Blind Clone: How to Create an Anonymous Professional Network like Blind?

In the global digital interaction and information exchange era, professional social networks have long been indispensable tools for career development and networking with colleagues. However, almost all such projects have one crucial disadvantage: discussing sensitive topics and asking uncomfortable questions about them is difficult, as users fear their work or do not want to offend colleagues and superiors. This is where Blind comes into the scene - a social network allowing you to create and conduct anonymous discussions about working conditions, bosses, coworkers, salaries, and more. 

In this article, we'll look at how an anonymous social network for professionals works and how to create your Blind clone.

What Makes Blind Unique?

Blind is a social network for professionals that provides an entirely anonymous space to communicate, share information, or discuss work-related issues. User anonymity on Blind is ensured by hiding users' personal information, such as names, photos, and other identifying information. This creates a protective barrier that allows people to communicate and share freely without fear of judgment, reprimand, or other negative consequences.



The Blind platform was launched in 2014 in South Korea. Still, the app only became famous in 2016 after the so-called "Nut Rage" incident, when the daughter of an executive at Korean Air (South Korea's largest airline) hurled insults at a flight attendant for serving nuts in a bag instead of on a plate. Korean Air employees began using Blind to learn more about the incident and anonymously voice their opinions. This discussion was leaked to the media, and within a week, the waiting list to check in to Blind increased at least tenfold - the app gained popularity.

Remarkably, Blind was noticed not only by rank-and-file employees but also by executives at many large companies, who saw the app as a tool that allowed them to get honest feedback in real-time, the kind of feedback they otherwise wouldn't have been able to get because of office politics, fear of getting fired, or fear of being criticized. As a result, Blind has become one of the must-have tools in many companies for gathering feedback and communicating informally about sensitive topics.


The Blind community now numbers more than 7 million verified professionals in over 300,000 companies, including:

• 80% of all Uber employees;


• 70% of all Amazon and Apple corporate employees;


• 60% of all Meta and Microsoft employees;


• 30% of all Google employees.

According to a recent user survey, more than four out of five professionals (82%) use Blind to evaluate a company before applying for a job or accepting a job offer, and 70% say they use Blind to feel more connected to what's happening at their company.

How does the Blind Anonymous Network Function?

From a technical point of view, the Blind Anonymous network uses several mechanisms to ensure the privacy and anonymity of users:

• Authentication. When registering with the Blind app, users can use their work email addresses associated with the organization to authenticate their professional affiliation. This helps create a professional community and prevents using "fake" accounts. Names and other personal information are hidden.
  


• Anonymous communication. Blind uses encryption and anonymous identifiers to ensure secure and anonymous communication between platform members. Each user is given a unique identifier not associated with their real identity. This allows users to freely communicate, ask questions and share opinions without revealing their identity or fearing negative repercussions.
  


• Access restrictions. If workers sign up and confirm a work email, they will have full access to the network and can join private channels dedicated to their company. Blind requires at least 30 employees from the same company to sign up for the app before creating a channel. If users sign up with a private email, they can only access Blind's public channel.
  


• Moderation. Blind has a team of moderators who verify the accounts of all members, as well as monitor the community and control the quality and safety of the content. This helps prevent abuse and unwanted online behavior.
  

How to develop a social network for professionals?

Developing your anonymous professional social network similar to Blind is a major challenge. This section will look at several key steps in developing such a platform, from defining the niche, functional requirements, and selecting a technology stack, to interface design and user privacy.

The niche and target audience

Before developing an anonymous professional social network, defining its niche and target audience is essential. Such a platform attracts many professionals who want to share experiences, ask questions and receive advice in a secure and trusted environment. The target audience of such a project may include professionals from various industries, including IT, marketing, finance, law, and more. They can be employees of companies, startups, freelancers, or students and graduates looking for information about employers or support and guidance in their professional field.


Selecting the best niche for an anonymous professional network project like Blind requires systematic research and analysis. Here are a few steps that can help you in this process:

• Research the market. Analyze existing anonymous professional networks and study their features, target audience, and features offered. Determine if there are unfilled niches or opportunities to improve the user experience of the Blind network.
  


