Written by: 0xLaughing, BlockBeats
Note: On October 27, according to the official announcement, Binance has launched the 39th new coin mining project - Memecoin (MEME). The article was first written in March this year, when memeland had already set off a craze in the NFT market.
Memeland initial worldview
At the beginning of 2023, Memeland has become one of the hottest projects in the NFT market with the release of its latest NFT series. Throughout the development history of this project over the past year, there have been too many noteworthy milestones:
• The flagship product MVP series was sold at a high price of 5.3ETH in a “blind auction” during the aftermath of the Luna crash in June;
• The second Potatoz series took advantage of the "Free Mint market" to complete the 10k sale. It witnessed the collapse of FTX, but was still able to stabilize the floor price above 1 ETH in the bear market for a long time, and recently even surged to more than 3 ETH;
• The latest Captainz series sold out in less than 12 minutes on the day of the minting day, despite the controversial high price of 1.069 ETH, which also means that the team raised more than $12 million in funds from this sale alone...
Too many NFT projects that were once famous have gradually disappeared in this deep bear market in the crypto world. The slogan of "underpromise, overdeliver" has become "underpromise, underdeliver". Memeland's three sales have been more amazing than the last, and it has established a loyal and reliable community and gradually gained a foothold in the NFT market. This article will try to explain how 9GAG has gradually transformed from a Web2 content company to a Web3 with the help of Memeland, an NFT brand.
TL;DR
Memeland Overview
• The first NFT series "YOU THE REAL MVP" was sold in a "blind auction" in June 2022, with a total of 420 units and a final price of 5.3 ETH. The current floor price has risen to 44.4 ETH;
• The "Potatoz" series sold 9,999 units using Free Mint in July 2022. The floor price once reached over 3 ETH, but has now fallen back slightly. The secondary market transaction volume has exceeded 18,900 ETH;
• The “Captainz” series was sold in 12 minutes in January 2023, earning the team approximately 9,801 ETH. This series is a collection of 9,999 PFPs in total;
• Participating in the “The Captainz” series of casting will earn you Treasure Mapz, and you can also earn Mapz through soft staking during the subsequent Captainz reveal phase;
• Earning Treasure Mapz requires matching Captainz and Potatoz sets, and MVP will help in the process;
• Official reveal that Treasure Mapz is related to $MEME, valuable NFTs, special utilities, etc.;
• Owners of Captainz NFT can participate in the subsequent governance of Memeland DAO and have priority access to Memecoin and Treasure Islands;
• Memeland’s official website revealed clues about the subsequent token system, metaverse land, creator economy, and pledge system, but there is not much information at present;
• 9GAG, the company behind Memeland NFT, was founded in 2008 and is an online entertainment content platform that mainly shares funny pictures and videos. The official claims to have 200 million users on its official website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok and other social media;
• Memeland has a strong lineup of advisors/investors, including VeeFriends founder Gary Vaynerchuk, Moonbirds founder Kevin Rose, Kaiju Kingz founder Nathan, KOL Keung and other well-known names in the NFT industry.
Started from online entertainment content platform 9GAG
23-year-old Chen Zhancheng (second from right) and his younger brother Chen Zhanjun (first from right), college roommates, and two aNobii colleagues started a part-time business together
9GAG founder Chen Zhancheng (now 9gag CEO) studied law at the University of Hong Kong. After graduation, he worked in the legal department of a bank, a TV station, and an Internet company. At that time, the boss of the Internet company he worked for was less than 30 years old, which inspired Chen Zhancheng to start a business. So, the 23-year-old Chen Zhancheng found his younger brother Chen Zhanjun, his college roommate, and two aNobii colleagues to start a part-time business together. They had worked on cosmetics evaluation platforms, home appliance evaluation platforms, photo sharing platforms, and online karaoke platforms, but these platforms all ended in failure.
9GAG Completes $2.8 Million Series A Financing
In 2011, with the mentality of "the best basketball players should go to the NBA to play professional leagues, and the best technology entrepreneurship training should go to Silicon Valley", they decided to go to the United States to participate in the 500 Startups entrepreneurship program. After being guided by a senior Google product manager mentor invited by 500 Startups, they found that the project 9GAG, which they started in 2008, had the most potential, and later they made it the focus of development. At that time, social platforms such as Facebook were not yet popular, and they founded this website to provide netizens with a way to share funny pictures and videos. 9GAG was later favored by Y Combinator, First Round Capital, Greycroft Partners and True Ventures, and completed a $2.8 million Series A financing.
