Popular messaging apps Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp will have a new rival in Ukraine — a mobile app with the juicy name Kawoon, which means watermelon in Ukrainian.
Its full launch is planned for March, but Ukrainians can already test the app on Android or iPhone for free.
Kawoon is developed by Ukraine-based tech company RiverSoft. The company’s chief executive Maxim Kuchur didn’t want to reveal RiverSoft’s plans to develop the app before it’s actually finished, but someone leaked the information to the press. Now a team of eight techies, motivated by the buzz about the product, is in hurry to finish Kawoon sooner than planned.
“We feel that users need and support us,” Kuchur told the Kyiv Post.
According to him, the Ukrainian app combines features of popular social media like Facebook, Twitter, Telegram and Russia-founded Openland. Like on Telegram, Kawoon’s users can send messages, create group conversations and attach and share photos or videos. Like on Facebook, they can like, comment and leave emojis under publications.
The app also has its own distinctive features: Contrary to Telegram, Kawoon has two separate tabs — for private chats and groups and for media channels. That way, users won’t lose important messages in the flooded newsfeed, Kuchur said. Kawoon will also send notifications about new posts or messages to different tabs, making it easier to find them.
Apart from that, the messenger will have a separate tab for hashtags that helps search for certain messages or posts. Telegram also has hashtags but people rarely use them, Kuchur said.
In the future, Kawoon’s team will also add phone and video calls to the app — Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp already have them.
“We just try to adopt all the best tools that different messengers have and to improve them,” Kuchur said.
Kawoon has already attracted $550,000 from an investor the team refuses to name. Out of this sum, the company has already spent $100,000 on the development of the messenger.
For now, the app is free. The company wants to make money on it in the future, but Kuchur said that users won’t be paying for that.
Kawoon’s main market is Ukraine, but the service may expand farther. Some student unions in Poland have already expressed their interest in the app, the founder said.
The app developers claim its users’ data is protected and, to ensure that, the team will allow independent experts to evaluate the security of the app after its launch.
In the last two weeks, over 10,000 people have joined the app. By the end of the year, Kawoon hopes to attract 1 million users. To do that, it has to outcompete tech behemoths like Japanese Viber, U.S. Facebook Messenger and Telegram, an international company with Russian founders. According to Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar, nearly 12 million of its subscribers use Viber and Facebook Messenger, while 5-6 million prefer Telegram and WhatsApp.
Kuchur said that Ukraine has developed many apps that can compete on the global market, including banking apps Monobank and Privat24 and the eponymous app of local retailer Rozetka. The founder hopes that Kawoon will also take off because it is convenient and has a simple design. Families, students and big media organizations can use the app to share information and communicate.
