Anonymous iOS messaging app Secret receives $10 million in funding, gets $40 million valuation

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Messaging App Usage Grew 203% In 2013, Leading All Other Categories

The App Store’s increasingly competitive nature may mean that only a minuscule number of apps (0.01% by 2018) become financial successes, but that hasn’t slowed down growth, either in number of applications available, or their usage. According to new data released by Flurry Analytics this morning, overall app usage in 2013 saw 115% year-over-year growth, with Messaging apps showing the most dramatic growth, up 203% year-over-year.

The rise of messaging apps was one of the most telling stories about the changing mobile application in 2013, signaling, perhaps, a slight shift away from more public social media services like Facebook, as a younger generation of smartphone users begin to have an impact on the overall ecosystem. For many of today’s teens and young adults, their lives have been plastered all over social media (thanks, mom) since they were born. Turning to more private means of communicating with friends is a notable act of rebellion, and one that could potentially spread into older demographics as well. Facebook even went on record this year, saying it was seeing declining usage among teens for the first time, though the company overall is still growing.

Says Flurry, what’s most surprising about the messaging apps category is not just the growth, but the rate of growth – greatly outpacing other popular categories. To be fair, though, Flurry counted other social and photo-sharing apps in this category, too, so it doesn’t paint a clear picture of standalone messaging apps’ growth versus that of more open, public social media, like Twitter, Google

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Retired Messaging Platform Just.me Reveals Chance, A New App For Random Chats

Mobile messaging app Just.me auctioned off its assets late last year, pre-traction, in order to get out from under its $1.5 million in venture debt. But Just.me, founded by Keith Teare (who also co-founded TechCrunch), won the auction itself using funds from Teare’s incubator Archimedes Labs, beating out nearly two dozen other bids. Now the company is revealing its next move: a series of messaging apps built using the Just.me platform and assets two years in the making, starting with Chance, a private messaging app that connects users with strangers.

Revealed first in the December 31st iTunes App Store release notes for the original Just.me, the company, now a fully fledged app development studio (Just.me, Inc.), is transforming Just.me’s underpinnings into Chance and other apps. Teare explains that Chance is only the first of many apps to be spun out from the original Just.me, all of which will combine the various features of mobile messaging in different ways.

Messaging apps can be public or private, with users who can be anonymous or named, and having conversations in groups or one-on-one, Teare says. The new Just.me, Inc. will experiment with these ideas in standalone apps, the first of which is Chance, an app built in a month’s time. A second app is likely only a few months away, he adds.

With Chance, users are connected with random strangers from around the world, allowing you to chat, exchange disappearing pictures and texts. If you see someone you’d like to get to know, you can begin a conversation, otherwise, you simply tap “Next.” (Yes, it’s very Chatroulette.) As Teare explained earlier, public expression was something that had seen the most usage in Just.me, which had led the company to adding features like “confessions,” which could be anonymous.

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Messaging App Line Launches C2C Marketplace Line Mall In Japan

Messaging app Line began the limited rollout of its new C2C e-commerce platform Line Mall today. The app, which is now available for download in Japan’s Google Play store, is a sign that the service is doubling down on its efforts to increase engagement among users as it competes with WeChat, WhatsApp and other popular messaging apps. Line Mall will officially launch next spring with an iPhone app and more features.

Line Mall lets vendors sell products without listing fees, though it does take a 10% cut of the final price for items that sell. Each seller also receives one point (worth 1 yen or about 1 cent USD) that can be redeemed for discounts after each successful transaction. Sellers and buyers authenticate their accounts and connect payment info with their Line account, but they can also set up a separate Line Mall ID.

Line’s other e-commerce ventures have included flash sales in Thailand via official brand accounts on its messaging app, which monetizes through sticker sales, games and branded merchandise.

The app, which was launched in 2011 by Japan’s Naver, announced in November that it had hit 300 million registered users worldwide and is targeting a 500 million registered user milestone next year. It is important to note, however, that those numbers reflect people who have signed up for the service, not monthly active users.

Despite its push to expand globally (key markets include East Asia and Spanish-speaking regions like Spain, Mexico and Latin America), Line has so far only reported MAU for Japan, so it’s hard to tell how engaged users are in other countries.

Key rivals WhatsApp and WeChat, on the other hand, both report monthly active user counts–WhatsApp has more than 350 million MAUs, while WeChat has about 272 million.

As competition for international users heats up among messaging apps, launching other ventures like Line Mall can help increase user engagement. But Line faces several C2C mobile commerce rivals, including Carousell, a Singapore-based app that Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten recently invested in, and Yahoo! Japan auctions, which has its own Android and iOS apps.

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Animated Avatar Messaging App Zoobe Monetises With Shop Featuring Smurfs

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Avatar messaging applications have had some successes. The Talking Tom apps for kids have been a smash hit for Outfit7 and spawned many off-shoots. Others like Headcast created bespoke apps for celebrities. Xtranormal, sadly, closed this year. But Zoobe, a startup which has come up with the different approach of creating of animated avatars for mobile messaging, continues to evolve. The new version 2.0 of its app has gone live on Android today (iOS is already out) introduces a range of new features, including the Zoobe Shop, where famous 3D characters from The Smurfs and the Street Fighter games can be bought. More are coming, but this is an interesting evolution of the in-app purchases model. Certainly stickers are all the rage in messaging apps, but avatars may be a new wave to watch.

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