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フォロバ foroba
Follow back, please.
What does foroba mean?
Short for "follow back". New accounts beg for it, big accounts ignore it, and フォロバ100% in a bio is a public promise to return every follow.
Example
フォロバありがとう！
Thanks for following me back!
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Safe to use Fine in ordinary conversation.
The story behind foroba
フォロバ is follow back, clipped in the standard Japanese way and used as a verb: フォロバする, フォロバされた. It belongs to the Twitter era of the early 2010s, when the follower number was the only visible scoreboard and 相互フォロー, mutual following, was a social contract worth stating in your profile.
The surrounding etiquette is very Japanese. Newcomers still write 無言フォロー失礼します, apologizing for following without a greeting, a reflex you rarely see in other internet cultures. フォロバ100% in a bio is a public promise. And a follow left unreturned is noticed with a specificity that has quietly powered a whole genre of counting apps.
Get foroba in your pocket
フォロバ is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
