larger scale | Photo profiles plus matching, subscription pricing. BRB sells no swiping, no matching, video profiles, pay per message. |
| Timeleft | iOS | 2023-12 | US 8,949 ratings | Offline meetups for dating. BRB is fully online. |
| Chatty: One to One | iOS | 2025-05 | US 52 ratings, #81 on Social Networking Top Grossing; AppGazers estimates October revenue at $12K–100K | The closest peer in one-on-one paid chat. BRB adds short video profiles and Stories. |
| Cicade: Chat & Make Friends | iOS | 2026-07 | US 60 ratings, #98 on Social Networking Top Grossing | A Vietnamese company's product from the same period, similar format |
| Lucky1 / C24 Club / MIRL / OMGHey / ChatBeam, etc. | iOS | 2023–2026 | Most have only a few to a few dozen ratings | Video/live paid-chat apps in Apple's "Customers also bought" section, drawing the same users as BRB |

Where users come from

- Inferred **Meta / Google paid acquisition** : the privacy policy names Google Ads and Facebook Ads as marketing partners and says ad IDs and purchase data are shared. The privacy label "used to track you" covers Purchases and Identifiers. It charted in Israel, the UK, Spain, and Canada, yet its ratings stay at 0, and there's no organic discussion online. Our ad library doesn't cover it, so we didn't see any creatives.

- **Confirmed** **Multi-language paid acquisition, picked by market** : peak Social Networking Free chart rank in Israel was #18; the official download button links to the Ukraine store; 1.0.2 added Spanish, 1.0.3 added German, French, Italian, Turkish

- **Confirmed** **Virtual-currency monetization plus check-in retention** : messaging strangers, calling, sending gifts, and unlocking friend-request cards all cost Gems. Gems sell for $1.99–59.99, with several tiers at the same price points; 1.0.3 adds daily check-in rewards.

- **Confirmed** **Web payments** : the terms mention Web Purchase; payment providers include Solidgate, PayPal, and Stripe.

- Inferred **Content / creators / social media** : x-radar, TikHub, Reddit, and media searches found no mentions at all.

## BRB — Make new friends (iOS id6775422121) research report

> Research date 2026-11-06. Sources: our appstore database (app_day / chart_rank, from 2026-10-28), Apple's lookup API and store page, brb.online's website and terms, molvislimited.tech, a third-party mirror site based on a Cyprus company registration, AppGazers, the Meta/Google/TikTok ad libraries (ours), x-radar, TikHub, Jina/Exa search.

### Bottom line

BRB didn't break out on its own. It's a **paid social chat app that has just started to scale using a standard playbook** . It uses a 15-second video as the profile, says it's "for making friends, not dating," and collects money with Gems virtual currency (you spend Gems to message people you haven't matched with, call them, or send gifts). The company was registered in Cyprus in March 2026, the team behind it hasn't shown up publicly, and it buys users in a handful of chosen markets (US, Israel, UK, Canada, Australia, Spain). The "#95 US Social Top Grossing" looks impressive, but mainly because the social chart bar is low. Several of the apps ranked just above and below it have only 52 and 60 ratings. Absolute scale is still small, and a third-party model estimates October revenue and downloads at under $5K.

### 1. Data: how big is it, really

| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Launched | 2026-09-10 (1.0.0); 1.0.1 9/23,1.0.2 10/22 (Spanish, simplified login, block and report); 1.0.3 11/05 (**daily check-in rewards** , in German, French, Italian, and Turkish) | Apple lookup / store page version history |
| Rating | 24 ratings worldwide, average 4.92; US 22 ratings, 10-28 is 9, 11-06 up to 22 ratings (10 days, +13) | appstore database app_day; lookup |
| US social Top Grossing | 10-28 #131 → 10-30 #104 → 11-06 #95, trending up overall | appstore database chart_rank (genre 6005) |
| US social Top Free | 10-29 #202 → 11-06 #160 | Same as above |
| Israel social Top Free | 10-31 peaked at #18,11-06 #32; Top Grossing peaked at #11-02 #37 | Same as above |
| UK | Top Free ranks 66–133, Top Grossing peaked at #11-02 #66 | Same as above |
| Canada / Australia / Spain / Ukraine / North Macedonia | Top Free or Top Grossing ranks 76–191 | Same as above |
| Third-party estimate | AppGazers estimates App Store in-app purchase revenue from 10-02 to 11-01 at **< $5K** , downloads at **< 5K** (80% range, model estimate) | appgazers.com/reports/apps/ios-6775422121 |

**How to read these ranks:**

- The US Social Networking Top Grossing chart, ranks 81–110 (11-06, appstore database), includes **Chatty: One to One** (CHATTY APPS - FZCO, a Dubai free-zone company, 52 ratings, #81), **Cicade: Chat & Make Friends** (a Vietnamese company, launched 2026-07-22, 60 ratings, #98), and BRB (22 ratings, #95). They're the same kind of product: new one-on-one paid-chat apps with few ratings but not-low chart positions. AppGazers estimates Chatty's October revenue at $12.3K–$100.1K. So a spot around #100 on the US Social Networking Top Grossing chart roughly corresponds to tens of thousands of dollars in monthly revenue, not a big hit (this is inference, not verified).

