Why Yuka went viral — and how NeBu is different

If you have lived in Europe or North America over the last few years, you have almost certainly come across Yuka. Scan a product's barcode in the supermarket — a 0–100 score appears alongside an A–E grade. Founded in France in 2017, Yuka has surpassed more than 50 million downloads and is now part of millions of people's daily shopping routine worldwide.

NeBu makes a similar promise: scan a barcode, get a health score. So the obvious question follows: why NeBu instead of Yuka?

In this post we walk through why Yuka became so popular, where it leaves gaps, and what NeBu is trying to do differently.

Why did Yuka explode?

A few well-made decisions lie behind Yuka's success:

1. Simple UX. Scan a barcode, instant score. No complex menus, no mandatory account.
2. 0–100 + A–E. Scientifically grounded in Nutri-Score, but presented to the user as a single number.
3. Transparent methodology. The scoring components (nutritional quality 60 %, additives 30 %, organic certification 10 %) are visible.
4. Community data contributions. Built on the OpenFoodFacts database; users add missing products.
5. Right product, right moment. It arrived just as food-transparency awareness was peaking across Europe.

Yuka is a genuinely good product — let's be clear about that. But it is not perfect, and there are gaps — especially for markets outside Western Europe.

Yuka's real weapon: zero marketing, 100 % organic

Here is the fact that most people miss: Yuka reached 60–73 million users without spending a single dollar on advertising. No traditional marketing budget. No influencer campaigns. No performance ads. Just happy users telling other people.

How did that happen?

• Behaviour change is worth sharing. In the US, 85 % of Yuka users report changing a purchasing decision after scanning a product (source: Yuka's own report + independent press coverage). Someone scans their favourite breakfast cereal in the cereal aisle, sees "30 / 100", takes a screenshot and sends it to a friend. That is a shareable "shock moment".
• TikTok viral moment (2023). A US user posted a hair-care comparison video (contrasting Shea Moisture vs. Dove scores) that took off — generating roughly 20–25 thousand new downloads per day, with zero marketing spend. The visual "score shock" format is a natural fit for the platform.
• Independence + trust = genuine word-of-mouth fuel. Yuka accepts no brand money, no advertising, no sponsored content — so a user's recommendation carries the signal "this is a genuinely impartial tool".
• 2024 revenue of approximately $7.3 million, profitable five years after launch — with zero traditional marketing spend. The business model is a pay-what-you-pick premium subscription ($10–$50 per year) plus book sales; core scanning has always been free, with no paywall.

That is Yuka's real weapon: the product delivers enough value that sharing it becomes the natural thing to do. Instead of forcing exposure through paid ads, it creates a moment people want to pass on.

What this means for NeBu

NeBu's goal is the same path: organic growth, zero traditional marketing. For us, this is not only a budget question — it is a question of independence. The moment we accept brand money, the perception arises that scores could be influenced; an app that runs advertising cannot credibly claim to be a neutral evaluator.

Our playbook differs slightly from Yuka's because we also have a web side:

• Transparent methodology + product pages + E-number guides + category hubs = organic search traffic. Pages built to surface when someone searches "is E330 harmful?", "what does sodium benzoate do?", or "healthiest breakfast cereal". SEO is our equivalent of Yuka's TikTok channel.
• Shareable "score + rationale + alternative" pages. In Yuka, sharing happens inside the app; in NeBu it is a web URL — ready for WhatsApp or X, with link previews, opening straight in the browser.
• Local-language content advantage. In many markets, consumer content that teaches people how to read food labels is genuinely scarce — a low-competition niche. Local-language comparisons of regional brands are largely an open space right now.

Rather than envying Yuka, we take their model seriously: the right product + independence + an organic channel = sustainable, unbuyable growth. To displace an app that runs no ads, a competitor would need to spend millions on Google — and still could not buy back user trust.

Where Yuka falls short

1. Localisation gaps in non-European markets.

Although Yuka has added several languages, the experience outside Western Europe frequently lags: product names appear in English or French, descriptions are machine-translated, and knowledge of regional brands is thin.

2. Sparse product databases for regional markets.

Running on OpenFoodFacts is a plus, but coverage varies enormously by country. "Product not found" is a familiar sight for users scanning locally produced goods outside the major European markets.

3. Not open source.

The details of Yuka's algorithm, its data-handling processes, and the telemetry it collects are closed. Trusting it requires trusting the company; there is no code to inspect.

4. Account and premium model.

Basic Yuka is free, but advanced features (alternative recommendations, allergen profiles) sit behind a premium subscription. That is a perfectly rational business model, but mandatory account creation feels uncomfortable for an app that emphasises privacy.

5. Predominantly food-focused.

Yuka does support cosmetics, but that coverage is less mature than food. Cleaning products and baby products are absent.

NeBu's route

NeBu is an open-source app built by the open-source MC Co. team. The goal is not to copy Yuka directly but to offer a different answer to the same transparency need — for users around the world.

First-class multilingual support

NeBu began with full Turkish and English support from day one — neither was added as an afterthought. All UI, methodology text, error messages, and content are written in high-quality native language. French, Spanish, German, and Arabic are planned for a later phase.

Fully open source and open data

The source code is on GitHub under the MIT licence: github.com/MertMAltinsoy/MC-Co. — scoring formula, dependencies, all UI. Find something wrong? Open an issue; the community will fix it together.

Product data comes from OpenFoodFacts (ODbL licence) — exactly as in Yuka. The difference: we actively encourage contributions back to OFF. Adding products is built into the flow, because a richer database helps every app and every user worldwide.

Why not lean on a country's official food-composition database? Türkiye's, for instance — Türkomp — is a solid resource, but its commercial use is paid: a per-product annual fee that runs into six figures (in Turkish lira) for the full dataset. To keep NeBu free and auditable, we build on ODbL-licensed OpenFoodFacts plus openly published primary sources (EFSA, WHO, the Turkish Food Codex) instead of paywalled data. That keeps running costs at zero and the data behind every score open to anyone — not locked behind a licence wall.

Real privacy — no account needed

Using NeBu requires no account, no email address, no password. Barcode scanning happens in your browser; only the barcode itself is sent as an anonymous GET request to OpenFoodFacts. No advertising cookies, no behavioural tracking, no third-party pixels.

More detail on our /privacy page.

Transparent methodology

How the score is calculated — the formula, the weights, which additive sits at which risk level, how organic certification rules work — is all documented on the /methodology page, with scientific references (EFSA, WHO, IARC, EU Commission Nutri-Score) listed inline.

Multi-category from day one

NeBu's architecture supports multiple product categories from the very beginning: food (Phase 1, live now), cosmetics (Phase 4, Open Beauty Facts), cleaning products, baby products, supplements. Features that Yuka added years into its existence were designed into NeBu's architecture from the start.

Not a race — a parallel route

NeBu's aim is not to beat Yuka; it is to do what Yuka does well, while filling in the gaps for users who need something different.

If you use Yuka today and are happy with it — great, keep using it. NeBu is an open-source alternative; it is here if you need it. If Yuka's localisation has frustrated you, if you want to inspect the code, or if privacy matters more to you than convenience, NeBu is built for you.

Our goal: to make reading a food label a better, clearer experience for consumers everywhere. You can start scanning at ne-bu.net. If a product is missing, contribute it to OpenFoodFacts — the whole world benefits.