Sanct Social, the Singapore-registered social app for close friends and family, has been to three in-person events in three cities in the seven weeks since it launched on the App Store: a booth at the Tech in Asia Conference in Singapore, a school tournament in Jakarta and, on Saturday 31 October 2026, its first university campus, the closing day of ARCHIWEEK 4.0 at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) in Tangerang, Indonesia. Each one used the same format, one team member, one table, one day, and in each city visitors arrived in pairs and signed up side by side, because on Sanct Social first friends are added by meeting in person. Five weeks after launch, more than 1,000 people are on the platform, the app is free to download on the App Store in 12 countries since the listing widened in October, and more than 200 media outlets across Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have carried its stories. The next campuses in Indonesia are being lined up. The recap film is on YouTube; the app can be downloaded through sanct.social.
SINGAPORE – Five weeks after launching on the App Store, Singapore-registered start-up Sanct Social is already on its third market, and it is getting there with a format that costs one person and a table. On Saturday 31 October 2026 the team kept a table on the closing day of ARCHIWEEK 4.0, a student art and creation exhibition at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) in Tangerang, Indonesia, its first university campus, after a booth at the Tech in Asia Conference in Singapore in September and a school tournament in Jakarta in October.
Sanct Social is a social app for close friends and family, free on the App Store in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and nine more countries, with no ads, and can be downloaded through sanct.social. On Sanct Social, first friends are added by meeting in person and scanning each other’s QR code, so every circle is made of people the user actually knows.
A format that travels
The format is the same in every city. One person from the team, one table, one day. Visitors come with a friend, sign up side by side, and leave with one friend already in the app instead of an empty one. Anyone who turns up alone usually goes to find someone and comes back. The company does not need a stage, a crew or an ad budget to run it, which is why it has been able to move from Singapore to Jakarta to Tangerang in seven weeks, and why the next campus does not have to wait for the last one to be written up.
What the team watches is whether the pattern holds in a new city. So far it has in all three: people arrive together, and the table at UMN stayed busy until the exhibition closed.
“We are a Singapore-registered start-up with users in three countries five weeks after launch, and we have not needed a big launch budget to get there. One person and one table in a new city, and people come in twos. That is the whole model, and it has held in Singapore, in Jakarta and now on a campus in Tangerang,” said Mr Sion Abednego, founder of Sanct Social. “The next campuses in Indonesia are being lined up, and the format is light enough that we can keep that pace.”
The record so far
– Launch: App Store, Singapore on 28 September 2026; Indonesia and Malaysia on 30 September 2026.
– Availability: free with no ads in 12 App Store countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and Japan, since the listing widened in October 2026.
– Platform: more than 1,000 people five weeks after launch.
– Media: more than 200 outlets across Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have carried Sanct Social’s stories since September.
– In person: Tech in Asia Conference 2026, Singapore, 15 and 16 September; Tar2Cup, SMA Tarakanita 2, Jakarta, 18 October; ARCHIWEEK 4.0, Universitas Multimedia Nusantara, Tangerang, 31 October.
– After each event: a recap film on Sanct Social’s YouTube channel, shared on by the people in it.
What it means for users here
Tangerang is an hour behind Singapore and a short flight away, and many Singapore users have family or friends in Jakarta, Johor or further out. A student who signs up with a friend at a campus in Tangerang has a parent or a cousin in Singapore as the next person she adds when they meet, and from then on the family has one room in the app where they gather at the end of the day. Every campus the team reaches in Indonesia adds people that users in Singapore already know.
About ARCHIWEEK 4.0
ARCHIWEEK 4.0 is an art and creation exhibition organised by students of Universitas Multimedia Nusantara on the UMN campus in Tangerang. Sanct Social was invited by the committee for the closing day and thanks the ARCHIWEEK 4.0 committee and everyone at UMN.
About the app
Sanct Social is a personal networking app for close friends and family, with a virtual room where they meet when they are far apart and talk about their day. It is free with no ads on the App Store in Singapore and eleven more countries, and more than 1,000 people are already on the platform.
Sanct Social can be downloaded through https://sanct.social
About the Author: Charlene VRITIMES
