1 Billion Downloads Later: How YouVersion Is Fueling a Global Hunger for God’s Word

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Life Audio. Hey, Greg, thanks for joining me. Hey, thank
you Michael. It's so good to join you.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Greg Hall, who is chief operating and growth officer for
You Version, the world's most popular Bible app. And you
guys recently passed an incredible milestone one billion installs over
your history.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I believe you've been in this edition for a little
over two years. Greg.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
For those who don't know much about you version, though,
what is you version's history? And secondly, what is the
significance of this one billion install milestone?

Speaker 1 (00:34):
You bet?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, and thank you. I love to tell this story.
You version started about seventeen years ago. Our founder Bobby
Greenwald was in the Chicago O'Hare airport and he just
had a question, I wonder if God could use technology
to help me read the Bible. And since that time

(00:56):
we have heard a resounding answer is yes, Yes, God
can use technology for people to engage with the Bible.
So we've reached a billion downloads, the version has been
installed in every country on Earth, and we see that.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Momentum just continuing to grow.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
And so from the heart of a question of a
leader that just says, can technology help me, we've seen
an entire global movement. Answer the question that people love
engaging with God's word right there in the Bible.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
App What is the significance of this milestone, because one
billion installs. I think if a company, a secular company
reached one billion, if anything, they with two three on horn.
But I think you guys are wanting to toot somebody
else's horn. Go ahead and tell me about that. Go
ahead and tell me about that.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, because it is so there's a couple of there's
a couple of pieces to it, which is one. We
really are excited about the fact that God's word is alive.
So as we celebrate a billion, one we're really celebrating
is a global movement, a hunger that we see from
people seeking God's word more than they ever have. So

(02:06):
we just get to be such a proud voice. We
get to trump at the fact that Jesus came to
earth and his word is alive and people are seeking
it more than ever. And so we are excited about
the first billion that we've experienced.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
But we're excited more for what we see God doing
around the world.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
The next billion is I guess the goal now, because
the next billion means that's one more billion people who
will read God's word. I heard the founder talk the
other day about the acceleration of this world and how
the first billion was you know, you guys, I guess
it took seventeen years since the iPhone came out to
reach that one first billion. How fast can you guys
reach that second billion if you continue this space?

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, we feel the momentum right now. We actually think
the second billion is possible in five years, and the
third billion is possible in three years. So this idea
that in another eight years we can triple what we
see God doing is exciting but actually very possible.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Let's talk about the growth this year. You guys are
growing this year, and that's one thing that I was fascinating.
That's a switch subject to my own subject. But one
thing I was fascinated by is that you guys had
really intended to have this one bit in celebration a
couple of years down the road, right, that's right, and
then you moved it up, and then you moved it
up again. Do you remember the dates there of when

(03:31):
aw that happened?

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:33):
So, I, like you said, I've been here about two
and a half years, and when I was first starting
in the spring of twenty twenty three, Bobby and I
were just looking at the momentum and looking at some numbers,
and this billion looked like middle of twenty twenty seven,
so we began to plan for that. What we saw
is there was momentum, and as we exited twenty twenty three,

(03:55):
we're like, hey, this is like this could be possible
in twenty twenty six. Then as we got through twenty
twenty four, we're like, man, God is just doing something
special here. And so to celebrate on November seventeenth, twenty
twenty five, reaching a billion installs, it is a testament
to the momentum. We have gone further and faster than

(04:18):
we thought. We're not doing it alone, and we just
are celebrating what God is doing.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I'm curious just about the logistics of a celebration. Did
you guys begin I mean on January the first of
this year. Did you look to November and say that's
the date or did you guys continually have to move
it around?

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (04:34):
So there it was a really fun. We don't do this.
We build apps. We build apps and engage with God's word.
We're not event people. So we've had some real experts
in that help us just create that space. It looked
the milestone looked like it was late October or mid November,
and we were really excited. I think it's an unlikely

(04:55):
story that this app would be started right.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Here in Oklahoma City.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Coming from the outside, I'm a business person, you would
think this app would have been started in Silicon Valley,
or maybe it would be started in Manhattan. But God
had to start right here at a local church, life
church in Oklahoma City. So we wanted to celebrate here
in our local community, with our community. So we celebrated
here at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. So we
worked with them to get the dates scheduled. Wanted to

(05:22):
make sure that it worked well, begin to work with
some incredible talent to come and just celebrate, and so
the logistics weren't that difficult. When you begin to share
with people what God is doing. Would you come and
just bring your voice to the testament, to the testimony
of God's faithfulness and the power of God's word. So

(05:44):
we were really excited with the willingness and excitement of
so many to come celebrate with us.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
I was going to ask you, what do you think
is driving this growth. You kind of mentioned it earlier,
do you sinks just to hunger for God's word around
the world and in our own nation.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
I think there's two things, Michael, that I see right now.
I think right now people are seeking truth more than
ever so at a time when I don't know when
I look at a video whether it's real or not.
I don't know if when I read a story, if
it's real or not. I think we have an entire
generations of people going what is truth? And I will

(06:24):
tell you God's word stands alone that it is truth.
And so what we see when people look for something
they can trust, and what we are saying is God's
word is trustworthy. God loves you, he knows you, He
has written this with you in mind, and.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
That's what we see.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
We see people seeking truth at a time when we
don't know what truth is. And so that's the first thing.
The other thing that we really see is we have
some of the best partners in the world, so we
get to be the ones that build the apps to
helping create an incredible experience for you users. But behind that,
we have the Bible societies. We have over thirty five

(07:06):
hundred Bible versions in over twenty three hundred languages. That
wouldn't happen if it weren't for the Bible societies. It's
also we see content creators. We have over eighty thousand
Bible plans and that comes from incredible content creators. We
have churches that create profile pages, and so what we
see is a group of partners that help us get

(07:29):
to tell the story of God's Word. And people love it,
and people are seeking it, and people are coming back
day after day.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
For those who don't know, the U Version app is
more than just Bibles. It's more than versions of the Bible.
There's reading plans in there. I know that my own church,
the pastor puts his notes in there, and so I
don't know what else you want to add to that.
But it's so much more than just a Bible app.
So it's worth the downloading and checking out. What led
you to you Version? How to Your background is in business?

