Last Wednesday Startup Grind Seoul held its 3rd event featuring Jaeuk (Jake) Park, the founder and CEO of VCNC. The night was filled with much excitement due to the popularity of Jake and his service Between as well as the amazing crowd who was able to enjoy delicious catering by Oliver Sweet and a selection of tasty beer from Craftworks.
For those of you who don’t know Jake, Jake holds a BA in both electrical engineering and business administration from Seoul National University. His company, VCNC, built Between, a private communication service for couples. Between was the first and the biggest private social app for couples in the world, and since its launch in 2011, it has grown to over 9.3 million users worldwide. The company now has offices in Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, and Taiwan and hopes to continue to expand globally and monetize through its newly opened e-commerce store. VCNC has secured funding from 500 Startups, Softbank, Capstone, Global Brain, StoneBridge, and DeNA.
Between’s success comes from not only hard work but also a keen understanding of the target market and market fit. To get to its first thousand users, the company continually researched the needs of its target market. Initially, 50 close couple-friends tested out Between’s alpha version. The company analyzed the data from the usage of these 50 couples and continually tested the market to find the perfect product market fit. They found that despite the fact that all of their users were close friends, the retention on usage was extremely high. So, they knew that there was a need for the service. Then, Between selected its next test users through a website solely created to obtain email addresses from couples who would potentially love the service. 300 extremely loyal users signed up for the closed beta and this user base eventually became the solid foundation for Between’s massive user base.
Later on, to obtain more users the company looked to see where they could locate loyal users who could potentially make the app go viral. Jake was able to find communities of these users on cafes on portals such as Naver and Daum. They had their initial users who already had positive experiences from using Between, post their experiences on these community message boards which propelled members of these communities to download the app. Jake did not spend any money on marketing and did not launch Between until he was certain that the fit was there. All he did was locate his potential users and showed them that they needed Between.
Key takeaways from his interview:
- Understand the market. Know the different segments in the market and understand how they would respond to your product.
- Define the user. Look for the right users who would fall in love with your product and eventually be able to make the product go viral.
- Find the right product market mix. Continually test to locate the right fit and learn from trial and error. The data will prove that the fit is right. Do not go to the market until the product has been thoroughly tested.
- Don’t spend money on marketing until you understand the market. Instead spend money on hiring the right people.
- Meet and talk with your users. You’re never going to understand who they are without talking to them.
Between’s success lies in its building of a strong initial user base and an extremely loyal fan base. Through understanding the target user in South Korea, Between was able to apply the same knowledge and strategy in other countries to truly become a global phenomenon.
If you would like to watch the full interview click here or click here to see a short clip of the night.
Thanks again to our sponsors (The Asan Nanum Foundation, SparkLabs, Mousq Angel Club) and our partners (KISED, SMBA, Oliver Sweet, Tapzin, Kiwi Productions, Whatap and MangoPlate). Hurry up and get tickets to our next event featuring Alvin Foo!
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