Imagine if your Facebook network had just one friend: your significant other or someone you perhaps had plans to make your significant other. Imagine if instead of finding romance through Facebook or a dating site, you first found a physical candidate and then asked him or her to join you in the digital world. Those and more are the realities of a new app called Between by Seoul-based startup Value Creators & Company, the Associated Press reported.
With five million downloads worldwide, the app (free to download) is particularly popular in Korea, where two thirds of its users live. Some shy twenty-somethings are finding it easier to ask "Will you be my Between?" than "Will you go out with me?" and use the app for instant messaging and commenting on each other's photos and posts, just like Facebook, according to the AP.
Others use it in established relationships, for the app also allows you to post pictures, leave voicemails, write long notes, and create something of a digital scrapbook for a relationship. (Perhaps when in between Betweens, a user can scroll through past relationships and assess what worked and didn't work; going further, maybe by reminiscing on a former Between, the single party can attempt to "access old files.")
Value Creators CEO Park Jaeuk doesn't see his app in competition with more traditional social media, but a complimentary piece. As more people use Facebook, he believes more will use Between as a way to separate friends and romance. He calls it a "digital couple ring."
Not all Between pairings have to be romantic. For example, two close friends could collaborate on the app to track their relationship. Users who want to Between a friend and a romantic partner, or users who wish to play the field, aren't restricted from opening multiple accounts, Park confirmed with a laugh in his interview with the Associated Press.
But the app seems best fitted for longer termed relationships. It tracks birthdays, anniversaries, and other events, such as a Korean custom called "100 days," (or 100 days since meeting), while never tracking location (the app supports trust in a relationship, according to Park). Ham Yoon-seok, a 29-year-old finance professional in Seoul uses Between to write poetry and apology notes to his girlfriend.
