Smopin

What did it do?

Smopin was a Turkish mobile chat app that matched people who wanted to talk about the same subject. Users logged in with their Facebook account, chose a category such as music and a short topic, then swiped through others who had picked the same topic, Tinder-style, and sent chat requests. The app was aimed at people who did not want to appear on dating apps and were simply looking for good conversation.

Why did it shut down?

According to a 2018 Webrazzi report, Smopin was completely free, and introducing a membership system and reaching a global audience were among its goals. In an interview with egirişim the same year, co-founder Emir Emanetoğlu said that one of the hardest parts of entrepreneurship was building a good team. According to an egirişim report from March 2020, although the app had reached 500,000 monthly active users, the team did not achieve the results it wanted and decided not to drag the venture out any longer. The sources contain no information that a revenue model was ever put into practice, which suggests that user growth did not turn into revenue (interpretation).

The story

Smopin grew out of how hard it is, amid the noise of social media, to find someone to have a real conversation with about a particular topic. Founded by Emir Emanetoğlu, Gökhan Çınar, Tuna B. Urut, Ali Can Demiralp and Alp D. Urut, the app brought together strangers who wanted to talk about the same thing. Users logged in with their Facebook account, chose a category and wrote a short note; if, for example, you wrote concerts under the music category, people looking to chat about the same subject would be listed.

The interface was borrowed from the popular dating apps of the day. You swiped left to pass over someone you were not interested in and waved at someone who caught your eye to send a chat request. The target audience, however, was not people looking for dates but those looking for friendship, recommendations or good conversation. According to a Webrazzi report from April 2018, when the app was presented at the Webrazzi Dijital conference, Smopin had 25,000 users, 2,500 new users were joining every week and 50,000 messages were being sent a week. The app was completely free; the team aimed to reach more users, introduce a membership system and open up to a global audience.

Speaking to egirişim around the same time, Emanetoğlu said the hardest part of entrepreneurship was building a good team. The app kept growing and, as egirişim reported, reached as many as 500,000 monthly active users.

But that figure was not the success the team was looking for. In March 2020 egirişim announced that Smopin, which had been running for about three years, had ceased operations. Telling the story of the closure, Emanetoğlu stressed that success depends on how you define it. When the team did not achieve the results it wanted, it decided not to drag the venture out any longer.

Smopin's story is a reminder that a user count that looks impressive on paper does not keep a company alive on its own. The sources contain no information that the app ever put a revenue model into practice. For free social apps, when the bridge between growth and making money cannot be built, sometimes the most honest option for founders is to close.

Lessons for founders

• User numbers are not success; define from the start the metric by which you will measure success.
• Putting off a revenue model in a free social app means costs grow along with the growth.
• If the results are not coming, closing the venture in good time rather than dragging it out is also a decision.

Sources

1. The closure story of Smopin, the app that matched people who wanted to talk about a shared topic (egirişim, 2020-03-30)
2. The app that brings together people who want to talk about similar topics: Smopin (Webrazzi, 2018-04-11)
3. Emir Emanetoğlu, Smopin: "The biggest challenge is finding a good team" (egirişim, 2018-03-14)

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