(08:10):
What sparked your interest in wanting to join this team?

Speaker 1 (08:13):
You bet.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
My career was in marketing and merchandising, and I love
understanding consumer behavior and why people make decisions, and I
was growing in my career In late twenty twenty two.
I'm in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and I'm reading a book.
It's actually David Green's leadership, not by the book. And

(08:36):
as you know, the Hobby Lobby story and the Greens
are such great partners of ours. David Green talked about
Bobby Greenwald talked about the U Version team and how
proud he was of the work they were doing.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Bobby and I had gone to the same undergrad hadn't
seen each other for years.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I just sent him a.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Text and just checking with him, how's he doing, tell
him how I was proud of him well. Over the
course of that afternoon, he and I begin to have
a texting conversation, and what Bobby shared is that you
Version had just reached five hundred million installs. Yet he
felt a stirring in his heart that God was calling

(09:17):
us to go further, that there was momentum, but he
was looking to build just a team of leaders and
ask if I knew anybody I might recommend, And I
will tell you at that point, I didn't have a
plan to come work at a Bible out, but I
felt God stirring.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Greg.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
It's you, He's talking about you, and so I just
I answered that text, Hey Bobby, maybe it's me and listen.
Bobby Greenwald is an activator, and I don't know that
I understood that. About ten days later, my wife and
I are at Edmund, Oklahoma talking to him about an
opportunity to join the team, and we said yes. And

(09:55):
it is been the best decision ever because I now
get to help Steward. I think one of the most
instrumental pieces of technology that we get to steward God's words.
But we're really talking about changing lives. So that thing
I love to do, Michael. I love thinking about how
a brand, how an experience can change lives. I now

(10:17):
get to I got to get to see so many stories.
We had a chance just last week to meet a
lady named Dia from India. She'd really, I'll tell you
you look at her on the surface, her life is
put together, but what she said is underneath she was
suffering with crippling depression. Somehow she had downloaded the Bible app.

(10:37):
She's shopping and just feeling like literally asking maybe it's
not worth it, maybe I am a waste. But she
opened up the Bible app and you talked about there's
more than just the Bible. We have a Discover screen
that has different felt needs, and one of the things
that she saw was overwhelmed.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
So it's like, if you're feeling overwhelmed, just click this button.
And she said that described her.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
She clicked on overwhelmed, and a verse popped up Isaiah
fifty four to ten. The mountains and hills may crumble,
but my love for you will never end. I will
keep forever my promise of peace, so says the Lord
who loves you. And at that moment, she said that
just erased all of the lies of Satan. So I

(11:22):
get to hear thousands of those stories, Michael, I get
to hear the story of God's word changing people's life.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
I get to be a part of the team doing that.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
So I will tell you the decision to join the
U version team has been the best decision I've ever made.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Amen to that, and I think that's the young woman
who gave her testimony at the celebration. So if folks
want to hear that, they can google a new Version
one billion celebration. And she gave her testimony in that
in that celebration. I failed to mentioned earlier that you
guys have increased or that U version installs have increased
twelve percent this year. Daily usage is up eighteen percent.
So that's a great and the most amazing part of

(11:59):
it is that the record days were two random days
in November.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Is that right? That's exactly right.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, we talk about the record days of all time,
right are the most recent days, Like literally we are
living in the best days, the highest.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Days of the record days.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
And so the first two days of November are just
normal days other than the fact that we've started Global
Bible Month, other than the fact that there's some great momentum.
We just see God's favor right now. We talked about
people are seeking truth and these days are some of
our highest momentum days right now.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Not East or not New Year's Day, but just too random.
I think Sunday's two random Sundays and to be random Sundays,
that's exactly And I remember, let's close it up by
talking about the future of YOU version. What do you
want people to know about the next few years of
YOU Version?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, we actually believe when we look at a billion,
we feel like we're just getting started. We feel like
we're at the tip of the iceberg. So the first
billion of billions, So what are we focused on. We
are focused on a more personal experience inside the app,
Like we want you to open up our family of

(13:10):
apps and feel like it was made for you. That Michael,
we know you and and experiences for you. So you
should expect to see a more personal experience inside the apps.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Partners.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
We are building a deeper relationship with our partners. Like
we just talked about more content, more content from around
the world, the team is really seeing through a development
of global hubs and key markets and key languages around
the world. We're actually growing our content in non English
language faster than we are in the English language. So

(13:41):
you're going to see more content, more content in people's
hard languages around the world. And then finally, we really
do feel called like I was just talking about, to
go into the end, to.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Go into all nations.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
And so we see us even though we are already
a global ministry, we see the death of our content growing.
So we're going to grow our global hubs, We're going
to grow our global content, We're going to grow in.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Languages, and so that's really where I see us going.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
So there's momentum, But there's momentum one because people are
seeking truth.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
We represent God's word, but to a personal more partners
more content, a more global experience. That's what's going to
help drive us Hi. Greg, thanks so much, You're brat.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave a
five star review. That's how we help more people just
like you find the show. A big thanks to the
team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on
the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you
will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
See you next time.

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1 Billion Downloads Later: How YouVersion Is Fueling a Global Hunger for God’s Word

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