We’ll wager that you’ve seen all those cute avatars and their respective QR codes floating around your friends’ Stories and Feeds lately—maybe even caved and created your own as well! This is exactly my introduction to Bondee, a virtual world that’s taking the internet by storm, created by Singapore-based company Metadream earlier this month.

But what exactly is Bondee and why are people, for a lack of a better term, so obsessed with it?

(Bondee website)

Many are calling it a cross between Sims and Animal Crossing. For others, it’s reminiscent of Roblox, but instead of the sharp edged pixelated avatars, you now have avatars with more prominent features, ones that you can even customise to your liking.

Bondee is also living true to its official tagline—“live with your friends”—and it’s this social aspect that’s also proving to be a winning feature for many people. It is, after all, categorized as a social media platform and has even topped Apple App Store’s top social networking apps’ rankings last week in four countries. The virtual spaces allow users to “bond” with their friends regardless of geographical location (you can add up to 50 friends in your virtual world!). Aside from dressing up their avatars, users can also decorate their rooms, visit their friends’ virtual spaces, chat with their friends and leave notes on their rooms. One of the most exciting features? We’d say “floating”, where you can literally set sail on a boat to find new friends or meet other random users at “sea” who are out doing the same thing. And while you’re at it, you can maybe find messages in bottles or chance upon freebies left by others.

(Bondee website)

A user’s Bondee space is customisable, and these blocks of personal spaces can be customised to your liking. Even brands have jumped onto the bandwagon, designing their own Bondee spaces to reflect bite-sized replicas of their offices! Since the avatars also act as a 3D extension of yourself, much like other social media platforms, you can also share snippets of your life with your friends within that virtual world, share statuses and upload pictures of what you’re currently up to (think IG Stories).

(Bondee website)

Bondee offers in-app payments using their currency “B-Beans” and is transparent in their intention to integrate NFTs in the future. The app is available in select SEA countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, Thailand and South Korea, but with its popularity, it might not be long before it’s introduced to Western audiences.