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4 more tech unicorns in APAC using Sendbird’s chat solution

Blog cover tech unicorns
Feb 27, 2019 • 4 min read
Daniel kim
Daniel Kim
Marketing Manager
Ebook Engage Mobile content offer background
New survey
How consumers prefer to communicate with businesses
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New survey
How consumers prefer to communicate with businesses

In late 2017, we had the chance to share our work with some of the top tech unicorns in APAC like GO-JEK, Traveloka, TMON and more. Over the last two years, we’ve been fortunate to work with even more incredible APAC companies (and unicorns) – from Carousell in Singapore to GoGoVan in Hong Kong, SNOW in South Korea and Dream11 in India. We are proud to introduce four more promising customers in Asia and share our experience partnering with them.

When the term startup ‘unicorn’ was first coined in 2013, the expectation was, for the most part, that most of these companies would be born in the U.S. Today, while many of these billion dollar startups still come from Silicon Valley, there are more and more unicorns appearing around the world and in APAC in particular. Here are some top APAC companies innovating everything from on-demand last-mile delivery and marketplaces to online communities and fantasy sports with chat and messaging.

GoGoVan – in-app messaging for transparent last-mile delivery

Last-mile delivery refers to the final step of the delivery process typically from a transportation hub to an end user. But with last-mile delivery costing up to 53% of the total transportation cost, it has lately been considered to be highly ineffective and expensive for all parties involved.

As logistics became crucial to delivering the services and goods of the on-demand economy, start-ups around the world began to solve the last mile problem.

In APAC, Hong Kong’s first billion-dollar unicorn, GoGoVan, began to change the way people thought about last mile delivery. With over 40,000 professional drivers in Hong Kong alone, GoGoVan operates in more than 300 cities across Asia so that anyone or any company looking to move big boxes to small parcels can use GoGoVan’s on-demand logistics platform.

If you have ever waited for a package or tracked its status online, you know that last-mile delivery’s biggest pain is a lack of communication. With Sendbird, GoGoVan gives every user the power to effortlessly communicate with their delivery driver through real-time in-app messaging so that every update, change, or delivery is communicated transparently.

Blog client screen order details
Blog driver screen order details
Blog client screen dialogue

Carousell – driving more transactions with user-to-user messaging

According to a study done by Google, Southeast Asia has been the fastest growing internet market in the world since 2015, with 3.8 million new users coming online each month. Combining this rapid growth with other factors, like a rising disposable income and a flourishing young population, we can understand why SEA is estimated to be a $200 billion internet economy by 2025. The explosion of online consumers in Southeast Asia has fueled the growth of online marketplaces and e-commerce giants in the region like Carousell in Singapore.

With $126 million in funding to date, Carousell is dominating consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplaces in 14 cities covering Asia from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and more. Carousell uses Sendbird’s chat solution to connect buyers and sellers across their platform to engage and inform consumers so they transact more quickly. Buying and selling new and secondhand goods has never been easier.

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Virgin Mobile UAE improved their CSAT with Sendbird Desk.

SNOW – connecting global communities with real-time chat

In late 2018, Zepeto, a social networking avatar app from SNOW, took the world by storm and became the #1 social networking app in Apple’s App Store. By using facial recognition technology, Zepeto allows users to build virtual 3D avatars of themselves and share it with friends and other users. Through the app, users can customize their avatars with clothing, hairstyles, and other personal items.

A community app at its core, Zepeto uses Sendbird chat solution to provide user-to-user messaging and group chats for its avatar community. Zepeto was developed by SNOW Corporation, the most popular selfie app in Asia, and has raised over $95 million in funding.

Blog Zepeto avatar
Blog Zepeto chat interface
Blog Zepeto chat stickers

Dream11 – user-to-user chat for better sports experiences

Through deep smartphone penetration and the growth of mobile gaming revenue in India, the Indian gaming market is expected to 3X from $338.4 million in revenue in 2017 to $1.1 billion by 2021. One company in India who is taking advantage of this tremendous growth is Dream11, the fantasy sports platform based in Mumbai. With over 50 million users, Dream11 is a fantasy sports platform where gamers can create the ultimate team in cricket, soccer, kabaddi, and basketball and win money competing with other players.

Dream11 partnered with Sendbird to give users the ability to group chat with their friends and other gamers in different contests – allowing users to showcase their sports knowledge and boast about their winnings. Through chat, Dream 11 can now discover valuable insights from in-game interactions and also retain social gamers for longer.

In 2018, Dream11 closed a $100 million Series D led by China’s largest gaming and social media company, Tencent, who also has a majority stake in the Indian gaming company.

Blog Dream11 app home screen
Blog Dream11 app invite code
Blog Dream11 app user profile

Commitment to APAC

With our APAC office in Seoul, SendBird is committed to providing the necessary support and chat expertise to every company in Asia. Whether you are an on-demand company in Singapore or an online marketplace in India, Sendbird can help your company provide better real-time communication experiences that your users will love.

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