Last week we reported that MessageMe , one of the latest messaging apps to hit the smartphone market, had picked up a $10 million Series A round of funding, and today, the company is officially confirming the news, along with some more details on how it’s been doing in the 2.5 months since it launched. It now has 5 million users across both iOS and Android — a five-fold increase on the 1 million that downloaded the app in its first 10 days. MessageMe aims to carve out a name for itself by offering more ways than the rest of the pack — which includes WhatsApp, Line, KakaoTalk, Viber and Facebook (from which MessageMe gained some notoriety when it was restricted from using Facebook’s social graph API to find friends to use the app) — for users to communicate with each other on its messaging platform. In its case, this is done through notifications via text messages, but also pictures, doodles, video, voice, location and music sent from one user to another. Altogether, usage of these has risen three-fold, to 1,500 per second from 500 65 days ago. From what we understand, although MessageMe is partly founded by people with extensive gaming experience — Arjun Sethi and Justin Rosenthal both worked together at social games company LOLapps ( acquired by 6waves in 2011) — it will be messaging, not games, that will be the revenue driver for the company. Also: no plans to add in advertising, nor to charge for the app. Instead, it will build out premium messaging features such as stickers and money transfers Read more »
How Hike, India’s Fast Growing Mobile Messaging App, Is Banking On SMS & Local Diversity To Beat The Big Boys
It’s still practically a newborn but Indian mobile messaging app Hike is already channelling almost a billion messages a month between its five million registered users. Those numbers sound insignificant when you stack them up against the big beasts of the messaging space – WhatsApp claims 200 million+ monthly active users , and some 600 billion in and outbound messages – but Hike’s growth is impressive when you consider it’s only just over four months old. WhatsApp, of course, has been around for almost four years. Mobile messaging is hot property right now, with tech giants like Facebook and most recently Google bent on owning the messaging space. The reason for all this interest in cross-platform chit-chat is that mobile messaging looks poised to steal social networking’s crown jewels: aka the cool factor, and thus the user engagement (Hike incorporates social status updates and emoji-based moods into its messaging app, to hang on the social chain). But the idea that there can be one ultimate mobile messaging winner — or one player as dominant as Facebook in the full-fat social networking space — seems unlikely. And that’s what Hike is banking on to disrupt WhatsApp and keep Facebook Messenger and its ilk from crashing its just-getting-started party. There’s no doubt that local market realities intercede much more on mobile than on the traditional social networking playground of the desktop, especially in emerging markets where device, network and carrier variations influence how people communicate based on how they can afford to communicate. Read more »
Evernote Has 4 Million Users in China
Evernote hit 1.1 million users just two months after its Chinese launch in July 2012. CEO Phil Libin revealed this week that his company now has 4 million users in China one year after its debut On Tuesday at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, Evernote's team in China — which has grown to 17 people — flipped the switch on the Chinese version of its Evernote Business service Libin also discussed China's integral role in Evernote’s strategy of becoming a long-term startup that can survive up against the world’s top web giants. Libin said, within the next decade, more Chinese tech companies will go global Read more... More about China , Apps , Evernote , Tech , and Apps Software Read more »
Pizza Compass App Finally Makes Your Smartphone Useful
Ever get the craving for a slice, like, right now ? If you can stomach the 99-cent charge, you might want to employ Pizza Compass in the future to quell your pizza jones. The app, which hit the App Store earlier this month, points you in the direction of the nearest pizza joint. In a limited trial, I found the app to be pretty accurate. The interface, which overlays Google Maps with slice icons representing pizzarias, is also cute The app's creator, Dan Blackman, created it using Foursquare's API, which had ample data about pizzeria locations across the world. (He reports it works well in Amsterdam.) "This was kind of an experiment for me," says Blackman Read more »
Turntable.fm Releases Piki to Help Find Music Recommendations From Friends
Turntable.fm has the best and worst luck of any startup. After launching its social music streaming service in early 2011, Turntable received the kind of media exposure and hype that most companies would kill for. But a few months later, the service's traffic dipped and people started questioning whether it was the next big thing or the next big flop. Since then, Turntable has continued to try building momentum by signing licensing agreements with the four major record labels, releasing an Android app and optimizing its website to allow for thousands of users to listen to music in the same listening room, effectively creating a true, virtual concert space. It's unclear, however, whether any of these updates have really moved the dial much on the public's perception of the company. Read more... More about Music , Apps , Startups , Turntable.Fm , and Business Read more »
