Draft:Parallel

Overview
Parallel is a community-focused voice chat application designed to facilitate seamless communication and connection among friends and gamers. Established in 2017, founders struggle to create something new. At 2019, they started a new app called Parallel, the app has grown into a vibrant platform used by millions to engage in everyday conversations, play games, or even study together. Parallel emphasizes a "People First" approach, prioritizing friendships and shared experiences over solely gaming.

History
The founders initially hypothesized that gamers experienced sound issues while playing FPS (First-Person Shooter) games and making calls simultaneously. The team discovered that the main issue was players had no one to play with and preferred not to play with random strangers. This insight led to the development of a matchmaking app with integrated voice chat exclusively for iOS FPS gamers.

After playing FPS games with users, the team observed that many praised the game sound improvements achieved through Parallel.

In the realm of FPS games, the ability to discern in-game sounds is paramount. Gamers frequently collaborate with numerous online players in multiplayer modes, desiring uninterrupted communication with friends.

Traditional voice chat applications like Discord, WhatsApp, and LINE, however, often prioritize call audio over game sounds, compromising the clarity of crucial in-game audio cues like gunshots and footsteps. FPS gamers resorted to intricate setups to balance communication and game audio, a solution not universally comprehensible, affordable, or feasible.

Parallel addresses this issue adeptly, enabling simultaneous gameplay and voice chat without sacrificing audio quality. Our advanced technology ensures that users can hear both game sounds and voice chat with pristine clarity, significantly enhancing the gaming experience.

In 2020, April, the call duration on Parallel app in a month surpassed 1B minutes.

In 2021, Parallel raised 1.2 billion yen as series B round. Participating investors are Jafco Group (TSE:8595), KDDI Open Innovation Fund, Anri, W ventures, and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital. The startup will use the funds to strengthen engineering and marketing teams. It boasts a cumulative total of one million registered users and over 400 million minutes of total monthly talk time.

Attracting non-FPS users became one of the thing to make it for Parallel. In 2023, they changed the application drastically to attract non-FPS gamers.

The initial strategy to attract non-FPS users included features like screen sharing, casual games, and the ability to watch YouTube together while on a call.

Following this, the team decided to have the development team build games directly into the app.

There are over 30 original games within the Parallel app, and Parallel has surpassed 3 million registered users globally..

Approximately 80% of Parallel users are Generation Z (under 24 years old), with an average usage time of 200 minutes per day. The majority of users are acquired through word-of-mouth rather than advertisements.

In 2024, Parallel raised another 1.2 billion yen.

Parallel, primarily spread through word-of-mouth among Generation Z, has surpassed 4 million registered users, with 25% being international users. The average daily usage time exceeds 3 hours, with about 65% of domestic users launching the app more than five times a week. In August 2023, a game event saw participation from 9,555 schools, about 70% of all middle and high schools, further accelerating its popularity among young users.

Parallel in Thailand
Parallel is now getting popularity in Thailand. Many users on ROV, Free Fire, and PUBG Mobile started to use their app.

The number of users in Thailand increased by 6 times just in 3 months, from 10,000 to over 60,000 users on Parallel.