Both Peter Panas and Mickey Asavanant, co-creators of the dating app Noonswoon, wound up in Bangkok under less-than-ideal circumstances.
A visa boondoggle stranded Panas, an American business executive, in Bangkok while en-route to a friend’s wedding in India. Asavanant, a native of Thailand, had come to the city by choice, but found himself in an unenviable position nonetheless.
“I got out from a relationship,” he says, “looked around, talked to some single friends…and it seemed like there’s a lot of people trying to find someone that they want to settle down with. But they’re too busy, or they just haven’t met the right person yet.”
Panas, a bachelor as well, shared these concerns. Together, the duo began work on a smartphone app that would help them solve their romantic conundrum. Both oriented in the directions of business and technology (Panas worked for Amazon and Yahoo and Asavanant holds a masters degree from Stanford) it took a matter of months for them to produce a dating app uniquely suited to Bangkok’s moneyed, marriageable caste.
Noonswoon, which launched this March, connects users to like-minded individuals, often friends-of-friends, which it selects using Facebook’s Application Programmable Interface (API).
Every day at noon, the profile of a new bachelor or bachelorette presents itself to each Noonswoon user, via his or her smartphone. Users then have 24 hours in which to express their approval of or dislike for this fresh match. If two users express a mutual desire, the app invites them to chat and entertain the possibility of continuing their romance offline.
In the parlance of Noonswoon’s trademarked tagline, “Love is in the App.”
As undeniably sleek as Noonswoon’s design and programming appear to be, the app’s success is far from guaranteed. Already, citizens of Southeast Asia can search for love using such utilities as OK Cupid, WhosHere and Bebo. Those looking for more fleeting intimacy might opt for the likes of ThaiLoveLinks.
To differentiate itself from this crowded playing field, Noonswoon has placed its faith in quality execution and a firm knowledge of its demographic.
Panas and Asavanant designed Noonswoon to appeal to a crowd concerned with discretion and interested in finding a lover for the long haul. As far as Noonswoon’s functionality, much of it owes to Coffee Meets Bagel – a US-based app that provides a similar service to its stateside clientele (of this similarity Panas remarks, “Everyone copies everyone, it’s all about execution”).
So far, this strategy has paid off. When we spoke with Panas and Asavanat in mid-June, the duo estimated that Noonswoon would have 5,000 users by the month’s end. The app far outpaced this goal. A June 25 email from Panas informed Coconuts that the app had reached 10,000 users, and was adding new users at a rate of 1,000 per day.
“It’s eventually not going to be just Thailand,” says Panas. “Eventually we’re going to go to Singapore and to Malaysia as well.”
Noonswoon’s founders view the app’s Thai premier as something of a test run. A preliminary launch in Bangkok has allowed them to feel out their audience and troubleshoot the application’s bugs in an environment where nimble, fast-moving tech startups remain something of a novelty.
“There’s less competition [in Asia],” says Asavanant. “The teams can be really small, and if you know how to grow outside of Thailand…it’s a unique position because investors are really interested in SE Asia and in the region.”
Photo: Noonswoon