Bejeweled Launches for Windows 8
Bejeweled is on its way to Windows 8 . Modeled after Bejeweled 3, which is available on some other platforms, Bejeweled Live is an adaptation of the popular game designed specifically for the Windows 8 operating system “Bejeweled began life on Windows 98 way back in 2001 and has enjoyed tremendous global success on more than 20 different platforms since then,” Heather Hazen, executive producer for the Bejeweled franchise, said in a statement “We’re confident that the beautiful new design and solid foundation of Windows 8 will provide a fantastic experience with Bejeweled Live,” Hazen added. Bejeweled Live has three different game modes: Classic, Diamond Mine, and Butterflies. Classic is the version of the game players have come to know and love. Butterflies is a slightly different take on the traditional model, where some gems turn into colored butterflies that can take flight on the board while you play. Diamond Mine has you play the game in a mine you need to dig yourself out of. Read more »
Twitter Holding A Mobile-Focused Platform Event April 2 To Discuss “Exciting New Features,” No Press Allowed
Twitter has released an open invite form to a developer press event it’s holding April 2 on its dedicated developer website today. The event is mobile-focused, Twitter says, and will take place at Twitter HQ between 6:30 PM and 9:30 PM Pacific. Twitter says it will use the occasion to share “some exciting new features for the Twitter Platform” it has been working on. In a blog post announcing the news , Twitter says that the event will address how developers can “best integrated Twitter into [their] mobile experience,” and notes that space is limited. The entry form asks potential attendees to submit their name, the name of their company, their email and Twitter user name, and the invite is open to developers, product managers, designers and more, but not to press. Twitter has been making changes to its API and how it works with third-party developers, including the retirement of API v1, which it began blackout testing for earlier this month . Read more »
‘Game of Thrones’ Launches Android App to Keep Track of Book Characters
Just in time for the new season of A Game of Thrones , fans of the book series are getting a new Android app to help readers keep track of the countless characters, places and timelines described within its world The free "A World of Ice and Fire" app — which is based on George R. R. Martin's novels of the same name and launched the popular HBO TV show — serves as a companion to help you stay on top of what's happening. It even syncs with where you are in the book series to avoid spoilers. SEE ALSO: Game of Thrones' George R.R. Martin: Yes, I Need to Write Faster The Android app is very similar to the the iOS app companion released last fall, but with a few extra features, including 30 new illustrations for key places, the ability to search for characters by alias — you can find Tyrion by searching for "The Imp" — and improvements to map functionality . Those features will hit the iOS app soon with an app update Read more »
iPhone GPS App Scout Offers Personalized Directions
As Apple works on improving its built-in Maps app , the Cupertino, Calif. company has left room for several mapping apps to win a place in iPhone owner’s hearts. One mobile GPS app called Scout recently skyrocketed to number two in the App Store, and provides users with turn-by-turn directions to their next location, as well as a few other features. SEE ALSO: Top Transit Map Replacement Apps for iOS 6 Similar in many ways to social-GPS app Waze , Scout includes traffic information, and helps route users around potential roadblocks. The app also detects nearby amenities — such as gas, food and entertainment -– in areas with which users may not be completely familiar. What's more, it lets users share their ETA with friends and coworkers. The entire app can be controlled by voice Read more »
Facebook Brings Down The Hammer Again: Cuts Off MessageMe’s Access To Its Social Graph
MessageMe , an app that launched last week and raced up the charts to the #2 spot in social networking in the U.S. , is confronting Facebook’s touchiness around access to its social graph. The app’s integration with Facebook stopped functioning earlier today (see left), the result of the company’s decision to cut MessageMe off from its “Find Friends” functionality, according to sources familiar with decision. MessageMe CEO Arjun Sethi declined to comment in this story and Facebook didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The move resembles Facebook’s decision last month to shut off Voxer’s access to the graph, even though Voxer connected to Facebook for well over a year. Voxer is another communications app that supports calling and voice chat. Facebook cut the app off around the same time that it launched competing functionality with free voice calling to other users. Read more »