How Is A Dating App An Innovative Idea?
You need to understand the difference between Friendster & Facebook.
**This piece first appeared on johnsonkhoo.com. You can find more related stories and articles on his 10 year journey to build ASEAN’s first world-changing start-up that would help everyone in this world find true love and build lasting romantic relationships here.
With dating apps like Tinder, Paktor, Coffee Meets Bagel and old dating platforms that have been around for ages like Match.com, eHarmony and plenty of fish around, many have been asking me how is another dating platform like Wowwwz an innovative idea?
Isn’t Wowwwz just another dating app like Tinder and Coffee Meets Bagel?
Facebook Is Not A Copycat Of Friendster/MySpace/Hi5
To understand how Wowwwz is an innovative idea and not just another dating app like Tinder or Coffee Meets Bagel, you would first need to understand how Facebook is not a copycat of Friendster, Myspace, Hi5 and all the other social networks that came before it.
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Google Is Not A Copycat Of Yahoo/AltaVista/MetaCrawler
Google too, is not a copy cat of Yahoo, AltaVista, MetaCrawler and all the other search engines that came before it. Google was the 13th major search engine that came about.
The “Search Engine Wars” & “Social Networking Wars” Were Not Over
When Google and Facebook started, the “search engine wars” and “social networking wars” were not over. There were market leaders, Friendster was the biggest social network in the world and had raised more than 40 million USD in funding, while Yahoo was already listed when Google first started, but the problem they were solving has yet to be solved thoroughly.
Google & Facebook Were The LAST & THE BEST At Solving What They Were Solving
Although there were already market leaders in search and social networking when Google and Facebook started, Google and Facebook both had a much better idea to thoroughly solve search and social networking in a way that the current market leaders couldn’t, or just din’t, because they thought they had won or had the wrong investors.
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5 Things Multi-Billion US Dollar Companies Like Facebook & Google Have In Common
There Is A FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE Between Google/Yahoo & Facebook/Friendster
Although they seem similar to people who do not understand the problem of search and social networking enough, there are key fundamental differences between Google Vs Yahoo and Facebook Vs Friendster.
A Difference Most People Who Do Not Understand The Problem Enough Can’t Spot
To most people, Yahoo and Google seem like the same thing, a search engine; and Facebook and Friendster seem the same too, a list of friends.
If you truly understand the problem they are solving, which for Google is about organising the world’s information, and for Facebook is about connecting people around the world, you will realise that their approach to solving the problem is fundamentally different.
Most pioneers would have gotten half of the solution right, for search it was a search and list experience, and for social networking it starts with a list or directory of friends, but it is still a long way from solving the problem thoroughly.
To organise the world’s information for search, Google had to innovate on their search algorithm — BackRub, which eventually became PageRank — which made a fundamental difference in the search quality compared to all other search engines out there.
In order to effectively connect people, the key was building sufficient tools for people to connect and stay in touch, because human interactions are complicated, and there is only so much you can optimise a friend list, so the key was in the tools and features built to better facilitate human interaction.
If you ask me, Facebook won the social networking war because they stayed true to their mission and continued to innovate by adding the wall, the photo tagging function and a newsfeed so people could see what their friends were doing.
That was what caused me and many others to eventually switch from Friendster.
Huge Difference Between Solving A Problem Thoroughly Vs Blindly Copying/Hyperlocalising
There is a huge difference between start-ups who are on a mission to solve a problem thoroughly and those who are just blindly copying or copying to hyper-localise to a local or regional market.
You won’t see much innovation from start-ups who just want to copy something to their region. Most of the time, they would just copy something wholesale and would give up once they encounter bigger problems. You can see this from some examples where regional copycats copied a fast growing start-up in the US just to give up and “pivot” when they faced a problem with their model that the US start-up also faced.
The difference between the two is that the US start-up who was truly on a mission to solve the problem persevered and continued to innovate until they solved the problem, which they did, continued growing and eventually expanded to ASEAN when they were ready and have solved the problem, while the local copycat just gave up and did something else — another copycat they were familiar with.
