Korea’s Social App-For-Two Wants to Get Between Couples Everywhere
Korean couples app Between recently crossed the 900,000 download mark and is seeking a new round of funding next month. The app aims to create a one-on-one ‘intimate space’ to share chats, photos, videos, and emoticons between lovers. Users are currently sending roughly 4.9 million messages, sharing 350,000 photos, and spending 10 minutes on the app per day.
How is it different than Pair, another couples-only app that has been getting lots of media love lately? Edward Lee, the ‘value innovator’ at the app’s parent company Value Creators & Company (VCVC), says that Between emphasizes memories much more than its competitors. Lee explains:
Between focuses on organizing and looking back at the memories. We have a solid communication method and a method to stack your memories and look back at them quickly.
「Betweenは思い出づくり、そしてその思い出を振り返ることに力をいれています。当社には確固としたコミュニケーションツールや、思い出を保存し、それを素早く振り返るためのツールがあります。」
Betweenは記憶をまとめ、振り返ることに焦点を合わせている。我々はしっかりとしたコミュニケーションメソッドを持っている。あなたの記憶を積み重ね、そしてそれを素早く振り返るためのメソッドだ。
Another difference one could glean between Between and Pair is the former’s current focus on Asia. Almost all of Between’s users are in Asia right now – 75 percent in South Korea, 7 to 8 percent in both Japan and China, and about 5 percent in the US, says Lee. But with a new round of investment, VNVC will seek to expand the app in other countries and continents.
Monetization plans for Between are threefold:
Paid functions like premium emoticons, longer video messages, and data back-up
Physical commerce: a man could send a latte to his girlfriend through the app, for example, or have a photo-book made of their memories made
Advertising: Romantic goods and services like travel getaways or flower deliveries could promote their services through an “event box channel” on the application
Between won best mobile app at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam earlier this year and came in second at the Echelon 2012 Startup Pitch in Singapore.
It should be interesting to watch Between battle it out with Pair for the affections of couples around the world.
