Not Just Another Messaging App: Hoozin Offers Richer Experience in Group Chats

There are a lot of mobile messaging apps on the market right now like Line, KakaoTalk, and WeChat, to name but a few. Nonetheless, more and more vertical chatting apps are emerging, believing that there is still room for them to grow. The latest is Hoozin. Hoozin is an Israeli-made chatting app that hopes to fill in the gap in capturing the sensation of real-life group conversation in its messaging app.

Co-founder Udi Zohar is presenting now onstage at our Startup Arena event here in Singapore. Let’s see how they can convince the judges that their chat app has a place among the crowd.

The biggest differentiator with Hoozin is its group interaction feature, which dumps the traditional linear feed messaging approach and puts in Hoozin’s own group messaging design (pictured right) which the team believes is more fun and dynamic. They believe that real life group dynamics are not linear and much more fun and varied, and Hoozin’s group messaging allows users the possibility of engaging with more than just one or two users within the group.

Hoozin is still in beta right now and is defiantly targeting the Asian market. In the near future, they plan to add more things like group games and animations. And just like other general chat apps, Hoozin plans to bring in money from in-app purchases and partnerships with local brands.

Hoozin received quite some tough love from the judges. Judge Nobuaki Kitagawa asked if the only differentiator with bigger players like Line and KakaoTalk is Hoozin’s group feature, in which Udi answered that the group feature alone is quite important. Judge Jeffry Paine wasn’t impressed with the app. He suggested the team to pivot to do group dating instead that could make the app better.

This is a part of our coverage of Startup Asia Singapore 2013, our event running on April 4 and 5. For the rest of our Startup Arena pitches, see here. You can follow along on Twitter at @techinasia, and on our Facebook page.