Having presented the article regarding the launching of Quan company in Thailand, now we would like to look at additional details from CEO of Quan Kazuhiro Mizuno on the strategy and direction how to strike the app chats market that is at its peak in this region.
thumbsup: There are many chat apps in the market and now the leader of this market is “LINE”. What is your key strategy for “Lounge” and how to differentiate it from the others?
Kazuhiro: We differentiate from others in user demography and feature design perspective.First, LOUNGE?s user demography is pretty unique. 75% of our users are women and the peak age is 21years old.?We will create our service and design based on our users so our feature will be designed more cute and decorative such as message emoticon, Sticker, Drawing, etc.
thumbsup:?Similar to the 1st question, what is your strategy for “Sticker Maker” app and how to differentiate it from the others?
Kazuhiro: First of all, we see ?Sticker Maker? is not the app which compete with others, but collaborate with other chat apps because the sticker you create in ?Sticker Maker? is applicable to not only LOUNGE, but also to others such as LINE, KAKAO, etc. Also we?re developing the apps similar to ?Sticker Maker? and they would help chat app users create stickers conveniently.
thumbsup: ?How do you monetize from “Lounge” and “Sticker Maker” app?
Kazuhiro: We monetize by AD(Advertisement) and plan to sell special sticker.
thumbsup: Setting up an office in Thailand will cover marketing activities in which countries too? What is your plan to strike markets in this region?
Kazuhiro: We see that Thai users like Japanese cultures and are so aggressive to assimilate new culture the best in South East Asia and they have good chemistry with LOUNGE. We would like to set Thai office as a marketing center of this region and help our business growth.
thumbsup: Would you please share how to raise fund in the past, from which sources did you receive capital support?
Kazuhiro: This time is our first fundraising and we?ve run our business by my own capital until this time(about 1year) . This time we fundraised from VC which mainly invest in tech start-ups like us.