South Korean app Between, a private social network for couples, amasses over 400k users

A version of this article first appeared on beSUCCESS.

If you’re among those who think that social networking is becoming too noisy and intrusive, then here is a solution to communicate with your partner in a private, intimate way.

Between is an app developed by South Korean startup VCNC. It provides a quick chat option between couples, a photo album and messaging functions.

Although there are other similar mobile apps gaining popularity, Between is by far the most successful based on the number of downloads. It was judged the best mobile app at the TNW Conference in Amsterdam and they won second place in The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2012 G-Startup Competition held in Beijing.

Some of its key features are:

• Quick chat with your partner
• Photo album organized by date
• Messages
• Anniversaries can be managed and shared
• A ‘virtual’ memory box
• Instant notifications sent to your partner when new photos/memos are received

VCNC started as a student group in Seoul National University in 2008. The team behind Between wanted to build a ‘privacy-aware social site’ and at the same time saw that there were no specific platforms available for couples. This is how the idea for the app came about.

Between launched their open beta back in 22nd November 2011, much before some of the other apps which are targeted at couples. The app is available globally and supported four languages from the start, including English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese.

After their public launch in 7th March 2012, they added support for five more languages are in the process of adding four more, targeting about 70 percent of the world population.

Since the open beta launch, they’ve acquired more than 800,000 downloads and have 412,000 monthly active users. They’re registering 4.5M messages and 350,000 photos uploaded a day. It’s currently popular in Asia, accounting for around 93 percent of downloads.

The app’s business model is largely categorized into three parts: Freemium, e-commerce and advertising.

Freemium: The app is free and they will be adding premium functions for the users to use such as animated emoticons, video messages, and more.

E-commerce: They will be offering mobile coupons and physical goods to users. Couples would be able to send lattes or maybe flowers to their significant others through this service.