Cupslice: a Local Photo Editor App Gaining Popularity

Don't we all love looking at interesting images on the internet, especially through social media? Whether it's a meme, a beautifully edited selfie (or welfie?), a collage of your travel pictures, or an inspiring quote with provoking imagery, we have to admit that visual aid is always powerful. But in our mobile trend, often it's too much of a hassle to open your laptop just to touch up your latest profile picture, so that's why we need a mobile photo editor.

Cupslice is exactly that! Sure there are plenty of other similar apps out there. Basic functions, like cropping and adding text, are all a dime a dozen! Some of the latest smartphones even have these functions built-in. So, what makes Cupslice worth it are the contents!Abdur Rabbi Arrasul Sayaf (a.k.a. Aif), CEO of Cupslice, explains that most contents on social medias have primary sources. Search engines like Google and Bing can trace the source to the initial one. "Most people congregate in global forums such as Reddit and 4chan... For Indonesia's case most people gather in Kaskus... What's trending there will spread to other social medias," he explained.

These global trends can be translated into Cupslice contents, which can be downloaded for free in the Cupslice Café, a feature in the app that has all the latest contents from Cupslice. Aif claims that Cupslice actually gained popularity in the US and India first, so their contents must adapt to the taste of those markets. They can even update their contents 10 times a week just to make sure they are ahead in the trend!

A recent praise for Cupslice came from Drippler, a site for reviewing everything about Android and iOS, where Cupslice is included in the top 11 Photo Editor Apps for Android, thus proving it's competitive enough to exist among other apps that have been established longer.

In June 2014, Cupslice was again a topic in a prominent tech media in India, Igyaan. Again it was put on the same level as other established photo editor apps with very high numbers of users. Since then Cupslice has spread to Spain, Brazil, Italy, and finally in its own maker's country, Indonesia.

Merdeka.com mentioned that Cupslice Photo Editor is the Instagram of Indonesia.

Cupslice's strategy now is to strengthen its brand recognition. One of their efforts is by using buzzers like Natsha Farani, Iymel, Allan Wangsa,and other influencers to post pictures edited with Cupslice simultaneously in various social medias and forums.

Admittedly Cupslice is only available for Android for now, but it's a free download and best of all it doesn't bother users with any advertisement at all. That's right! No more annoying banners popping up when you just want to use the app. Cupslice used to have ads, but since Ideabox Batch II (a competition for startups to join an acceleration program) it has decided to leap ahead and be rid of those ads. Instead Cupslice is focusing on giving premium service to users.

As of Septembr 2015, Cupslice employs two new business models: monthly subscription (B2C) and the coin system (B2B). These two are enough to generate revenue.

Subscribers will have the luxury of getting contents 2 weeks ahead (which is light-years ahead for Cupslice since they update contents so often) and thus can be more up-to-date in the SocMed world.

The coin system in Cupslice Café is inspired by one of the leading chat app. It allows Cupslice to nudge people to do something in return for coins, which can be spent to buy the latest contents.

Aif hopes that Indonesians can support Cupslice and love local products and apps, "We also cater to contents that click with Indonesians, because with the support of locals we can survive in the international market."

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Cupslice is a beautiful and simple photo editing apps, that enables users to spruce up their photo with fun, trendy stickers. Cupslice participates in Ideabox Batch 2, a start-up accelerator program organised in partnership between Indosat and Mountain Kejora Ventures.