9GAG has over 58 million followers on Instagram
In the following years, 9GAG has developed rapidly and has become one of the most popular online entertainment communities in the world. Its content covers a variety of topics, including comedy, animation, games, movies, music, travel, sports, etc., attracting a large number of young people. According to data from website survey company similarweb, 9GAG ranked second in the global humor website click rate in December 2022, and its average single browsing time, number of pages and bounce rate all performed well.
In addition, 9GAG has accumulated a large number of users on various social platforms, with the following number of fans:
• Instagram: 58.15 million
• Facebook: 41.88 million
• Twitter: 16.83 million
• TikTok: 240 万
KOL kmoney praised 9GAG in a podcast interview with 9GAG CEO: "I think in the past ten years, whenever I think of memes or any website related to meme culture, 9GAG is always at the top of the list."
From this we can see that 9GAG is a top Internet Meme platform that has huge traffic and rich experience in creator collaboration in Web2. 9GAG's founder, Chen Zhancheng, is a serial entrepreneur with 15 years of entrepreneurial experience. He can be regarded as a pioneer in this niche field. Now it has chosen to turn its rudder towards Web3.
From MVP, Tudou to Captain, from a follower of "micro-innovation" to an "industry boss"
Guess the next plan from the overall overview of Memeland
In April 2022, Memeland’s Twitter account had just been launched, and its website reads: “Memeland is 9GAG’s Web3 ecosystem, whose mission is to empower creators by connecting Web2 and Web3.”
At the same time, the official website also directly revealed Captainz’s PFP NFT series (initially even directly raffled off the memelist) and the subsequent $MEME Token system. Just like the popular trend in the NFT market at the time, Memeland had no roadmap and was also known for "under-promising and over-delivering."
MVP
But later, Memeland changed its operating strategy. Unlike the 10k projects on the market at that time, it chose to release a small NFT collection "You The Real MVP" in June, with a total of 420. After adopting a unique "blind auction" format, the community set the price at 5.3 ETH.
MVP always maintains a high price
MVP is defined as a premium member of the Memeland ecosystem, which is 9GAG's way of thanking and rewarding community members. In addition, each MVP enjoys future benefits such as two Memeland Captainz NFT airdrops, whitelisting for all future Memeland and 9GAG projects, and MVP roles in the project Discord. The current floor price remains at a high of 44.44 ETH.
5 Stages of Potatoz
In July 2022, Memeland launched the "The Potatoz" series with a total of 9,999, catering to the popular "Free Mint market" at the time. At the same time, it adopted a 5-stage "reveal-stake-reward" mechanism. The image of Potatoz was revealed in 5 stages, and holders were required to stake their NFTs before they could evolve. During this staking process, Memeland also issued a large number of rewards, such as MVP NFT, Potatoz NFT, IPhone 14, whitelist, etc., and even the prize included "free McDonald's for a year."
Currently, Potatoz is defined as the basic membership of Memeland. Benefiting from the release of the latest Captainz series, the floor price of Potatoz once surged to more than 3 ETH, and is currently falling back slightly. At the same time, the secondary market transaction volume exceeded 18,900 ETH.
Captainz's Sneak Peak as originally shown on the official website
On January 5, 2023, Memeland officially launched the Captainz series, with a total of 9,999 units and a sale price of 1.069E. According to the official announcement, there was no public sale in this sale, and Memelist, Potatoz and Waitlist holders were divided into "secured casting" and "non-secured casting" according to their respective priorities for purchase. At the same time, an unconventional "separation of goods and funds" was adopted, that is, those who participated in the sale first deposited the ETH for casting, and they would receive Captainz airdrops 24 hours after the sale ended.
Ten minutes after the sale started, the official announced that it had received more than 9,999 deposits, declaring that the Waitlist minting had been terminated (the "non-guaranteed minting" mentioned above), while the "guaranteed minting" was not affected and could be completed within 48 hours.
Gas War was triggered during the release of Captainz
The release of Captainz also triggered a Gas War. According to data from blocknative, the Gas Fee during the minting period once exceeded 80 GWEI.
Treasure Mapz
In addition, all participants in the sale will receive a corresponding proportion of Treasure Mapz based on the deposit amount. It is not yet an NFT, so it is currently impossible to transfer or trade them. The official revealed that this Mapz is divided into 5 types, related to $MEME, valuable NFTs, special utilities, etc. At the same time, it can be obtained by forming a Questing (soft pledge) of up to 1 Captainz and 3 Potatoz, but the information is currently limited.