Contrary To Popular Belief — Alibaba Is Also Not A Copycat Of Amazon
Most westerners think that Alibaba is a copycat of Amazon. That’s actually far from the truth. If you knew how Jack Ma started Alibaba, you would know that Alibaba and Amazon are actually very different companies with very different missions.
Alibaba Started With A Mission — To Make Commerce Easy For Everyone
If you understand Mandarin and heard Alibaba’s story from Jack Ma first hand, you would know that Alibaba started with a mission to make commerce easy for everyone.
The Fundamental Problem & Solutions Are Very Different
Amazon, on the other hand, started as an online book store, that buys books from suppliers and re-sells them to the end consumer. As they grew and evolved, they largely adopted a similar model for other products.
Alibaba is more of a platform for merchants to sell their products, while Amazon is an e-commerce company that sells their products to consumers.
For Alibaba, merchants are their clients and the merchants are the ones that do most of the selling. For Amazon, the end consumer are their clients and merchants are their suppliers, it’s Amazon that does most of the selling to the end consumer.
They are solving 2 very different problems with 2 very different solutions.
*Of course, nowadays, Amazon has 3rd party merchants too, but that only happened recently, and would always try to sell popular products themselves.
You Innovate & Do Whatever It Takes To Solve The Problem
Once they have identified their problem and found their mission, they would innovate and do whatever it takes to solve the problem until it is solved thoroughly.
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What’s Stopping ASEAN From Having A 100 Billion USD Tech Company?
Alipay — Logistics — Taobao — All Evolved To Carry Out Their Mission
When Jack Ma was telling his story, he said that they never wanted to start something like Alipay. Many people think that they wanted to start a Paypal of China, but that was never the case, because starting something like Alipay was illegal.
They had to start Alipay in order to fulfil their mission, because merchants did not trust the buyers and the buyers did not trust the merchants, so they had to start Alipay as an escrow service to make sure both merchants and consumers were happy and able to transact with each other with Alibaba acting as a trustworthy third party via Alipay.
Later on, they went into logistics and B2C platform Taobao because it all played an important part in fulfilling their mission, which was making commerce easy for all merchants and people who had something to sell.
Their premise was simple, if someone has something to sell, make it easy for them to sell it to someone who wants to buy it. Build whatever it takes to make that sale easy.
Dating Has Not Been Solved Thoroughly
At the time of writing in 2019, dating is still a problem that has not yet been solved thoroughly. The online dating landscape is actually very similar to what the search and social networking landscape was when there were plenty of big search engines and social networks but not one who had solved the problem thoroughly.
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The “Dating App Wars” Is Far From Over
Back in the day, I would open multiple search engines to search for pictures of fighter jets in the computer lab, because no one single search engine was much better than the other that gave me the relevant results I wanted, until Google came along.
I would also be active on Friendster, MySpace and Hi5, before Facebook came along and convinced me that Facebook was all I needed to keep in touch with my friends with all the addictive new features they had.
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The online dating landscape today is very similar, with singles and couples using multiple apps all at once in hopes of finding the right partner or maintaining their relationships with their significant other.
Ask any single person, they would be on all the dating apps at the same time.
There has yet to be a Facebook or Google of the dating app wars that solved dating thoroughly. The “Dating App Wars” is far from over.
In fact, it just started — especially in China.
The Winner Will Become The Next 100 Billion USD Company — Probably Even More
Dating is a fundamental global problem everyone in the world faces, just like finding information — search — and keeping in touch with friends — social networking.
Whoever solves dating thoroughly and becomes the last and best dating app in the world just like how Facebook became the last and best social network and Google became the last and best search engine would become the next 100 billion USD company, probably even more, given how important our love lives are in everyone’s lives.
Wowwwz’s Mission Is Not Just To Match Singles — That’s Too Simple
Solving dating thoroughly is also not as simple as just matching single people to each other like what Tinder and most online dating platforms today do.
