A former president at musical.ly (now generally known as TikTok), Alex Hofmann has already completed one thing that appears inconceivable: he helped construct an app that would compete with social giants like Meta, YouTube or Snapchat. After ByteDance acquired musical.ly for round $1 billion in 2018, Hofmann left the corporate to turn into an investor, however he quickly determined he wished to make apps once more. So, Hofmann based 9count, the guardian firm to apps like Everland, Helpline, Juju and the friendship-making app Wink, which has thousands and thousands of customers.
“There’s a pattern that I noticed in China that a number of tech firms there don’t simply construct one product, however a number of merchandise,” Hofmann advised Avisionews. He famous that an organization like Meta grows by buying apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, whereas Twitter continues iterating on the identical flagship app. “Having one product is is tremendous thrilling, after all, however we do see the pattern that there are increasingly more completely different curiosity teams. Serving them with only one product can work, however there’s a increased probability which you can join with extra folks with completely different merchandise.”
Thus far, Wink is 9count’s most profitable app, which is standard amongst youthful customers who wish to make new pals on-line (Hofmann says that the app has a content material moderation group of 15 individuals who work 24/7). However Wink connects folks with out regard to location, as long as the customers communicate the identical language. This design is intentional — the corporate didn’t wish to face the safety concern of individuals assembly up in actual life, because the app is accessible for customers 13 and up.
“However it was attention-grabbing that a few of the 18-plus-year-old customers requested us, ‘Oh, it could be nice if I might search for folks in my metropolis,’” Hofmann stated. “In order that was one of many the reason why we stated, you understand, possibly it could make sense to really create a courting app.”
Picture Credit: Spark
Not like many standard courting apps, Spark doesn’t ask you to swipe left or proper. As a substitute, you possibly can see folks round you abruptly in a grid, sort of like on Grindr. However not like Grindr, you fortunately can solely obtain messages from folks if you happen to’ve each “sparked” (or preferred) one another.
“For us, it was actually attempting to grasp what would replicate the true world in the absolute best manner,” Hofmann stated. “So as an example, at a celebration, you’re not going to spend your time mentally considering ‘sure’ and ‘no’ as you have a look at every particular person round you.”
Much like an app like Bumble, when you ship a like or a message on Spark, the request solely lasts 24 hours.
“We actually need customers to shortly reply, so nobody has to play the ready sport as they do in different apps proper now,” Hofmann stated.
Spark has already “gentle launched” in a whole lot of nations, climbing to #1 within the iOS app retailer in Eire and the Netherlands inside a day. Whereas the app is free to make use of, there’s additionally a subscription possibility, which supplies customers commonplace paid courting app perks like the flexibility to see everybody who preferred you, additional “sparks,” and extra. Hofmann famous that the precise pricing and advantages are nonetheless topic to alter, however that proper now, a subscription is $19.99 per 30 days, with slight reductions if you happen to subscribe for 3 or twelve months at a time.
In terms of security, Spark makes use of Hive, an AI moderation instrument, to make it possible for customers aren’t importing dangerous or NSFW content material to their profiles. Like Wink, Spark has a 24/7 belief and security group. Spark additionally employed a safety professional to identify bugs and vulnerabilities on the platform earlier than they are often exploited by dangerous actors.
After all, it doesn’t matter what security measures are in place on a courting app, customers ought to at all times train warning when assembly strangers in particular person. Match Group, the guardian firm to apps like Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, invested in Noonlight to allow safety features like emergency help, location monitoring and picture verification. That enterprise choice adopted an investigative report by ProPublica and Columbia Journalism Investigations, which revealed how Match Group allowed identified intercourse offenders to make use of its free apps.
Based in 2018, 9count has raised $21.5 million in funding led by Redpoint and GGV Capital. Its latest app Spark is accessible now on iOS.
