In recent years, the technology sector has seen its fair share of scandals; from Uber to Google and from Zenefits to the Gamergate saga, employees who work in Silicon Valley and in other major tech hubs around the world have a lot to share and discuss, but they would rather do it anonymously since one of their chats could easily bring an end to their cushy jobs. For this reason, tech workers are increasingly turning to Blind, a new cross-platform app that allows privacy and anonymity, and where they can feel safe when chatting with their peers.
Blind is the work of a developer who worked for Google’s rival in South Korea. According to a recent interview published by the San Jose Mercury News, Blind CEO Sunguk Moon was inspired by anonymous chat boards hosted on the intranet of Naver, one of the most popular search engines in South Korea. That anonymous platform was eventually taken away when company executives felt that sensitive issues were being discussed. In 2013, Moon felt that the time for Blind had arrived for tech workers in Silicon Valley and beyond, and the level of active discussion has attracted employees from more than 3,000 tech firms.
As a company policy, the CEO of Blind will not disclose the total number of users on this secretive chat app; however, Moon estimates that 70,000 users are from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, and that their favorite topics of discussion include corporate gossip, workplace harassment and compensation. Blind has a stronger presence in Korea, where employees across more than a dozen sectors exchange opinions on working conditions, dating, finance, politics, and sports.
Moon explained that Blind has not turned into a free-for-all platform despite its focus on anonymity. Users are very trustful since they are required to provide their corporate email addresses for the purpose of identifying the company and placing them on the proper channels; this trust has been earned by the app thanks to its longevity dating back to 2013. The databases where the member accounts are stored are hashed and encrypted over and over in case of a data breach.
As can be imagined, advertisers are very interested in Blind because of the target audiences: users who are educated, have jobs and earn salaries in the technology sector. With the company trying to gain market share in India and China, a visible future could be in the works for Blind.
