In Vietnam, TapMee Uses Locations To Help You Meet New People

Tapmee, a new Vietnam-made location-based social networking app just launched today on Android. The app, which has been in closed beta since 2011, is being developed by five people. It basically allows you to friend people nearby and chat with them on Facebook or on Tapmee’s native inbox. It’s a pretty new platform idea for Vietnam, so I grabbed an interview with the founder so you know exactly what it is. For early adopters, you may recognize similarities to Circles.

According to founder Nguyen Ngoc Hung (nicknamed Hung Zino), he wanted to create a Foursquare for Vietnam, but it wasn’t the real problem.

Because according to my needs and the needs of Vietnamese users, people want to meet each other. I found, while traveling around, that when I would travel to a new town, it was hard to meet new people.

Hung traveled outside of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, by bike, looking to meet new people, but it was difficult. He always had to get on the laptop, open websites, etc. There are similar chat-and-flirt apps around the world, such as Skout or the China-made Momo, but they’re useless if nobody nearby is using them.

Facebook just resolves the issue of networking with friends that you already met or know. WeChat and Zalo are more focused on communication and keeping in touch with friends. So there’s still space for an app that is focused on finding new friends.

So how are you different from Foursquare?

Foursquare is focused on locations, like finding out which locations have the best food and coolest atmosphere, but Tapmee is focused on the people at those locations. So you’ll go to Tapmee to find out if there are people at this location or not, not whether or not the place is good.

In Tapmee, users will be able to chat with the people at the location through the Tapmee native inbox or on Facebook. In a way, if you don’t have the guts to go up to the cute girl in the restaurant, you can use Tapmee to meet her. That is, if she is also on Tapmee. The privacy issues are mitigated by allowing users to block people they don’t want to meet.

How will Tapmee make money?

Currently it has a virtual currency system. It’s used for various things within the app like giving other users gifts and this will evolve into a full voucher system where users can buy vouchers to redeem at locations and with merchants for products. And of course, we will also evolve the platform to accommodate marketing for brands.

For Tapmee, there might be too many barriers to entry. Users have to be on Facebook – perhaps not a big problem considering Vietnam is the fastest growing Facebook nation – and on Tapmee in order to use it. The draw will be if users are actually interested in meeting other people. With WeChat’s “Look Around” function and the large amount of dating apps, it might point to a significant need. I think Tapmee’s success will depend on how fun users will find it plus how well they manage privacy.

With Facebook already getting burdened with the onrush of new Vietnamese users, Tapmee could either be extra weight or it could serve to spice up people’s social lives. I think if they head in the direction of spontaneous dating, they might have something.

Currently, the app is only on Android and can be downloaded here. The iOS version will be out later this year.