Wowwwz’s Mission Is To Help You Find The RIGHT Partner & Live Happily Ever After
To solve dating thoroughly, you need to understand the dating problem deeply enough to be able to build tools that would not just help singles find each other, but help the singles who are right and compatible for each other find each other, get to know each other well enough, and continue to build and grow together so they can live happily ever after.
Finding The RIGHT Life Partner Is Extremely Hard — Requires Totally Different Solutions
Helping people find their right life partners is extremely hard, and requires a totally different set of tools and solutions to be able to achieve.
Even If You Have A Partner — You Might Not Live Happily Ever After
Even after you have found your soulmate, you still might not be able to live happily ever after if you don’t continue building your relationship.
You Still Need To BUILD A RELATIONSHIP + GROW TOGETHER After Marriage
Couples grow apart, romance fades, unresolved misunderstandings accumulate and many things can happen after marriage.
To truly have a successful marriage and live happily ever after with your soulmate, couples still need to continue building their relationships and grow together after marriage in order for that to happen.
Marriage Is Just THE BEGINNING
Contrary to popular belief, marriage is not the end-game. It is just the beginning.
Marriage is just the beginning to a lifelong adventure.
UPDATE in 2021 — The Wowwwz app is now temporarily offline as I rebuild it into a more maintainable web app (we have 5k users, people met each other and a couple got married), but it is getting hard for a 1 man team to maintain and build out the app on both ios and android — updates to ios & android alone are too time consuming — that’s why Clubhouse is only on iOS for so long. I hope you guys understand. Will only be able to build it out properly on multiple platforms once we have enough funding to hire out teams to do so.
For now, I will be rebuilding the app as a web app. Stay tuned!
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SCAN with Wowwwz to meet amazing single people in Kuala Lumpur!
*Search for Wowwwz on the App Store or Play Store to download
SCAN with Wowwwz to meet amazing single people in Singapore!
Wowwwz Needs To Help You Build A Healthy & Long Lasting Relationship Too
That’s why, to become the last and the best dating app in the world that solves dating thoroughly, the app I am building — Wowwwz, needs to help everyone build healthy and long lasting relationships after couples start dating and get married too, besides just helping them find their right life partners when they are single.
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There Are Many Problems After Marriage That Can Be Solved
Many problems and misunderstandings that happen throughout the course of a marriage can be solved if there were better tools for couples to communicate and work through issues together with proper guidance.
Wowwwz Is An App For BOTH Singles + Couples
Unlike Tinder and all other dating platforms out there, Wowwwz is an app for BOTH singles and couples that solves everyone’s daily relationship needs.
Singles Use Wowwwz To Find Their One True Love
When you’re single, you use Wowwwz to meet people who share compatible values and interests as you who might become your soulmate as you get to know each other better.
By Meeting Other Like-Minded Singles Who Share Compatible Values + Interests
Wowwwz can introduce like-minded singles who share compatible values and interests as you from your extended network as a mutual friend would because of our data graph.
By Getting To Know Each Other Better Through Meaningful Conversations + Experiences
Not only that, Wowwwz would also have tools for you to get to know each other better through meaningful conversations and date experiences.
Not Just By How Attractive You Are — There’s Always More To People Than Meets The Eye
We believe that there is always more to people than meets the eye, and many people become more attractive as their personality and character shines through as you get to know them better through quality conversations and activities together.
It is not a superficial dating app like most dating platforms out there today.
Wowwwz Is Free For Everyone To Use
It is also free for everyone to use, because we believe that meeting your soulmate and living happily ever after should be a basic human right.
Everyone deserves to find their one true love and live happily ever after.
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7 Famous People & Startups That Started Or Started As Dating Apps
Wowwwz Is Powered By An Extremely Powerful But Protected Data Graph
We are able to introduce people who have compatible values and interests as you through the power of the data graph we’ve built, but we understand that with great power, comes great responsibility. That’s why the data graph would be heavily encrypted so no engineer or person can ever get their hands on them.
Our Tools & Suggestions Adds True Value To The User — Unlike Facebook Ads
We add value to our users by suggesting couple activities to our users based on what their personalities and interests are so they can spend more quality time together and create more memorable memories together, unlike Facebook ads that just shove products in our faces without adding any real value.
