🔎 Product Review: Yuka mobile app
How "Making America Healthy Again" will create a new category of apps (and make the Yuka app a cash cow)
One of my most popular posts this year was a 🔍 Product Review of James Clear’s app Atomic Habits. It was fun to play around with the product and give some advice on what is working and what could 10x their engagement and growth. Sooooo, let’s do it again! This week, we’re talking about the Yuka app 🥕, a consumer app that scans products and gives you data on how healthy that product is for you. I use this at least once a week, but don't subscribe (or need to?) and think that’s a problem. Let’s talk about it! 👇
🥕 Cultural moment
We’re having a ~moment~ with product and food safety in the US. Between the clean beauty movement and people freaking out on TikTok about what's actually in their food (looking at you, Red 40), there's a growing awareness that we should pay more attention to what we're putting in and on our bodies.
I'm calling it now: this will be A MAJOR topic of discussion in the coming years. With folks like RFK Jr. promising to eradicate the FDA (the regulatory body that keeps tabs on what we allow and don't allow in the products we buy), we’ll spend more time discussing what should be allowed on our shelves. Apps like Yuka are perfectly positioned to ride this wave – they're basically the "will I die if I eat this?" translator we didn't know we needed.
🧩 What is Yuka?
Think of it as your super knowledgeable friend who reads ingredient labels and knows what they mean. You scan a product's barcode, and boom – Yuka tells you if it's good for you or if you should maybe put it back on the shelf. They've got this really smart scoring system that makes it dead simple to understand what you're about to buy.
🗺️ What are they trying to do?
Download and open the app and the first thing you see is a camera scanner – they know exactly why you're here. Their mission? Make it stupidly easy to know what's in your products. No PhD in chemistry required. The core loop is beautifully simple: scan, learn, decide. Rinse and repeat until your shopping cart is full of green-scored goods ✅.
🧪 How do they measure success?
If I were on their team, I'd be obsessing over two metrics: scan volume and subscriptions. The more people scan, the more valuable their database becomes and this action is a simple proxy for DAUs. And subscriptions? That’s proof that their freemium flywheel is working. Here’s a look at downloads since 2021; they’ve been growing organically since 2021 but have seen an uptick in 2024 (revenue follows a similar pattern).
💪 What is working?
Synthesizing data for you
The way they show good vs. bad ingredients with their color-coding system? It works! It's like they intune what our anxious brains need – simple, clear signals about what's safe and what's sus.
Scanning is easy
They nailed the core use case. When you're standing in Target trying to decide between two moisturizers, you don't want to dig through menus. The scanner is right there, ready to go. It's like having a product ingredient translator in your pocket.
Show me the money (but make it ethical)
In a world where every app seems to be secretly owned by Big Beauty or Big Food, Yuka's taking the road less traveled. They're fully transparent about their funding (we love receipts!) and only make money from users – never from brands trying to buy better scores. Their 2023 revenue breakdown is right there on their website (how's that for transparency?) 👇
📈 How can they make it better?
Show me what I'm missing
Show me a virtual shelf of products I probably use, with their scores visible but blurred unless I subscribe. Make me realize how many red-scored products are lurking in my bathroom cabinet. Give me JOMO!
Make the subscription irresistible
Their freemium model is solid, but the premium pitch could be stronger. Instead of blocking food scans entirely, why not offer a "trial scan" system? Let me scan three food items for free, then show me how many questionable ingredients I just discovered or am eating regularly.
Level up the recommendations
The current "here's what you've scanned" list feels a bit . . . 2019. Where's my personalized clean beauty edit? My "swap these toxic five" suggestions? Give me curated content that makes me feel like I have a personal clean living consultant in my pocket.
Build more trust (because TikTok is asking questions)
Some consumers are side-eyeing the lack of scientists on their team and questioning their data sources. For a company that's basically the judge and jury of product safety, they need to level up their credibility game by contextualizing where their scores come from.
💡 How might you 10x the impact?
Make it social (but make it smart)
Instead of the old-school "share to unlock" feature (very 2010 Dropbox energy), create shareable "Clean Swaps" lists. Let me be the hero who tells my friends which non-toxic deodorant actually works. Build virality through value, not friction.
Create the "Clean Living Score"
Imagine if you could see your overall "clean living score" based on the products you regularly use. Make it a game to improve your score by swapping out toxic products for cleaner alternatives.
Build the clean living community
What if Yuka became the go-to place for clean living discussions? Create spaces where people can share their clean swaps, discuss reactions to common ingredients, and celebrate their toxic-free victories. Think Reddit meets Consumer Reports.
Let me shop it
Why stop at telling me what's toxic when you could tell me and sell me the better option right there? Imagine scanning your toxic drugstore moisturizer and immediately getting matched with clean alternatives you can buy in one tap. Not only would this create a new revenue stream, but it would also close the loop on the "now what?" moment when people discover their go-to products are problematic.
📣 Your turn!
What do you think about Yuka? Have you tried it? What features would make you hit that subscribe button? Drop your thoughts below – and hey, what app should we review next? 👇
PS: If you're not already scanning your products . . . maybe don't start unless you're ready for some uncomfortable truths. Just saying. 😅
I would love to use this app, but its not available in play store for users in Greece. Not sure how this works, but they need to expand app availability to more countries!