- In Israel, the UK, Spain, and Canada, the charted apps **kept their rating count at 0** . People download without rating, which organic word of mouth rarely produces. It looks more like bought traffic.

### 2. Competitors: who else does the same thing

"Meet new friends / video dating" splits into two groups: big-company and established social dating products, and paid-chat apps that charge per message with virtual currency. BRB belongs to the second group.

| Competitors | Where | Launched | Scale (US rating count, etc.) | How it differs from BRB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yubo | iOS/Android | 2015 | 375k ratings, #20 on US Social Networking Top Grossing | Live video plus swipe-based dating for teens and young adults, several orders of magnitude bigger. BRB is capped at 18+ and charges per message. |
| Azar (Hyperconnect / Match Group) | iOS/Android | 2015 | 102k ratings, #31 on Top Grossing | Random video matching plus subscriptions / gems. BRB uses pre-recorded 15-second video profiles plus DMs, not random connections. |
| Hoop | iOS/Android | 2019 | 684k ratings | Snapchat profile swaps and friend-adding, paid "diamonds." BRB is standalone short-video profiles. |
| Bumble For Friends(BFF) | iOS/Android, big-company features | Standalone app from 2023 | Bumble ecosystem, much larger scale | Photo profiles plus matching, subscription pricing. BRB's pitch is "no swiping, no matching" plus video, pay per message. |
| Timeleft | iOS/Android | 2023-12 | 8,949 rating | Offline meetups for dating. BRB is fully online. |
| Chatty: One to One | iOS/Android | 2025-05 | 52 rating, #81 on US social Top Grossing | **Closest comp** : one-on-one paid chat, likely higher revenue; BRB adds short video profiles and Stories |
| Cicade: Chat & Make Friends | iOS | 2026-07 | 60 rating, #98 on Top Grossing | same period; Vietnamese company |
| Lucky1, C24 Club, MIRL, What's Me, HaloLive, OMGHey, ChatBeam, Mingo, Zupp | iOS | 2023–2026 | Most have only a few to a few dozen ratings | These are from Apple's "Customers who bought this app also bought" list, which means BRB's users overlap with users of video / live paid chat apps, not with the Bumble BFF crowd. |
| Saada - Chat & Party Live(Veloglobal Limited) | iOS | — | Near #27 on the Israel social chart (appfigures snippet) | Voice rooms / live streaming; the recall claim that it's the same matrix as BRB is **not supported** by the evidence I found (see section 5). |

Conclusion: this category has no shortage of competitors, and BRB has nothing new in product form.

### 3. Growth tactics: where users come from

| Channel | Evidence | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Paid acquisition (Meta / Google) | The privacy policy's "Marketing partners" section names Google Ads and Facebook Ads, sharing ad IDs and purchase data (brb.online/privacy). App privacy labels for "used to track you" list Purchases, Identifiers, and Usage Data, a typical setup for attribution-based ad buying. It ranks in several countries with no rating count shown, and I couldn't find any organic discussion online. | Strong indirect evidence, but **our Meta / Google / TikTok ad libraries don't have it** (they only track products on our list), so I didn't see the creatives directly. |
| Market-by-market targeting | Hit #18 on the free chart in Israel (a small, high-ARPU market where paid chat apps often buy traffic). The website's download button links to the **Ukraine App Store** (apps.apple.com/ua/...). Each release adds languages (Spanish, German, French, Italian, Turkish). | Confirmed (charts and website); how the ad budget is split is not verified. |
| Retention and monetization design | 1.0.3 added a daily check-in reward. Messaging people you haven't matched with costs Gems; calling, sending gifts, and unlocking "friend request cards" also cost Gems (brb.online/community-guidelines). | Confirmed |
| Web payment routing | The terms mention Web Purchase (bought directly on the web, non-refundable), and the privacy policy lists Solidgate, PayPal, and Stripe as payment providers. That means there's a web checkout route that bypasses Apple's commission. | The route exists; its usage is not verified. |
| Content / creators / social media | x-radar returns 0 results each for "brb.online" and "molvis"; TikHub search for "brb app" returns nothing; the @brb.online TikTok account is unrelated and empty; no Reddit or press coverage found. | Confirmed: none |
| Store search | "BRB" is a generic abbreviation, and search results are swamped by internet slang, so it's unlikely they're getting traffic from ASO. | Inferred |

### 4. Why it took off

1. **The category itself monetizes** : pay-per-action paid chat (messaging strangers, calling, and sending gifts all cost Gems) produces high per-user spending. Gem packs range from $1.99 to $59.99, with multiple price points in the same tier (550 Gems at $6.99,275 and also at $6.99), clearly price A/B testing (in-app purchase list on the App Store page).

