The COVID-19 pandemic has forced society to reexamine its ways and develop new strategies for life and work to continue despite the many setbacks that have surfaced because of the global health crisis. As such, trends like segregated work environments and long-distance family relationships have emerged, along with a stronger need for digital solutions.
The need for smarter digitalisation has existed long before the pandemic, but current events have certainly accelerated these trends. Now, as billions of consumers across the globe are able to accomplish more and more tasks within mobile apps, across both their home and work lives, the role of mobile messaging tools and chat APIs have become increasingly prominent.
One particular company that has been making waves in the market is Sendbird, the largest white-label mobile conversations platform that companies can integrate into their apps and brand experience with just a few lines of code. Sendbird is the leading mobile engagement and communication platform trusted by modern digital and mobile-first companies like Reddit, Delivery Hero, and Paytm.
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With the emergence of new trends in various areas including Chat API, Messaging SDK, In-app Messaging, Real-time Communication, Chat Platform as a Service (CPaaS), Cloud Communication, IP Messaging, Conversational Commerce, Enhanced Messaging, live commerce, and live video, Sendbird has seen heavy demand for its products across different industries.
Sendbird connects users with each other and with the brands they care about through rich in-app conversations across chat, voice, and video. “From food delivery to healthcare, education, entertainment, shopping, and so much more, every business is looking to connect digitally with its customers,” said Sendbird co-founder and CEO, John S. Kim.
Kim added, “users now expect to have meaningful conversations with each other, and with the brand, inside of the mobile app — and that’s where we come in. Whether it’s coordinating with a delivery provider, getting a question answered from a seller in an online marketplace, asking another user for advice in a hobby community, or talking to a doctor in a virtual video call, Sendbird helps hundreds of millions of users connect with the brands they love and get stuff done.”
Conversations as the centre of the mobile experience
Billions of users now engage in real-time mobile conversations on a monthly basis making it the most popular way for users to communicate. Companies are increasingly harnessing the power of mobile conversations within their own apps both to drive better business outcomes, but also to avoid risks of losing their users to other real-time channels owned by the technology giants.
More and more, brands are making the conversation with the customer the centre of the mobile experience. From within a chat thread, users can authorise a replacement item from a delivery provider, cancel a ride, make a payment to a friend, or check the status of an order.
“Modern brands in all verticals are increasingly adopting in-app chat to power digital, real-time, and authentic conversations with their customers to drive engagement and retention,” said Sendbird board member Karan Mehandru.
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“We believe Sendbird’s market leadership and product scalability put them in pole position to capture these tailwinds and become the first choice for every brand in the world looking to communicate authentically with their audience. We are thrilled to lead this investment and partner with John and the team as the company defines and owns this next dominant channel of customer communications,” Mehandru added.
Sendbird’s customer base currently spans communities such as Reddit and Yahoo Sports as well as two-sided marketplaces like Carousell, Handy, and Yell. It also includes food delivery and ride-sharing leaders like Delivery Hero, Ola, and iFood; digital health innovators such as Rally Health, Teladoc, and DocPlanner; fintech companies like PayPay, Paytm, and Picpay; as well as enterprises including Virgin Mobile UAE, ServiceNow, and Kookmin Bank.
“We needed to quickly find new digital ways for our users to build meaningful connections, and Sendbird’s video calling and chat APIs do just that,” said Ben Celebicic, CTO of Hinge, one of the largest dating sites in the U.S. and a member of the Match Group.
Celebicic explained that “with millions of daters looking for connection, we needed a partner that we could trust with our scale.“
New money for a new world
Last April, Sendbird announced that it closed $100 million in Series C funding in an oversubscribed round led by STEADFAST Capital Ventures. STEADFAST Managing Director and Head of Venture Capital Karan Mehandru will join Sendbird’s board of directors. Emergence Capital, Softbank Vision Fund 2*, and World Innovation Lab also participated in the round, as well as previous investors, ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global Management, and Meritech Capital.
Funding comes as Sendbird has achieved new milestones. Now valued at $1.05 billion, it has become one of only 12 current unicorns founded out of Korea and the first in the B2B enterprise software space. Sendbird has also grown its monthly active users (MAU) and the number of applications powered by Sendbird by 3x since its Series B announcement. Over 150 million users interact on Sendbird’s chat and video platform every month through the apps of digital and mobile leaders including Reddit, Hinge, Paytm, Teladoc, Virgin Mobile UAE, and Delivery Hero.
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Sendbird will use its latest influx of capital to aggressively accelerate its R&D efforts to help customers get more value out of both existing and new products. The company will continue to scale its workforce in its Silicon Valley headquarters, as well as in its other locations around the globe — New York, London, Munich, Singapore, Seoul, and Bengaluru — to make this happen. In addition, Sendbird also plans to enter new markets as the world looks for ways to incorporate meaningful digital conversations over chat, voice, and video into their mobile applications.
“Our customers operate in highly dynamic and competitive environments,” said Kim. “Helping them launch new mobile experiences quickly and see better business outcomes — that’s where our focus is. Last year we launched Sendbird Calls, APIs to embed voice and video experiences into mobile apps, and we’ve seen strong demand. The explosion of Clubhouse has shown that companies are just getting started on where to take voice and video. We’re excited to build the future of mobile experiences with our customers.”
These are only some of the exciting new developments in the messaging world, and we are excited to see catalysts like Sendbird further revolutionise mobile experiences and bridge gaps as we usher in the new normal.
For more information, you may visit Sendbird’s official page here.
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Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Sendbird
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