Did Bondee Really Suddenly Rise
Warning
Yesterday we took a closer look at the Sudden Rise of Bondee. But did it really come out of nowhere?
Read this first
This post is about Bondee's ties to Zheli, a Chinese service that has since shut down, and the privacy allegations against Zheli. Bondee itself has had no data leak or security incident so far, and a few guesses aren't enough to judge it. I'm not accusing Bondee of anything. Keep that in mind as you read.
Metadream, the company behind Bondee, was founded in September 2022. Bondee launched on January 7, 2023, already polished, and topped app store charts across Asia within a month. That's a mega-hit for a startup this young. It feels very prepared and well-established. Weird, right?
Who's behind Metadream?
The Singaporean regulatory files list one director as Yang Yuxiang, a Chinese CEO who acquired True.ly, Zheli's parent company, in May 2022. Zheli (Jelly, or 这里, "here" in Chinese) was a popular social app in China. It looks identical to Bondee.
Zheli and its privacy issues
Zheli was the most popular app in China in 2022, mostly with Gen Z. For a while it even beat WeChat in downloads, hitting 1.9M downloads less than a month after it launched in January 2022.
But people made a few claims about it.
- Privacy. Users said Zheli logged their unique identifiers to track them when referrals went through WeChat and QQ. They said they got calls from strangers or spam messages after registering
- Zheli's avatar designs were plagiarized.
A post questioning if Zheli plagiarized designs
Beijing Yidianshuo Entertainment Technology, the company behind Zheli, then put out a statement saying these claims were false.
Zheli denies any data collection. 2022-02-11. (Screenshot)
The Zheli app was recently accused of using users' private information, such as their WeChat ID and QQ number, without authorization. This caused concern among users and spread on various platforms. However, after investigation, the claims were found to be false and were part of an organized and planned defamation effort by the app's competitors. Beijing Yidianshuo Entertainment Technology, the company behind the Zheli app, has complied with all relevant laws and regulations and did not use the private information in question. However, the company has collected evidence and reported the incident to the police, and reserved the right to take legal action.
Soon after, though, the developers pulled the app to "improve existing user experience," saying it faced "continuous and organized attacks," including "deliberate rumors and false information" spread online. They denied any data leak or privacy problem.
Zheli shuts down. 2022-02-13. (Screenshot)
Zheli is a new app that has faced continuous and organized attacks, causing rumors to be spread and negative reviews to be posted on various platforms. The company has taken legal action to defend its reputation. However, the app also has technical issues, such as freezes, crashes, and delays, which still need to be resolved. To improve the user experience, the company has decided to remove the app from the app store for a large-scale system upgrade and focus on fixing existing problems. The company hopes to hear from users through their question and suggestion channels and their official Weibo account.
But Bondee should be fine, right?
Some skepticism is healthy here too. Users claimed their credit card was misused after signing up to Bondee.
Metadream denied such accusations.
So what now?
Nothing has been confirmed against Metadream or Bondee yet. No privacy violation, no security incident. We still don't know how Metadream relates to the old Beijing Yidianshuo Entertainment Technology (is Bondee just Zheli rebranded, or did Metadream buy the software and fully change how it runs?). But given Zheli's history and the people involved, be careful with Bondee.