On December 20th we announced that Korea's top social networking service for couples had launched V2.0 of their service. This followed with news from Japan on February 4th that the App had hit the number one spot in the social category. And Now a third momentous announcement within two months: Between has now added Japan's DeNa as a strategic investor to build on recent success and the current trend towards 'platforms' that has already been billed as one of the hot trends of 2014.
VCNC, the developer of Korean couple app Between, today announced that DeNA has agreed to make a strategic investment in the company. The investment will be made to grow the popular app into an open platform, and later support opportunities to monetize Between. The terms of the transaction have not yet been released.
Regarding the investment, Isao Moriyasu, President and CEO of DeNA, commented "Purpose-specific social networks like Between are rapidly gaining popularity worldwide, following the massive adoption of general social networks and communication tools. DeNA sees a great global potential in this highly sophisticated mobile internet service."
Jake Park, CEO of Between added; “We are pleased to welcome DeNA as a strategic investor and look forward to collaborating more closely with DeNA to build a platform for third-party services to help us meet the needs of couples worldwide.”
Meanwhile, after announcing Between’s 5M download mark in December the company has been seeing a noticeable growth in both user base and engagement. Between has seen more than a twofold increase in daily user acquisition after the recent major update and the amount of time spent per user per month has soared to 510 minutes, an increase from 300 minutes a year ago.
“Between 2.0 was reinforcing our core, helping couples communicate and share better with each other. I think our new metrics reflect that our new features and rebranding has helped us deliver our value to couples and also positioned us better to the global audience.” said Park.
Milestones Achieved By Between
- November, 2011 - VCNC raises US$1 million Series A funding, launches Between (open-beta)
- March, 2012 - VCNC launches Between 1.0
- December, 2012 - 2 million downloads
- January, 2013 - VCNC raises US$3 million Series B funding
- March, 2013 - VCNC Japan office opens in Tokyo
- October, 2013 - VCNC expands to Southeast Asia
- December, 2013 - 5 million global downloads, launch Between 2.0 update
- February, 2014 - VCNC raises strategic investment from DeNA
About VCNC
VCNC stands for Value Creators & Company and was founded in 2011. The global mobile application company has offices in South Korea and Japan. VCNC’s vision is to provide emotional communication services to enrich real, offline-based relationships. Between is VCNC’s third application and is now the leading mobile couple application in the world.
