Dubai: A new messaging app is vying for your attention on smartphone screens. Flochat is aiming to push the message for what it calls “conversational commerce”.
“Flochat is the disrupter in a segment which has seen little change in the last eight years and is changing the existing set norms of communication,” said Zoya Bilgrami, managing director of Flochat in the UAE.
Since the local launch last October, the app has gained traction with over 10,000 users in the first six months. In the first quarter of 2018, user activity grew 20 per cent month on month. The majority of users are between 25 and 34 years.
So far, Flochat has had tie-ins with the likes of Zomato, Groupon, Careem and Uber. More brands are “partnering and will be announced in Q2-18”, the company said in a statement.
There is also an AI-enabled “companion”, Floda. The virtual assistant chatbot can adopt to user behaviour and preferences, identify user-intent classification and has the ability to switch context. Fifteen per cent of users interact with Floda by requesting information, bookings and organising activities.