Relationship Building Tools Is An Entire Blue Ocean Waiting To Be Explored
There are also plenty of relationship building tools that can be built to help couples communicate better, resolve arguments better and create more memorable memories together that is waiting to be built and explored.
We just need more resources to get them built.
Nobody Today Is A Main Lead Generator For ALL THINGS ROMANCE
The romance market is huge, since the search for a romantic partner and the time and money spent with our romantic partners takes up such a huge portion of our lives.
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Why Start-Ups Today Need To Raise More & More Money Just To Get Started?
Just think about how much time and money dating and married couples spend going on dates at restaurants, movies, concerts, gifts, vacationing and so much more. Wowwwz can be the main lead generator for all things romance that adds value to everyone’s lives.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Of course, with great power comes great responsibility, and we need to do everything we can so safe guard our user’s privacy and not do things that do not add value to couples.
We need to and will stay true to our mission of helping everyone in this world find and build lasting romantic relationships.
Wowwwz Needs To Continue To Innovate And Improve
In order to achieve our mission of helping everyone in this world find their one true love whom they can continue growing old together and live happily ever after with, we would need to continue to innovate and improve until we have solved dating thoroughly.
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Wowwwz Will Meet All Your Daily Relationship Needs
Eventually, Wowwwz will be able to become an app that would help everyone in this world find their one true love and live happily ever after and meet all your daily relationship needs.
This has never been done before, and the world needs a platform like this, that could help reduce the number of heartbreaks and broken families in the world, while creating more happy and loving families and romantic relationships.
The world needs such an innovation to happen.
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I hope you will help me out a little here so that I can build the tools to help everyone in this world find their soulmate whom they can grow old together and live long happy lives with.
If you have access to a brand, company, working building, community or even VCs, let me know; I can help you build a community of people who like your product or brand and introduce them to each other, or bring a community closer by introducing people at the same building or company to each other!
You can reach me at johnson@wowwwz.com or LinkedIn.
Don’t forget to SHARE this story and all related stories to as many of your friends too, we need to more people to spread the word so we can start a positive paradigm shift in our ecosystem.
Also, you can help by downloading the app, give us a good rating, subscribe to my Youtube Channel about relationships-coming soon, leave your email, join this Facebook Group and check back every few months for cool updates.
*Search for Wowwwz on the App Store or Play Store to download
JohnsonKhooTV — Subscribe to my upcoming Youtube Channel where I will be talking about real life stories about love & relationships
FB Group To Stay Updated On Wowwwz’s Journey — Join this Facebook Group so you can stay updated on our journey, new features and new stories and new updates on our quest to build a start-up that could help everyone in this world find true love and live happily ever after
You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
More stories and articles can be found on my blog johnsonkhoo.com or via this link to a list of all published stories here.
Help me out, because many people’s lifetime happiness is in your hands.
UPDATE in 2021 — The Wowwwz app is now temporarily offline as I rebuild it into a more maintainable web app (we have 5k users, people met each other and a couple got married), but it is getting hard for a 1 man team to maintain and build out the app on both ios and android — updates to ios & android alone are too time consuming — that’s why Clubhouse is only on iOS for so long. I hope you guys understand. Will only be able to build it out properly on multiple platforms once we have enough funding to hire out teams to do so.
For now, I will be rebuilding the app as a web app. Stay tuned!
—
Once you’ve downloaded the app and signed up, you can also start to meet other amazing single people in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore who share the same values and interests as you by scanning the QR codes below.
*Search for Wowwwz on the App Store or Play Store to download
SCAN with Wowwwz to meet amazing single people in Kuala Lumpur!
SCAN with Wowwwz to meet amazing single people in Singapore!
Do SHARE this with as many of your single friends as possible so they can find their soulmate soon, we can get more traction, and raise the funding necessary to build you more cool features that will help amazing single people meet each other and amazing couples grow their relationship!
Let’s do this together!
The world needs YOUR HELP so all of us can find true love!
You have the power to become a superhero!