For a short stretch early this year, Bondee seemed on track to be the next hot app in some of the biggest markets in Asia. Millions of young people were drawn to the idea of creating cute avatars and hanging out in one another’s “virtual plazas,” and users described it as a mixture of the video game Animal Crossing and Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging service. It topped download charts from Singapore to South Korea.
Then things began to unravel. The trouble started with unsubstantiated rumors of credit card data leaks, which Bondee’s developer, Metadream Tech Pte, denied. Some users also began pointing out Bondee’s uncanny resemblance to the defunct Chinese app Zheli, better known as Jelly. That app, which briefly went viral in China in early 2022, had vanished from Chinese app stores amid reports of glitchy service and questions surrounding privacy. When internet users in South Korea dug up government records showing that Metadream had registered in South Korea as Chinese, Bondee’s developers found themselves trying to refute charges that their big hit was just a way to relaunch Jelly while obscuring its origins.
Metadream, which said it was based in Singapore, explained that it had acquired the rights to Jelly from its previous owner, True.ly of China. While Metadream is indeed incorporated in Singapore, most of the startup’s employees were in China, and it shared legal and finance staff with Jelly’s Chinese owner as of February, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing private business. Metadream was led by Yang Yuxiang, an influential financier in China who spent two decades working for state-backed investment firms. He was listed as a director in Metadream’s regulatory filings in Singapore but has recently been removed.
