Back in December 2013, we covered an article about the popular couple’s app, Between, when it crossed the 5 million global downloads milestone. The app celebrated its third birthday a few days ago on November 22, 2014 with 9.5 million global users! That’s almost a two-fold increase of users in less than a year! To date, the app has delivered over 1.29 billion messages, stored over 13 million photos and recorded over 12.3 billion app sessions. The amount of love being shared over the application is enough to make me slightly woozy.
Released by Seoul-based startup, Value Creators & Company (VCNC), the app is available on iOS, Android and desktop computers. In fact, we wrote about the release of the desktop version just last month! General Manager of VCNC in Singapore, Joash Wee told Vulcan Post that the desktop version has been well-received. He added, “We are continuing to improve the PC version and also build more awareness among our users that the feature exists.”
The app designed for couples works like an ultra-private version of Facebook, allowing the two users to chat, share pictures, keep journals, exchange voice messages and leave comments. It also allows users to set up reminders for important dates and anniversaries.
Speaking of anniversaries, in conjunction with Between’s three year anniversary, VCNC shared some fun couple-related data it has managed to obtain through Between’s user base with Vulcan Post. Some of the questions that the users were asked include their ideal age to make/receive a proposal, where they met their partners and how many previous relationships they expect to have before they find the Mr/Mrs Right. The sample group for this survey was a total of 15,000 users from Thailand, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and USA.
According to the data obtained, VCNC found that Between users think the average number of relationships a person should have before settling down sits tidily at 4.2. Thailand averaged out at the most number of relationships with 4.89 while Taiwan users averaged at having 2.9 relationships before marrying. VCNC attributed the high number of relationships for Thailand users to the local “gik” culture, today’s youths trend of having multiple casual relationships. Malaysians and Singaporean users expect to have 3.68 and 4.01 relationships respectively, prior to settling down.
This number is actually higher than I anticipated. I was thinking the number would sit at 1. Or maybe 2, considering the number of peers I know who have settled down with their high school sweethearts.
Between users think that the ideal age to propose or receive a proposal is 26.4 years old. Japanese respondents had the lowest average at 24.1 years, followed by Taiwanese respondents. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Korean users have the highest average age at 28.6 years old. Malaysian respondents had the same average score as the overall users at 26.4 years while Singaporean users had a slightly higher ideal age at 27.2 years.
VCNC found a correlation between the data points of the ideal age to receive or make a proposal and where the couples first met. According to the data obtained, highschool/college sweethearts are expected to be engaged, on average, 0.5 years earlier than their peers. Meanwhile, relationships that started from the work place has a slightly higher ideal commitment age with an increase of 1.3 years at 27.7 years old. People who met online have an ideal commitment age of 26.3 while people who met at nightlife venues expect to be engaged at 27 years old.
You may notice that there is no data set for Malaysians and Singaporeans who meet at nightlife venues such as club and bars. This is because there are no bars or clubs in Malaysia and Singapore (I kid, I kid). According to Joash, “We don’t have the data because we did not have enough respondents that falls in that category to give us the minimum sample size according to statistics.” Basically, not enough Malaysians and Singaporeans have nightlives, or would rather not admit it.
Jake Park, CEO and co-founder of VCNC, shared that “these data points are what will enable us to continue making Between the best couples platform for both users and also our partners.” He added that they are excited are on track with their plans to reach 2014’s 10 million user milestone as well as their plan to turn Between into the leading couples mobile platform.
The majority of users for Between are South Koreans at 51%, followed by Japan with 15% and China at 8%. Between is now the leading mobile couple application in the world and we’re definitely looking forward to seeing it break the 10 million user mark this year!