TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#FacedriveHiride—Facedrive Inc. (“Facedrive”) (TSXV: FD), a Canadian “people-and-planet-first” tech ecosystem, is delighted to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, HiRide Share Ltd. (“HiRide”), a socially-responsible peer-to-peer platform offering innovative transportation and communication solutions, has reached over 1,000,000 downloads of its HiQ Social App within just five weeks of its launch date in late June 2020. HiQ (the “App”) is a mobile application designed to support meaningful interactions during the times of pandemic and help people from around the world connect with one another based on shared interests. Its unique concept is also making HiQ an international leader among trivia apps, especially popular among millennials. This is reflected by the app’s ratings on both the Google Play Store and the App Store, proving that HiQ is the new application of choice for people to Connect, Play and Win.
It has been widely noted that people are turning to technology to work, communicate, meet new people and stay in touch with their loved ones in an attempt to contain the coronavirus pandemic. This trend has led to an unprecedented spike in demand for online communication tools geared both for business and personal use, surging the number of downloads of chat apps by over 100 percent since the month of February (Source: Statista, 2020). HiQ, a socialization platform that invites users to stay connected while practicing social distancing and encourages interactions based on common interests, has quickly realized the uptake in this growing trend and adopted a pioneering approach in the industry by enhancing its communication platform with gamification features through regular trivia challenges.
This approach has proved to perform exceptionally well on the global scale as HiQ reached over 1,000,000 downloads, with the latest viral spike of 500,000 downloads happening within the last week. The HiQ team confirms that following the one million benchmark on August 1, 2020, the number of downloads continues to maintain the upward “hockey stick” trajectory. Available on both the App Store and the Google Play Store, HiQ has also been tenaciously moving up multiple app rankings, consistently landing a place among the top 5 trivia aps in over 115 countries. Other metrics confirm positive user experience and growing user acceptance, too, especially among the younger demographic. For instance, the app counts over 750,000 unique monthly users and over 50,000 unique daily users, which suggests a high ratio of “downloads to users” conversion and a promising user return rate.
The HiQ team has plans for further enhancement of the app as it has already started to work on adding multiple features to the app based on the overwhelming feedback received from HiQ users in the last several weeks. Some of the feature sets currently in development include group messaging, head-to-head trivia battles, and voice calling, just to name a few. The new features will allow the app to compete with “giants” not only in the trivia section but also in the messaging and social media sections.
“At Facedrive, we are very excited by the great reception the HiQ platform has enjoyed over the past month. We place a great value on the trust and loyalty of our users and will be making continuous efforts to further improve the platform and introduce added features with every new release. One million downloads of the HiQ app constitutes an important milestone for Facedrive, marking a new step towards cross-platform adoption of its services and eventually successful monetization. This achievement is especially meaningful for our business as Facedrive is in advanced stage partnership discussions with a global entertainment and sports predictions platform to augment Facedrive’s existing verticals and bring user experience to a new level,” said CEO and Chairman of Facedrive Sayan Navaratnam.
“There has been a very positive response from the international community. I am happy to see our team’s hard work and dedication transform into results like these. At the end of the day, we want to make an impact on our customers, and knowing that we are accomplishing this goal is very encouraging,” said Akshat Soni, CEO of HiRide.
About HiRide
HiRide is an evolution in car-pooling. HiRide is an innovative, first-of-its-kind long-distance travel car-pooling app that seeks to change the face of transportation for commuters. HiRide’s mission is to transport students and professionals all across the globe to their desired destinations while reducing the negative impact of the ridesharing segment on the environment. HiRide is an entirely new, people-powered global transport network that connects drivers with empty seats to passengers looking for a ride. HiRide’s goal is to make travel and social life efficient as well as more affordable for its members worldwide. This is achieved through its offering of an innovative platform, dedicated customer service, and a fast-growing community of users. HiQ is a socialization and gaming mobile application that encourages users to stay connected and engaged while social distancing.
For more about HiRide, visit www.hiride.ca.
About Facedrive
Facedrive is a multi-faceted “people-and-planet first” platform offering socially-responsible services to local communities with a strong commitment to doing business fairly, equitably, and sustainably. Facedrive Rideshare was the first to offer green transportation solutions in the TaaS space, planting thousands of trees and giving users a choice between EVs, hybrids, and conventional vehicles. Facedrive Marketplace offers curated merchandise created from sustainably sourced materials. Facedrive Foods offers contactless deliveries of a wide variety of foods with the focus on healthy foods right to consumers’ doorsteps. Facedrive Health develops innovative technological solutions to the most acute health challenges of the day. Facedrive is changing the ridesharing, food delivery, e-commerce, and health tech narratives for the better, for everyone.
For more about Facedrive, visit www.facedrive.com.
Facedrive Inc.
100 Consilium Pl, Unit 400, Scarborough, ON, Canada M1H 3E3
www.facedrive.com
Forward-Looking Information
Certain information in this press release contains forward-looking information. This information is based on management’s reasonable assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to us and are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information as a result of various factors. Information regarding our expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities or the markets in which we operate is forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not facts but instead represent management’s expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
See “Forward-Looking Information” and “Risk Factors” in the Corporation’s Filing Statement dated August 28, 2019 for a discussion of the uncertainties, risks and assumptions associated with these statements. Readers are urged to consider the uncertainties, risks and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. We have no intention and undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts
Media: Sana Srithas | sana@facedrive.com
Sayan Navaratnam
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Tel: 1-888-300-2228
