Meet Cubie, The 500 Startups-Backed Messaging App With 5.5M Users & A Sense of Humor

If you are based in the U.S. or Europe, there’s a good chance that you haven’t yet heard of Cubie Messenger. Here in Asia, however, the free mobile messaging app, which lets users exchange text, stickers, videos, and their own drawings, is gaining plenty of traction. Since launching in March 2012, Cubie has been downloaded 5.5 million times, with most users based in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The Taipei, Taiwan-based company joined 500 Startups back in October and is currently learning how to market the app’s particularly Asian brand of fun and humor to American users. Founders Cjin Cheng and Yenwen Feng started Cubie in September 2011, originally intending it to be a side project to tap into the mobile app market. This is Feng’s third startup since 2004: the first one was a mobile stock trading app for Java phones called willmobile that was acquired in 2007, and the second is social gaming company Gamelet.com. Cubie sets itself apart by giving users lots of options to generate their own content from a single screen, including drawings, voice messages, and animated stickers that they can purchase from Cubie’s in-app store. A future update will allow users to search YouTube from within the chat window, one feature that has been frequently requested. Animated stickers include sets based on characters from popular anime series, like Tokyo Romance, while others feature Cubie’s own quirky characters, such as Unicorn Bob. More artistically-inclined users can publish their drawings to a public forum within the app called Cubie Space. “We saw that many users have drawn incredibly detailed and interesting pictures as well as silly scribbles. This in turn led us to add the latest features, such as text bubbles and using our animated stickers as decorations, to make it even easier for people to get creative,” Cubie International Messenger James Hill tells me. Cubie users often share drawings on social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which has been particularly useful for generating viral growth particularly in Southeast Asia, one of Cubie’s main target markets, says Hill. “We noticed early on that [Southeast Asia users] were more open to sharing their contact information (Cubie ID) on social media, and inviting users that they may know through their Twitter and Instagram, but not necessarily in person,” says Hill. “What we’ve also realized is that Southeast Asia is not one homogeneous market, there are vast

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