Taiwanese Pop Star Jay Chou Invests in 31SMS Start-Up

Jay Chou in a screengrab from a vid on the 31SMS site.

Taiwanese pop singer Jay Chou (pictured right) seems to have been inspired by Hollywood movie star Aston Kutcher in investing in a start-up. Jay is ploughing an undisclosed sum into the group-messaging app 31SMS, which is made in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese paper ChinaTimes reports in its showbiz section that the pop star wants to help transform the service into something that can challenge Kik, or WhatsApp. 31SMS has some more unique features, such as scheduled messages and a bundle of free songs. That’s something that could, if Jay Chou chooses, become a vehicle for some of his own music.

The main messaging window in the 31SMS Android app (the iPhone app looks even uglier, btw).

Looking at the app, I must say that it looks ugly and a bit basic (pictured right) when compared with, say, WhatsApp, or a slew of slick-looking mainland-Chinese competitors such as the Miliao app, or Tencent’s new Weixin. At the moment, 31SMS is available only in English and Traditional Chinese characters on its iPhone and Android apps – not in the Simplified Chinese form that mainlanders use. It’s not clear if the service will soon adopt a new localization and launch here in China as well.

Back in May, Kutcher invested in Airbnb, a site for ad-hoc room rentals whilst traveling, and takes an active role in expanding the service globally. It seems Jay is taking a similar route, but with an eye to using it as a channel for his music as well.

Here’s a Taiwanese news report on Jay’s investment, so you can see the man himself:

[Source: ChinaTimes (article in Chinese), via Technode]