Dating is one of the main topics we cover here at Vulcan Post. Over the past few months, we have covered Singapore based Love Out Loud when they shared the 9 most unique date ideas in Southeast Asia, and we have also covered Paktor, a mobile app which recently broke the World’s Guinness Record by organizing the world’s largest speed dating event.
We have also covered how Asian women are well loved on dating sites; while Asian man might have to try a bit harder on their online dating profile, as well as the huge “Single” market in Thailand.
In our latest series of relationship and dating related news, leading mobile couple application, Between, has just announced that it has crossed the 5 million global downloads milestone. Between, is an app dedicated to couples founded in South Korea, which has expanded to Japan and Southeast Asia.
You can look at it as the Whatsapp for Couples. Couples can sync their Between accounts together and chat with each other daily. Other features on Between includes sharing moments as well as sharing photos with your other half. Between has also introduced a sticker store for its users, as it looks to make money through the sale of virtual items. Currently, there are over 40 sets of stickers available for download on the Between app.
What does 5 million downloads mean? If all downloads convert to users, there are 2.5 million couples using Between to connect and chat with their other half.
That’s a lot of couples. According to Between, 10.5 billion messages have been sent among couples on its platform.
Between also told Vulcan Post that South Korea is currently its strongest market, with 60% of downloads coming from the country. Japan and China both hold 10% of Between’s global downloads while Southeast Asia and the US hold 7% and 5% respectively.
Along with the download milestone, Between is launching a new version: Between 2.0. The key updates which come with the new version includes Shared Calendar where users can use the shared calendar to plan their dates, as well as a new weather update, targeted at couples who are physically apart by helping them understand the weather they are separately experiencing.
“Between 1.0 was first launched in South Korea to enhance communication between couples here. While focusing on South Korea, we also saw organic adoption of Between in other parts of Asia, North America and Europe which prompted us to study these markets more. Between 2.0 is the result of actively engaging our global users and gathering their feedback to bring Between to the next level for couples around the world.” – Jaeuk Park, CEO of VCNC
South Korea and Japan: Interesting couples behaviour and competition for users
Between also told Vulcan Post that they noticed some interesting behaviours among its South Korea and Japan users. According to Between, South Korea users are more open about their relationships. “Even physically, you’ll see them showing signs of affection in public like holding hands and sharing kisses on the cheek,” said Joash Wee, Between’s Singapore General Manager.
Japanese couples on the other hand, are more conservative and they do not display these sort of actions in public. In terms of using Between, South Korean users tend to send more text messages while Japanese users prefer sending photos over text messages.
Although Japanese couples are noticeably more conservative, that did not stop another similar company from launching a similar service in Japan. In June 2012, Pairy, a social network app for couples launched its service, and has recently raised S$1 million in funding to fuel its growth. Couples can use Pairy to record their relationship and communicate with their significant others. In September, Pairy had 120,000 registered users, slightly behind Between where it has over 500,000 downloads in Japan.
When asked about Pairy, Joash noted in confidence that the team is growing strong in the market too.
“Between is currently the leading service in Japan with over 500,000 downloads there. Having another venture backed service similar to Between only proves our theory that Japan is a market ready for couple apps. Having competitors in the same market helps in educating the general public about the concept and the value of a couple app and I believe that users will always go for best product that continues to innovate and bring value to users.”
Of course, in Singapore, there’s home grown LoveByte too.
So, which couple app are you using?enablejsapi=1&html5=1&
Related Stories:
- Couple app Between gets in bed with OpenRice to find Singapore’s best foodie couple
- Dating app Paktor breaks Guinness World Record, poised to dominate in Asia
- 9 unique date ideas from Southeast Asia we bet you have not heard about
- Asian women are well loved on dating sites; Asian man, maybe not
- Are there a lot of singles in Thailand? Avalable and Noonswoon seems to think so
- Technologies which make love fun