BeeTalk has officially been launched today in Indonesia. By providing “Club” and “Look Around” features, BeeTalk looks to position itself as a platform which enables users finding new friends. Prior the launching, the platform has been available for around three months and during the period, it has successfully had three million users. Given this fact, it’s not that surprising to see BeeTalk targeting ten million users during its first year of operation.
Despite the fact that it works with numerous local brand ambassadors, BeeTalk isn’t made in Indonesia. It was Garena, a Singapore-based game developer, which gave birth to the platform. Currently, BeeTalk has been available in a number of Southeast Asian countries, and even Taiwan. Thus, it’s just normal for this platform, which has been compatible with iOS and Android, to target Indonesia as its next potential market.
The platform goes with the name of “Bee”, referring to bees that connect one flower to another.
Even though, at first, BeeTalk was prepared for younger users due to similarities it has with Snapchat and Tinder, the local team finally projects the platform as the place to find new friends. The “Club” feature allows users matching themselves with existing open groups based on their own interests. It does look like Kaskus at a glance, only it’s much simpler to be accessed from mobile, just like any other messaging platform.
Furthermore, BeeTalk keeps providing the “Look Around” and “Flip” features which help those who really look for new friends personally. The “Look Around” feature enables users finding people who are using the app in certain distance, while “Flip” allows them to accept or refuse others’ friend request by simply swiping their fingers right and left, something which is also found in Tinder.
The BeeTalk team is optimistic that its platform’s positioning will be much clearer in Indonesian messaging industry. In attempt to localize its services, BeeTalk also plans to launch sets of stickers which are related to Indonesian content, starting by ‘Si Juki’ series.
Given the fact that WhatsApp holds the current throne of Indonesian messaging market, based on the data by XL Axiata, BeeTalk looks to break the reign by providing more specific topics which can be chosen by users according to their interests.