Life is all about meeting fun and interesting people on the go. You never know when a casual conversation with someone can culminate into a lifelong friendship, a successful business venture or into something even more intimate.
Yes, we do agree that social networking sites or even dating apps for that matter are helping us meet new folks. Nevertheless, don’t you agree that all these conventional apps come with a restriction of being accepted or being liked first to even say a decent ‘Hi’ to someone?
Well, the urge to break this virtual barrier is what inspired Melvin Tercan to conceptualize TapChat. It is the new app in town that allows you to text people you don’t know without any precincts that come about with traditional ways of messaging.
Meet the Man Behind It!
Melvin Tercan is a full stack software engineer and a serial start-up guy with TapChat being his second successful start-up. Formerly, he was the technical co-founder of Tinypay, a website that allows users to easily sell digital and physical items online.
Get to Know TapChat Better!
Do not be fooled people; this is no ordinary chat up app! TapChat is a unique messaging app to text privately with new and interesting people around you; in particular with folks you don’t know. It’s the inverse of most texting apps where you typically only talk with existing friends and contacts.
All you need to do is simply put yourself out there. Introduce yourself in public to anyone nearby and immediately get honest responses in private. The relief is that there is no clichéd matching system like most dating apps or any kind of personal information exchange. To chat up somebody all you need to do is tap on their card to start a conversation.
What inspired Melvin to create something so simple and unique? Well hear it from the man himself – “I was often walking home from work and I observed that people are nowadays connected to the world simply by having a phone in their pocket but somehow they’re not really connected with each other. There’s always this kind of barrier in the form of an exchange of personal information, whether it’s a phone number or friend request, which limits the world you’re interacting with to a few friends and contacts you already have. I’ve really wanted to break down that barrier and create a frictionless experience to get in touch with someone.”
What Problem is TapChat Solving?
Think about it, in real life, we would hardly approach everyone around us to find that one interesting stranger to have a great conversation with. It’s also not very efficient. We are constantly surrounded by so many people; all with their own interesting stories, opinions and expertise, but the big question is how do you connect with them effortlessly. This is the exact problem TapChat is looking to address. This messaging app lets you discover and approach interesting people around you without being perceived as weird.
On Challenges Faced So Far!
Melvin had this strong vision of connecting people in the most frictionless way. He stuck to his idea even when he was marred with uncertainties such as – will people like it or what the final solution will look like. He did talk to a lot of people about his idea explaining how anybody can simply start a conversation with you. This was met with a lot of resistance and disbelief as they thought it was weird for random people to just text you without any filters.
“Then I started thinking about the changes in attitude we’ve had in the last 5-10 years. When Facebook started out, nobody was used to sharing their full name and posting private pictures online. Now everyone does it. So I like to believe that TapChat is at the frontier of a new era where there are no constraints in contacting someone. So the biggest challenge was to keep being motivated to pursue this belief while everyone told me it was a weird or bad idea”, adds Melvin.
Potential Competitors of the App!
There are no direct competitors to TapChat even though there are a bunch of social local apps that try to connect you with people around. This is because, these apps often subject the user to experience the same problems with instant gratification (ghost town), being too anonymous (more abuse) or too personal (less privacy). TapChat is different due to its smart design choices that help prevent such cases.
Nevertheless, the other big potential threat are existing messaging apps; but their current use is focused on existing friends and contacts, so they’re mostly competing with each other. TapChat complements these apps. For instance, when you meet someone on TapChat you can continue the conversation on WhatsApp or on any other app.
On Expansion Plans & Target Audience
The long term goal of TapChat is to become a platform and infrastructure that allows people who have no formal introduction with each other, connect. It also has a lot of commercial potential for the new economy. Case in point, everyone is turning into an entrepreneur and TapChat will be a great way to network and find customers around you.
Further, at the moment, TapChat is mainly looking to target audiences that are concentrated groups of people with something in common but are not very well connected with each other. This could ideally include networking events, college sophomores, and singles at popular clubs.
On Plans of Monetizing
“It’s a bit early to start monetizing but TapChat obviously has a lot of advertising potential when it reaches critical masses. Imagine a fitness trainer who can offer a great deal to people around him or a tax accountant who can help you fill out your taxes! One of our strengths is that we’re not focusing on dating which should make professionals feel comfortable to use TapChat to grow their business”, says Melvin.
To perfectly sum everything up, it clearly looks like TapChat is on the path to changing the way people perceive messaging. In a way, this unique app is here to take away the ‘weird element’ associated with approaching interesting strangers.
For more information on TapChat, do visit: http://tapchat.com
