Visual contents are now at the forefront of the Internet, massively consumed in many popular sites like Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr. Yet messaging is still dominated by text exchanging.
Cinnamon, a Singapore-based start-up, is catching the up-rising trend of visual content consumptions and innovatively “turning text messages into affectionate ones with photo only”, specifically targeted for Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam.
As a guarantee to make possibleits vision, Cinnamon recently announced it secured $1.5 million funding from CyberAgent Ventures, TBS Innovation Partners, Incubate Fund, and Golden Gate Ventures.According to VanAnh Pham, COO of Cinnamon, the investment will be used to develop their photo-messaging technology and expand to massive user-base in key demographic based on deeply understanding user behaviors and polishing the product’s user experience.
Have been breaking their back, shortly afterwards, Cinnamon promulgated the first release for its strategic product –PicChat, evolving as unlimited free photo-with-voice- and-textchatting app on Appstore and Google Play.Aiming at a user-centric app, VanAnh claims that:
“We do have people and relationships in life that we cherish and treasure.PicChat was born with a hope that it can add color, flavor and intimacy to yoursharing experiences through a totally interesting and innovative photo chatting style.”
Upon opening PicChat, users can snap a photo;quickly record 5-second constrained voice on that photo; then optionally decorate the photo with various deco-frames, filters, and stickers oradd a line of text before choosing friends on apps to send the picture message.All the shared moment will be kept secret in a beautiful chat history between the two people or among the group. To make the most of PicChat, it is highly recommended to use among “closest” relationships like couples, families or best friends.
Not in the battlefield with plenty of over-the-top (OTT) messaging players (such as Line,Viber,KakaoTalk and WeChat), Cinnamon’staking aim ata new way of communication by photos only. Instead of saying “My new T-shirt is beautiful” or “I love sushi in this restaurant” by text, it is fun, visual and timesaving when chatting by photos on PicChat.
“According to PicChat user analytics, 60% of our early users spend time reviewing the chat history. With PicChat, the conversation with photos and voice is our Unique Selling Proposition(USP) and additional happiness we are offering for users”, Kevin Tran, Cinnamon Head of Growth quoted.
Cinnamon is focusing on user testing for feedbacks through community building for Product-Market Fit and improving user experience in sharing and chatting by photos. The teams are actively listening to users and thebetter versions for PicChat are promisingly coming soon.
“I use PicChat to take and exchange fun photos with my friends everyday. I have introduced it with all of my close friends. We have had a lot of fun together. We are so looking forward to some more fun features from them.” Tanaporn, shared a Silpakorn University student. (The first girl in the right)
Discover their interesting app for free on App Store and Google Play.