An Overview of Soul, the Chinese Social Network That Just Filed For a US IPO
According to Bloomberg, Shanghai Renyimen Technology, parent of Chinese social networking app Soul, has filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S.
Soul, which launched in 2016, has over 100 million users in China and over 30 million active users per month. According to App Annie iOS rankings, Soul is the 4th most popular free social networking app in China, and the 5th top grossing. It is very popular among China’s Gen Z consumers who like its low-pressure, voice-first approach to networking.
The parent company is set to raise around $300 million from the listing, although the deliberations are still in talks and may not go forward. The company’s valuation is already at over $1 billion before the IPO, Bloomberg reported.
What Makes Soul Unique
Unlike most dating and social networking apps where users fill up their profiles with heavily edited selfies and a curated image, Soul creates a more real and relaxed experience where users can first get to know other users through voice and personality only.
Personality Quiz
When new users log in for the first time they must take a personality quiz which categorizes them and assigns them to a “planet” of similar users and ranks their compatibility with other users. Users can also take additional quizzes which will continue to strengthen the accuracy of their profile.
Find Other Users Through the Soul Planet
Probably the most unique or recognizable feature of the Soul user experience is the “soul planet”. The home page of the app features a 3D rotating sphere of dots, which represent other users that are currently on the app.
Users can rotate the sphere with their fingers and click on the dots to see other user’s profiles.
The color of the dot reflects how strong a match they are – dark green is the closest match, and the lighter the dot is, the less of a match it is. Purple represents new users.
Users can also pay with in-app virtual currency to increase the number of users that appear in their planet.
No User Profile Pictures
All users only have a customized avatar as their profile picture. Users are not allowed to use an image. Users can post content to their profile page, but it is an unspoken rule to never include one’s face in the image.
Random Audio Calls
Every day, users have 10 chances to have random voice calls with other users.
When a user first joins the call, their username and avatar is kept hidden from the other user. In order to find out another user’s identity, you must stay on the call for a certain period of time.
There is no way for users to pay to have more calls, the limit for everyone is 10 per day, however there are things the user can do to extend the length of those 10 calls such as send virtual gifts to the other user, directly pay to extend the call, or reveal their identity before the set time.
Conversely, users can also pay to keep their identity hidden longer.
Video Matching
Recently Soul has also been pushing video calls, offering each user 20 video calls per day, a number which seems a bit excessive, especially considering the apps positioning of getting to know people from their soul, rather than their looks.
Knowing that their user base may not want to fully reveal themselves in a video call, Soul offers AR face masks which allow users to have a call with their face covered. The masks actually show the users facial expressions, so even with the mask on you can tell whether they are smiling, frowning, etc.
This takes a lot of the pressure off of video chatting with someone, but it also lets you see how they are reacting to the conversation, the non-verbal cues which can’t be achieved with a voice-only call.
Targeting Douyin’s Userbase
Soul has heavily leveraged influencer campaigns on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to grow its user base. Douyin’s user base is Soul’s target demographic, making it a great place to promote the app.
Content featuring the hashtag #soul has a total of 444 million views.