• Determine specialization. Consider focusing on a specific industry or professional field needing confidential communication and information sharing. For example, this could be an anonymous social network for IT professionals, marketers, freelancers, entrepreneurs, teachers, or medical professionals.
  


• Research the needs of the audience. Conduct research, surveys, and interviews with representatives of your target audience. Find out their problems and needs in professional communication and data sharing and how your network can help them solve them.
  


• Identify your unique offering. Determine what features or functions your anonymous network can offer to attract and retain potential users. Consider what advantages you can provide over your competitors, such as enhanced security, additional tools, a more comprehensive range of professional communities, or something else.
  


• Consider growth potential. Explore the possibility of scaling and expanding in the future to ensure the project's long-term success.

Business model and project monetization

According to one of the company's board members, even nine years after its launch, Blind is not profitable. Like Netflix, Spotify, and many other startup companies, the social network Blind, at its current stage of development, "prioritizes growth and building a sustainable business model" and plans to profit shortly. The company's management doesn't have any clear ideas about making money.

The only solution that Blind has launched for their project is a service called Talent by Blind. The project team noticed that their network naturally attracts job seekers, so they launched a platform for tech professionals and employers. It's a recruitment agency where companies can view a specialist's profile and send interview requests.



When starting your professional social network like Blind, you can opt for the "expand first, monetize later" approach, but that's not the only option.

Here are what other options are available to you:

• Advertising partnerships. You can engage brands that are interested in your target audience. For example, you can provide the ability to display ads on the platform, keeping user privacy and preferences in mind.


• Enterprise services. Provide additional services and tools for businesses that allow them to use your anonymous network to communicate and collaborate with professionals across industries or with employees within their organizations. This may include analytics features, customizable solutions, or integration with other professional tools, services, and products.
  


• Virtual goods and currency. Develop a system of virtual offerings or internal currency that your users can purchase or earn within the social network. This could include buying and sending gifts, publishing content for a fee, or improving their profile. It's important to incentivize users to purchase internal currency or goods by adding value or privileges.
  


• Freemium model. You can develop additional services or products related to your anonymous social network and offer them to users for an additional fee or subscription. This could include providing business analytics tools, paid events, consulting services, and more.

Key functions of the Blind anonymous social network

When developing a Blind clone, it is essential to consider the key features that make this platform popular and unique. Here are some features to consider when launching your own anonymous professional social network:

Registration. This option allows users to create an account and access the functionality of their professional social network. When creating this feature, you should provide the option to register without having to disclose personal information. In doing so, users should be allowed to create an anonymous profile using an alias or nickname. Adding bot and spam checking is also essential to ensure the safety and quality of interaction within the social network. Of course, it is necessary to implement verification of whether the user works for a particular company or not. In Blind, such verification is done through corporate email verification. In a Blind clone, you can do the same.

User profiles. Create personalized profiles that allow users to introduce themselves and add some information about themselves (company, specialty, experience, etc.). It is also essential to allow your users to manage their privacy, so they can choose what information to show to other users. If you plan to launch a full Blind clone, divide your users into two groups. The first is those who have confirmed their current work location via email. Such users will be able to view open/public threads and will have access to (closed) threads where other employees of his company are chatting. The second group is all other users. They only have access to looping topics.

News feed and content search. When developing this feature, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for collecting and filtering content so that users can receive relevant publications and updates in their news feeds. For this purpose, artificial intelligence algorithms based on user interests and preferences should be developed. Search tools should also be provided to help users find relevant information and the most popular discussion topics in an anonymous social network.

Text chat and other communication channels. This functionality represents the means of communication between users. This includes the possibility of confidential communication between social network members and creating and joining chats, groups, and communities. Such communication channels help users to find like-minded people, receive support and information from experienced professionals, and participate in discussions on issues of interest to them. The development of this feature includes creating a user-friendly interface where users can find information and join various chat rooms and groups, as well as exchange messages and files in a secure and anonymous environment.



