Thoughts behind Cubie Messenger

Cubie MessengerCofounder 馮彥文

t@cubie.com

CubieDesign before product

Whatsapp + Draw Something

How?

Being Lucky

Being Lucky• retention?

• knowing something or nothing?

Why(Be precise)

Last September

Andrew Chen’s Blog

Hypothesis• Consumer Market

o Why I doubted Facebook could build a billion dollar business, and what I learned from being horribly wrong

• Business model is a commodityo Why it’s smart for consumer startups to grow fi

rst and make money later

• Product re-position o Don’t compete on features

Consumer Market or Niche Market

Niche & High ARPU

Consumer & High ARPU

Niche & Low

ARPU

Consumer & Low ARPU

Average Revenue Per User

ConsumerNiche

Targeting Consumer Market• Huge market• Uses everyday

Business Model is a Commodity• EC/flash sales

• Dating• Game

• Premium subscription

Consumer Internet

• “In a world where you can grow a

userbase of 1 billion in a few years,

displaying remnant ads and getting a

$0.25 CPM will do. Or just throw some

freemium model on it, and monetize

1% of them.” ~ Andrew Chen

Competition• Whatsapp?• Line?• 微信 ?

Product Re-Position• Don’t compete on features

Nobody buys in

Build Product• Spent 6 Months• Build platform that evolves• Monitor user behaviors

Build Product• 6 months

o Android, iPhone, Servers

Build Product• Platform that evolves

o Competitive featureso Test platform

Build Product• User behaviors

o Data analysis

Understand Users?• 台灣網路公司沒有辦法做得大或成功是因為市場太小 ?

Data Analysis• Funnel• Actionable metrics• A/B testing• Growth

Hacker is the new VP Marketing

Funnel

Actionable Metrics vs Vanity

Metrics

• Vanity metricso Page viewso Downloads

• Actionable metricso Benchmark -> Improveo Usageo Funnel

• Benefit-driven metricso By product, messages send out, invitations, …

(Cubie)

A/B Testing

Cubie Users• Drawing / have fun

o > 50% drawing characterso Text > Drawing > voice > picture

• Customization featureso others can't see it

• People care about privacyo > 5% users change privacy settingso iPhone > android

• Instagramo profile

• registration funnelo sync is problem

Design?• Iteratively build and test

• Ex: Drawing

Other Thoughts

Tractions• High Growth or High ARPU

Entrepreneurs as MVP• The dirty secret behind the incubator boo

m

Exceptional Outcome• How sheep-like behavior breeds innovation

in Silicon Valley

Exceptional Outcome• Sad to hear …

o Business model is everythingo Ads is not profitableo In Taiwan, you can’t …

Take Away• Consumer internet• Understand users• Be data-driven• Be exceptional