What is 'Beam', a web browser with a memo function that has successfully raised 1 billion yen?



Beam, a web browser with a memo function that is being developed with the goal of releasing a beta version within 2021, has successfully raised $ 9.5 million (about 1 billion yen). Shifted, a news site about start-up companies, explains what kind of browser 'Beam' is, its basic functions and how it was developed.

Reinventing the browser? Beam raises capital to take on Google | Sifted
https://sifted.eu/articles/beam/

Dom Leka, who leads the development of Beam, developed the mail client application ' Sparrow ' in 2010. Sparrow became popular and was acquired by Google in 2012. After that, Mr. Leka will launch the food delivery service ' Stuart ' in 2015. Mr. Leka, who was also successful in Stuart's business, gradually became skeptical of his own business and left Stuart in 2017. Regarding his feelings at the time, Mr. Leka said, 'About 150 people were lined up on the stairs in front of the office to get a food delivery job with an hourly wage of $ 15 (about 1570 yen). I felt that most of the technologies I have been working on are harmful to society. '

After that, Leka read the book ' Tools for Conviviality ' written by philosopher Ivan Illich in 1973, 'Technology broadens human horizons and promotes autonomy. It should be something. '

At the same time, Mr. Reka will start using the memo app ' Roam Research '. Although he was happy with the basic functionality of Roam Research, he said he was reluctant to switch between the web page he was browsing and the Roam Research screen.



Therefore, Mr. Reka came up with the idea of installing the memo function in the web browser itself, instead of leaving the memo function to a web application or an application other than the web browser.

Beam, a web browser developed by Mr. Reka, generates a memo associated with a web page each time it is opened. The user can freely edit the contents of the memo, and can search the contents of the memo later. 'Even after a long search in a regular browser, only a few bookmarks and a few memories remain. Beam creates a user-specific

knowledge base by leaving notes at the same time as browsing. You can do it, 'he emphasizes the advantage of Beam.



In addition, Beam users can share the link to their memo on SNS etc. In addition, it plans to provide a function to search for memos left by others from words of interest.

Mr. Leka explained the characteristics of Beam to investors and succeeded in raising $ 9.5 million (about 1 billion yen). Leka also said that with Beam gaining a few percent share of the browser market in the future, Google will continue to pay heavily to become Safari's default search engine. I think it will be possible to obtain.

Google continues to pay Apple a fair amount to keep its default search engine position-GIGAZINE



Beam is under development as an application for Mac based on the rendering engine '

WebKit ' used in web browsers such as Safari. The internal alpha version will be released in April 2021, and the closed beta version will be released in September. Also, Beam's official website is looking for beta testers.

Beam
https://beamapp.co/

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