Did Bondee Really Suddenly Rise

Yesterday, we took a closer look into Bondee. Sudden Rise of Bondee. But did it suddenly rise?

Metadream, the company behind Bondee, was founded in Sep 2022. Bondee launched on January 7, 2023, with great quality. Bondee also topped multiple app store charts across Asia within a month. Such a Mega-hit for an early startup. They feel very prepared and well-established. Isn't it strange?

Who's behind Metadream?

Indeed, based on the Singaporean regulatory files, one of the directors is Yang Yuxiang, a Chinese CEO who acquired True.ly in May 2022, the parent company of Zheli. Zheli (Jelly, or 这里, "here" in Chinese), a popular social app in China, looks identical to Bondee.

;

Zheli and its Privacy Issues

Zheli was the most popular app in China in 2022, primarily for Gen-Z. It even surpassed WeChat in downloads for a while, marking 1.9M downloads in less than a month after the initial launch in Jan 2022.

However, there were various claims of the following:

• Infringing Privacy. Users claimed that by sharing referrals through WeChat and QQ, Zheli logged unique identifiers of the users to track users. Users said they had received calls from strangers or spam messages after registering on the app
• Zheli's avatar designs were plagiarized.

Beijing Yidianshuo Entertainment Technology, the company behind Zheli, subsequently published a statement claiming these are false.

However, its developers soon took down the app to "improve existing user experience," adding it faced "continuous and organized attacks," including the spread of "deliberate rumors and false information" online. They denied anything about data leaks or privacy concerns they were suffering.

But Bondee should be fine, right?

We also need some skepticism. Users claimed that their credit card was misused after signing up to Bondee

Metadream denied such accusations.

Conclusion

No personal information infringement cases or security-related incidents have been directly confirmed for Metadream and Bondee yet. It remains to be seen what kind of relationship Metadream has with the former Beijing Yidianshuo Entertainment Technology (whether it's a simple rebranding of Zheli or whether it just acquired the software and made full-fledged changes to its operating policies and policies). However, judging from Zheli and the stakeholders involved, caution is necessary when using Bondee.