Cubie Messenger‘s Android app is now available in Spanish, the Taiwanese startup announced today. Its iOS version is scheduled to receive a similar update by the end of the month.
As you may know, we recently listed Cubie as one of eleven Chinese startups you should look out for this year. The company is best known for its uber-cute free doodling and messaging app, which launched in March 2012, and already boasts 4.7 million users.
Until now, the app was only available in English, Thai, Japanese and Mandarin (Simplified and Traditional). Here’s how its Spanish version looks:
In an email to TNW, Cubie’s ‘International Messenger’ James Hill explained the rationale behind Cubie’s translation into Spanish:
“We’re releasing a Spanish version because several of our users reached out and said they’d help us with the translation. As we are a 500 Startups company, we too believe in the growth of Latin America for mobile applications, in particular those on the Android platform. Android is growing extremely fast in the larger markets of Mexico, Argentina and others, and we want to deliver the best chat experience to all those new smartphone users, in their native language.”
After participating in 500 Startups’ fall class, Cubie went on to raise $1.1 million in seed funding to fuel its impressive growth. While it already has a strong user base in Asia, Latin America could be a promising market for the startup.
According to Hill, the company has already noticed early growth in several Spanish-speaking countries, which it now hopes to boost with its new version. As we reported, social networking, messaging and social gaming are very popular across Latin America. In addition, smartphone penetration is increasing, and mostly driven by Android devices, creating opportunities for apps such as Cubie Messenger.
➤ Cubie Messenger, via Google Play
Image credit: Pond5
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