Data protection and privacy. These things are critical to ensure the security and trust of users on a social network like Blind. Therefore, when implementing this functionality, it is necessary to use the most advanced encryption methods and security protocols to eliminate the possibility of data leakage and unauthorized access. These protocols should be built in at all levels of anonymous social network development and continue to be updated and improved to ensure a secure and trusted user experience.

Reviews and feedback. Blind users can leave reviews and anonymously rate companies, employers, products, and services. This helps other users on the network to get unbiased information about employers 

and make better-informed hiring decisions. When implementing this feature, a restriction should be set to prevent users from leaving reviews and rating companies they have not worked for. In addition, it is important to provide feedback channels where users can ask questions, suggest ideas, and report on problems in their company.



Analytics and Statistics. Provide your anonymous professional social network administrators with analytics and statistics tools to track user activity, gauge the popularity of topics, reviews, and other reader messages, and analyze community engagement, trends, and preferences. This allows developers and administrators to make informed, data-driven decisions and improve the platform based on user needs and preferences.

Mobile Support. Consider the importance of mobile accessibility; you should develop a mobile app or customized mobile web interface to access your social network from mobile devices easily. A mobile app will provide accessibility, flexibility, and usability of your anonymous social network for professionals, allowing them to be connected and engaged anytime, anywhere.

Content moderation. You should also develop a system and rules for content moderation that will help maintain high quality and security for information exchanged within your social network. This will help prevent inappropriate content or violations of platform rules from being shared.

Application architecture of Blind’s clone

The Blind clone architecture should be designed to meet the requirements of user anonymity as well as platform functionality and scalability.

For this purpose, the following components need to be implemented:

• Authentication Server. Authenticates the location of all users by their work email addresses and issues them access tokens. This server does not store any personal information of the users, only their hashed identifiers.
  


• Client application. Allows users to create and view posts, comments, likes, etc. This app also encrypts the data on the user's device using an asymmetric key generated when it is first launched. So, even if someone gains access to the user's device, they cannot read the content.
  


• Content Delivery Network (CDN). Optimizes the download speed of static resources such as images, videos, etc. This network also encrypts data using a symmetric key known only to the application server. Thus, even if someone accesses the CDN, they cannot read the content.


• Application Server. Handles requests from clients and communicates with the authentication and data servers. This server also implements business rule logic such as content moderation, ratings, recommendations, etc.
  


• Data Server. Stores posts, comments, likes, and other information about communities and topics. This server encrypts the data using a symmetric key known only to the authentication server. Thus, even if someone accesses the database, they cannot read the content.

Apart from this, it is also essential to utilize the following technologies and tools:

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  • Cloud services for infrastructure scalability and reliability.
  
  
  • Containers and orchestrators to manage application deployment and upgrades.
  
  
  • NoSQL databases for storing unstructured data.
  
  
  • Caching and message queues to improve performance and fault tolerance.
  
  
  • Monitoring and analytics to track system health and user behavior.
  
  
  
  

Anonymous social network design

During the design process of an anonymous social network such as Blind, it is important to consider the needs and preferences of users, ensure intuitiveness and ease of use, and create a harmonious, aesthetically pleasing, and coherent design consistent with the social network's goals and values.

Research and analysis of popular existing solutions and trends are conducted during design development. Next, a design concept is created, a prototype is developed to visualize the interface, and then the design is implemented, considering the color scheme, fonts, icons, and other visual elements. This is followed by testing and iterations to optimize the design for user needs and preferences.

Backend, frontend, and API

When developing an anonymous professional network, it is important to intelligently plan and implement the backend, frontend, and API, ensuring users' high performance, security, and usability. This will create a functional and attractive Blind-like platform that effectively supports anonymous professional interactions.

The backend is the core functionality of the social network and is responsible for data processing, authorization, information storage, and database interaction. The frontend is responsible for the interface and user interaction. API allows the backend and frontend to interact and provides integration with third-party services and applications.

Here is a sample web, Android, and iOS technology stack that can be used when developing a social network clone of Blind.