2. **The social Top Grossing bar is low** : near #100 on the US social Top Grossing chart are apps with only dozens of ratings (Chatty 52 ratings, Cicade 60 ratings). If some of the bought traffic pays, it can chart in multiple countries.

3. **Compliant packaging** : marketed as "Built for friendship, not dating," requires 18+, uses facial AI age verification, and the community guidelines state it's "not an adult platform," lowering the risk of removal by Apple and payment-processor flags. Whether apps like this survive depends heavily on this.

4. **Mature team** : 7 weeks with 4 releases, new languages added in a row, a web payment channel built out, and a PHP/Symfony, WebRTC, Flutter, Kubernetes stack (molvislimited.tech). All of this points to a team that has shipped this kind of product before, not beginners.

### 5. Company background (correcting the recall conclusion)

- Molvis Limited, Cyprus HE 490108, **registered 2026-03-25** (companieshousecyprus.com). The registered address, Libra House, 21 Panteli Katelari, Nicosia, is a common registered-agent address. The store page lists a UK phone number, +44, and the email executive@molvislimited.tech.

- The director and secretary, Maria Koliou, is listed on dozens of companies (solar, consulting, holding, and tech firms, per companiesregistry.cy), a typical **nominee director** . So "she has other companies" **doesn't prove** they're the same app matrix. The recall claimed Saada/Veloglobal is part of the same matrix, and I found no evidence for that: Veloglobal isn't on her list of companies. Another company under her name, Vermelis Limited (registered 2026-06-10), is also new, and I found no matching app.

- Clues about the team's origin: the website's download button links to the Ukraine store, it uses Solidgate (a payment provider commonly used by Ukrainian teams), and the tech stack is typical of Eastern European outsourcing and product teams. My guess is a Ukrainian or Eastern European team going global through a Cypriot company, but this is **not verified** .

### 6. Differentiation

The product differentiator is **pre-recorded 15-second video profiles plus Stories** , compared with Hoop and Wink (photos), Azar (random video connections), and Bumble BFF (photos plus matching), along with the "friendship, not dating" positioning. But this differentiator **is not why it's growing** : the users it's bought alongside are paid video chat apps (per Apple's "customers also bought" list). Ranking is driven by paid acquisition and virtual-currency monetization; video profiles look more like packaging that builds trust.

### 7. Visibility and copycats

- Visibility: **few people know about it yet** . Revenue isn't public, and X, TikTok, Reddit, and the press haven't covered it. It only shows up automatically on aggregator sites like Sensor Tower, appfigures, AppBrain, and Similarweb.

- Copycats: no one appears to be copying it. It's itself following a category that was already crowded (Chatty, Cicade, C24 Club, OMGHey, and others from the same period).

### 8. What others can borrow

- The social category's Top Grossing bar is low. Paid chat with multiple Gem tiers means a few hundred paying users can reach the top 100 on the US social Top Grossing chart. Small markets like Israel let a small ad budget push an app into the top 20 of the free category chart.

- Compliant packaging: a non-dating positioning, 18+, AI facial age verification, and detailed community guidelines are the prerequisites for this kind of app to survive on the App Store.

- Price testing across multiple price points in the same IAP tier; web payments (Solidgate / Stripe) to bypass Apple's commission; daily check-ins to drive return visits.

- Validate the acquisition model in low-cost smaller-language markets (Israel, Spanish-speaking, Turkish-speaking) first, then scale up.

### 9. Still unclear

- Whether there's a supply side of "hosts / companions" (agencies, withdrawal options). The community guidelines say gifts "cannot be exchanged for money," but they don't describe how recipients are paid; there may also be platform-run accounts or AI companions. Not verified.

- No direct evidence of ad channels or budget (our ad libraries don't have it); the live Meta Ad Library page can't be read through an API.

- Real revenue: AppGazers estimates October < $5K, but its November rank is still rising; how much revenue corresponds to #95 on the US Top Grossing chart is also an inference.

- Whether there's an Android version: the terms mention Google Play, but I didn't find it in our googleplay database.

- The real team behind it and whether it has sister apps are not confirmed.

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.