The social app, Jodel, is being rolled out in Edinburgh after a successful debut in St Andrews where one in ten of the students downloaded the app in the first month. The app founder, Alessio Avellan Borgmeyer, hopes it will help to prevent loneliness among students by connecting them with like-minded people.
The app is a way to connect to the local community instantly – but without the need to create a profile. It allows students to seek advice, relate funny stories and make connections with people with open communication.
Jodel say that their research found that a quarter of 17 to 24-year-olds are annoyed by the fake imagery used on other social media platforms and one in seven said that these platforms lead to insecurity and social pressure. By the end of this year the target is to sign up at least 11% of all Scottish students.
Lara Budge, UK Expansion Manager at Jodel said: “Entering the UK in Scotland was a deliberate choice because we know the student satisfaction is so high in the university cities, so there’s a really strong student community to support. The pandemic has greatly affected not only students’ social lives but also their mental health, so we hope Jodel can be a force for good, allowing online connections to build into in-person socialising and to entertain young people with fun, local, interesting content from fellow users.”
Jodel is now targeting students in Scotland before focusing on the rest of the UK. To try out Jodel in download via the Apple App Store and Google Play.
The hyperlocal community platform was founded in 2014 and had enrolled one million users in the first year in Europe. Within a default radius of 10 km, users can share so-called Jodels – messages, pictures or videos – to exchange information or even meet up with people who share the same interests. People use the platform to share relatable funny stories and memes, discover local news and ask questions – all with people from the same area. Jodelers are not required to register a public user profile and can keep their privacy. Its business model is built around virtual goods as well as unique interaction formats to connect businesses and communities.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
