This app hit #1 in Health & Fitness in the U.S. and crossed 30K downloads.
All of that within just two days of launch.
Buy’r is a new grocery scanner app that went live on December 9, 2025.
The app is a revival of one of last year’s most popular use cases. You scan a barcode and instantly see who really owns the brand, how clean the ingredients are, and what better options fit your values and dietary needs.
It adds ownership maps, ingredient filters, shopping lists, pantry tracking, and receipt scanning so every grocery run feels like a small investigation instead of a blind spend.
Buy’r was created by Ian Carroll, an American entrepreneur, security researcher, and ethical hacker known for The Ian Carroll Show and his deep dives into corporate power.
He currently has 1.8M followers on his personal TikTok and 800K on Instagram.
The real engine behind the launch was not paid ads or a faceless brand account.
It was Ian himself.
Since April, he has been quietly seeding Buy’r on his Instagram and TikTok, first with a beta waitlist and later with regular updates, turning his personal profiles into the app’s main user acquisition channel.
Now he is going beyond his own reach.
He runs two official Buy’r accounts on Instagram and TikTok that together have passed 6.5M views.
On Instagram, he has been co-posting Reels from both the brand page and his own profile, pushing the official account to around 20K followers.
On TikTok, the brand handle alone has already brought in close to 600K views.
The top performing TikTok is a 5 minute 30 second video of Ian simply walking through the app and why he built it.
People clearly show up because they know and trust Ian, but the comments and saves make it clear that many are sticking around for the app itself and what it helps them uncover.
“I’m about to be shifting a lot of focus in my reporting because I’m about to be coming out with the Buy’r app” was at 220K views and 5K saves in October.
That mix of a creator with deep credibility and a product that perfectly fits his niche is the real growth engine behind Buy’r.
For consumer apps, Buy’r is a reminder that an influencer led launch does not need to be shallow or a one off moment.
Now the question is how far he can take it, and whether he will bring in more creators to push the next stage of growth.
You can track new app Buy’r collection on Shortimize:
https://app.shortimize.com/c/2b10Ew0TSCYLf0
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