Was Bondee just a “nice hook” and now its “game over”?

Bondee, a metaverse newcomer from Singapore, has experienced impressive growth. Within just two weeks of its release on the Apple App Store, two million downloads were made.

But the initial excitement was short-lived as Singapore’s social media users swiftly stopped using the locally developed avatar-based software.

Social media feeds started to overflow with requests to “Add me on Bondee” and photos of 3D-modeled, pastel virtual interiors. In the Bondee metaverse, where you could go camping and sailing with their pals, users obsessively uploaded pictures of their virtual homes and avatars.

Bondee’s rocky rise

According to data.ai’s statistics, it held the top rank for weekly downloads in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan during the last week of January.

Nonetheless, Bondee’s rise has been rocky thus far for such a young app. Users’ worries about data privacy have increased as a result of allegations about Bondee’s connections to a Chinese developer and data leak suspicions that have been debunked by the app’s developer, Metadream. After learning about intentions to introduce non-fungible tokens (NFTs), users threatened to remove the app, which prompted Metadream to quickly reverse its decision. It’s a long cry from the peaceful early-pandemic devotion with Animal Crossing, where the only challenge was producing enough consoles for everyone who wanted to play.

Features of Bondee

Early users of Bondee in Singapore were first drawn in by the “cute” avatars, customised rooms, and picnic areas that reminded them of games like Habbo Hotel that many millennials experimented with when they were teenagers.

Bondee allows users to customise avatars and bedrooms that friends can visit, and it has echoes of the Nintendo game Animal Crossing, which caught the internet by storm during Covid lockdowns in 2020. The app’s Singapore-based developers, Metadream, have set a friend limit of 50 in an effort to maintain a close-knit, current, and connected group.

Fall of Bondee

Bondee, however, felt “primitive, with limited customisations and chat functions,” according to Lim, who added that after a few weeks he hardly uses the app. As a result, the novelty quickly wore off. Just one month after dominating charts around Asia, Bondee has dropped to 19th place on Singapore’s Apple Store by Wednesday.

According to Lim Sun Sun, a professor of communication and technology at the Singapore Management University, Avatars alone can’t draw people in; it’s what the full platform allows you to do with your avatar that gives the platform its stickiness.

She described Bondee’s charming design and whimsical atmosphere as a “good hook,” but said that if there isn’t anything else after that, it’s essentially “game over.”

Conclusion

According to Professor Lim, early adopters may desire the “whole shebang,” which includes the capacity to touch and smell in addition to a fully immersive experience, while the majority currently has no idea what they want from the metaverse and views it as a “sort of souped up online experience.”

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing