1. Portotyping on Paper
RumorsSay was a side project we did in 2012 to test if we can get viral growth by
offering an anonymous chatting service. It was pretty similar to the now dead service
Secret but we did it earlier. Other than building a responsive website and an iPhone
app, we put more effort in researching how to build a community and how to get
media attention. We got a big success on the launch. The growth rate was steep,
however we had to shut it down in a month after we received several legal attests
regarding the content that user created against some big names.
Music is a big part of my life. I used to listen to tapes, CDs mp3s. In 2012, I no longer
buy or download mp3s anymore. Instead, I search and listen to music videos on
YouTube. However YouTube was built to be sharing site. Therefore the user interface
and experience was terrible for a music player. We released an iPhone app, an
Android app and a website for the service. We had great feedback for the great UI
and the ease of use of the service. We aimed to build the ultimate music player that
integrates YouTube, SoundCloud and other online music & video sharing services.
However we could not find a way to monetize the service. Therefore we did not
continue working on the project.
MACFLICKR
MacFlickr was a browser based desktop system that let you interact
with your cloud data, whether you use Windows, Mac or Linux.
PAST PROJECTS
ICEBERG
WASABI.FM
RUMORSSAY
Before I started my company I had been clubbing for
more than 10 years and I used to know most of the club
owners in Taipei. In 2011 while I was learning Node.js for
real time communication, I had this idea to make a
clubbing app so I can see where all the hot girls are
going. I pitched to my developer friend Rick [1] who
loves to go clubbing too and he liked the idea. We got
a few thousand people using this app in Taipei but we
failed to make big money form either the club owners
or the users, therefore we shut it down in 6 months
after launching.
Leo also worked on the design with us on this
project. I ported Rails to Node.js since Node.js was
relatively new and there was not any well
documented MVC framework in 2011.
Back in 2010 there were many services trying to put your data onto the cloud.
However without a good user interface you have to learn how to use all the services
again. Therefore we provided a cloud based desktop system so you can interact with
all your cloud data [1] with the same experience that you already know.
We failed because it was confusing to the users. The interface we provided was pretty
similar to Mac OSX, therefore it was hard to tell if they are using their desktop or our
cloud service. It was not an urgent need for most of the users since they still have
their desktop system running. If most of the people were using Chrome Book [2] ,we
might have a chance.
It was the first project that Leo [3] and I started to work together. We learnt that it’s
import to find out if it’s the real need before making it. I built a frontend JavaScript
MVC framework since there was not any matured ones back in 2010.
[1] We started with Flickr and planed to integrate with YouTube, SoundCloud and many more cloud service.
[2] Chrome book is a browser only notebook.
[3] Leo Lin and I worked on 2 projects before we funded WOOMOO INC.
[1] Rick Chen started to work full time with us at WOOMOO INC.
since Sep 2013.