Sellou: The New App Dominating the Middle East

Bahrain – January 31, 2024 —

An Art Exhibit at Nanzuka Shibuya City, Tokyo. Japan and its aesthetics served as an inspiration in the creation of Sellou’s design.

In a little-known area of Bahrain, a woman frantically starts packing dishes to take to a photo shoot. Nadia Al Amarr is the owner of a kitchen that serves traditional Middle Eastern dishes – with her own twist. “I really didn’t think people would like my unique twists to these meals, turns out all I needed to do was tell them about it.” She struggled with marketing before Sellou came along and gave her a reason to start filming her food. She doesn’t fit the Gen-Z TikTok-savvy demographic, and filming seemed like more of a chore – before it became a doorway to advertise her business for free.

Sellou launched last month, an influencer posted a brief video on TikTok explaining what it was, and that pushed the app to stardom in the tiny island of Bahrain. It was ranked #1 on the App Store for a week straight. 

It opened a door for businesses to start filming videos of the products they have for sale. Previously, TikTok was the only reason for people to make short videos, and a lot of products get lost in the mesh of dance videos, travel videos, and thirst traps. Now, it’s all about products, and all about how they are presented – on Sellou.

The app was built by a scruffy Arab designer, and his far-fetched co-founder from rural Utah. The two met online and decided to change the way people shop. They started with a very simple idea: film what to sell, and the app will do the rest. This turned into a grueling two years of trying to get to product market fit: a term used by startup founders to describe the moment where the product becomes useful to the masses. Today, the product looks nothing like its original idea. It’s a stream of short videos, showcasing everything people have for sale: cars, catering services, soap businesses, all rolled up into one space, it’s a far cry from the original throw-it-in-the-cart-and-checkout concept they had in mind. It filled a need no one knew they had.

Appearing on the local morning show, the founder, Sal, mentioned that it’s, quote, “a place for people to sell unique things.” 

Sal, a designer and art critic, decided to delve into software engineering after graduating college with the goal of making something beautiful and easy to use. Sellou was meant to be a curated feed of unique bits and bobs by artists and creatives. Jared, his co-founder, a self-made YouTube star in the Apple-obsessed Swift community, brought in his unique taste in design to shape the product into what it is today. Every icon, every screen, carefully laid out by his hand, much like how an artist would carefully touch up a painting. The icon, a minimalist yarn ball, designed by a small creative collective in Fukuoka, Japan, meant to signify craftsmanship – ties the product together in a poetic way.

On release, it turns out a lot of people had things to sell, and the app appealed to a lot more than creatives.

With every passing month, the app seems to shift and change into more of a unique space on the internet. Still missing the glitz and glam of mainstream tech products, Sellou shows a shred of what might be popular in the years to come. 

Sellou is available today on iOS only.

Contact Info:
Name: Michael Shields
Email: Send Email
Organization: Sellou
Website: https://sellou.com

Release ID: 89119709

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