Through the release of the above three series of MVP, Potato, and Captain, it is not difficult to see the shadows of many projects: "Proof Elite Club" to Moonbirds, corresponding to MVP and Potato; the use of Free Mint when Potato was released happened to catch up with the Free Mint trend led by Goblin at the time; the changes in the 5 stages were revealed, and there were variable NFT projects such as Moonrunners and "Shit Monster" for reference; not to mention the staking rewards, there were too many projects such as early NANOPASS staking and Moonbirds "Nesting" that had adopted it.
9GAG CEO said in an interview that he has spent hundreds of ETH to buy NFTs from various well-known projects since January. "Many project founders have not bought enough NFTs to understand the bias from the perspective of Holder." This "bias" can only be experienced after real "skin in". In addition, they adopted the strategy of "micro-innovation", which simply means learning the strengths of NFT projects and making more integration and improvements on their basis. Now, the successful launch of the Captainz series also marks the success of this strategy. The founder's continuous learning has also allowed Memeland to innovate and progress, gradually allowing it to go from a "follower" to a "talker".
Guess the next plan from the Memeland overview
Memeland official overview
The official overview map of Memelands shows what they have to offer, small islands with buried treasure, uncharted waters, giant sea monsters, pirate crews, transmitters, and more, every element in Memelands is presented in stylish and visually appealing graphics.
Memeland Overview
According to official information revealed through various channels, it is currently divided into 10 sections, ranked according to their current priorities:
• MVP: The top-level Pass card in the Memeland ecosystem, which has the highest priority in obtaining rights and interests within the ecosystem, and is also helpful for other NFT series participation links
• Captainz: Represents Memeland’s top membership
• Potatoz: Basic membership to enter the Memeland ecosystem
• Treasure Mapz: As the reward middleware for the subsequent staking system, the randomness represented by the 5 types makes the operation of the subsequent staking reward system more playable
• Memecoin: Not yet launched, but officials hint that it is different from the common NFT-supporting ERC20 Token system
• Treasure Islandz: Not yet launched, but officials hint that it is different from the common NFT-supported Metaverse land system
• Petsland: Not yet launched, the official only revealed that it is "only for pet lovers"
• Stakeland: Not yet launched, the official only revealed that it will “make cryptocurrency staking fun”
• Holders.com: Not yet launched, the official only revealed that it is a “consultant for the Web3 journey”
• GMGM.com: Not yet launched, the official only revealed “Web3 OnlyFans”
The official website shows that MVP NFT can benefit every key utility of Memeland NFT
The relatively certain relationship between them is mainly reflected in the three series that have been released, MVP, Captainz, and Potatoz. According to official documents, in addition to participating in the release to obtain Treasure Mapz, subsequent Holders can obtain Mapz by forming a Questing (soft pledge) of up to 1 Captainz and 3 Potatoz. MVP NFT can benefit every key utility of Memeland NFT.
The conjecture process is as follows (see the Memeland overview above for the diagram):
• Up to 1 Captainz + 3 Potatoz soft stake (maybe team mode)
• (Optional: Turbocharge if you have MVP)
• Earn Treasure Mapz rewards (MVPs get more)
• Mapz exchange for $MEME Token or possibly for Metaverse Land Treasure Islandz)
• $MEME Token participates in the creator economy of GMGM.com
• Holders.com can provide advisory and consulting services to other NFT projects
What are the advantages of Memeland?
200 million users brought traffic blessing, and the "self-propagation effect" of Meme was icing on the cake
In 1650, German Timothy Tritz published the daily newspaper "New Arrival News" for the first time. Although it was only published for about 3 months, it was the world's first daily newspaper. Subsequently, various countries gradually used it. The emergence of newspapers changed the way people received information and promoted new ideas and culture. Before the emergence of newspapers, people mostly received information from person to person, so-called "one person spreads ten people, ten people spread a hundred people." After the emergence of newspapers, the way information is spread changed from person to person to regional and wide-ranging promotion. News events published in newspapers can be quickly carried out regionally or nationwide.
In the new era, with the rise of Internet technology, the "information flow + self-media" network platform is developing in full swing. The rise of social platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. implies that the era of "traffic is king" has arrived, and 9GAG has naturally taken advantage of this trend.
Tweets on Twitter often have millions of views
The 200 million users claimed by 9GAG is hard to verify. After all, the number of followers on multiple social media platforms may be exaggerated or overlapped, but the daily views will not lie and will truly reflect the popularity of a platform. From the views of 9GAG’s official Twitter account, we can see that the views of ordinary tweets usually range from hundreds of thousands, and occasionally there will be "explosive" tweets with more than one million views. This traffic is believed to be enough to maintain the top echelon of this track.
9GAG official website has placed the entrance to Memeland and Potatoz in a prominent position at the top
Now that the traffic is available, as 9GAG's operating strategy gradually embraces Web3 and the creator economy, it is only a matter of time before the traffic is gradually diverted to Memeland. Currently, the 9GAG official website has placed the entrances to Memeland and Potatoz in a prominent position at the top.
Using the "self-propagation effect" of Meme is another killer feature of Memeland. On the one hand, the predecessor of 9GAG was a platform specializing in meme culture, and it became a giant by virtue of this; on the other hand, we have to admit that Web3 and the crypto world are largely driven by Meme. There are Shib and Doge Coin in FT, and there are countless projects that have risen with the help of Meme in the NFT market. Mfer, goblintown and other projects have been popular for a while with the power of Meme. Memeland has also launched many Meme creation activities in its daily operations. Many players participating in the NFT market are a generation that grew up with the Internet. Meme culture, comedy culture, and content creation are commonplace, which can easily cause spiritual resonance and promote the "positive flywheel" of the entire project.
Backed by professional consultants and investors
Memeland has a strong lineup of consultants/investors, including VeeFriends founder Gary Vaynerchuk, Moonbirds founder Kevin Rose, Kaiju Kingz founder Nathan, KOL Keung and other well-known names in the NFT industry. Professional consultants and investors can ensure the survival of the project on the one hand, and Memeland, as a project in continuous development, is relatively a newcomer to this market. Faced with the volatile and ever-changing NFT market, NFT OGs who have been in a Degen state for a long time can perceive market changes at critical moments, and their opinions can escort the development of the project.
Why did 9GAG enter Web3? It’s time, luck, and fate
In the era of self-media, giants compete for supremacy, and 9GAG survives in the cracks
Short videos can’t even adjust the progress
When you have experienced 9GAG's website and APP, you will have the illusion of traveling back to a portal website 10 years ago. Compared with Instagram, TikTok and other platforms that young people like most nowadays, it has to be said that 9GAG has gaps in content, UI, recommendation algorithms and other aspects.
In terms of business, 9GAG is almost a content carrier, while Instagram and TikTok are content + social, which creates a "network effect": the more users a product has, the greater the value of this product to users, and it can attract more users to use this product, so social products have the characteristics of "natural monopoly". It can be seen that network effects usually lead to the strong becoming stronger, and finally lead to oligopoly or winner-takes-all. In this situation, on the one hand, 9GAG does not produce high-quality content and lags behind other high-quality content platforms; on the other hand, the social attributes of competitors rely on "natural monopoly" to further erode 9GAG's market.
In an interview with "University Line" in April 2022, we can also see that 9GAG is in crisis. The article describes it like this:
"At the beginning of 2020, the epidemic was about to hit. Chen Zhancheng realized the huge risks it might bring to the business, so he prepared for it. At a general meeting of 9GAG, he used the "cash runaway" scenario to calculate how long 9GAG could survive without any cash inflow based on the company's existing assets. He said: "If costs are reduced, we can continue for five years. If costs are maintained, it can only last for a very short period of time..."
The epidemic has had a negative impact on the economy, further squeezing 9GAG's operating space. 9GAG may not be able to further profit from advertising fees and PRO membership fees to achieve a balance between income and expenditure. It is on the decline in the competition among giants in the era of self-media, and it urgently needs to transform.
Web3 Creator Economy——9GAG’s New Opportunity for a “Back-to-Back Battle”
The platform-centric, advertising-driven attention economy may have won the Web2 era, creating many content giants, but its victory is not inevitable or final. The creator economy of Web3 is promoting a revolution under the constraints of the "Code is Law" of smart contracts, which changes the ownership. Creators want to own the platforms they create and have voting rights, rather than being continuously "exploited" by the platforms and taking all the benefits.
In a report, investment bank Goldman Sachs considered the "creator economy" in which individual creators monetize their content an important trend in the Web3 era.
Goldman Sachs lists the “creator economy” as one of the key features of Web 3.0
9GAG will test the Web3 creator economy through Memeland. NFTs such as MVP, Potatoz, and Captainz, combined with $MEME's complete token system, may try to reshape the creator economy, change the value ownership of individual creators, and capture the delivery medium. With the advantages of Web2 traffic, Web3's support for Meme culture, and unlike other giants that are too big to be lost, these factors are combined, and 9GAG, which is "fighting a desperate battle", is actually a pioneer in the front.
Conclusion
9GAG CEO entertains the host in a podcast
9GAG CEO said: "On the one hand, we have to work hard to tell good stories and deliver good products to a group of people with high expectations. On the other hand, our Twitter posts tweets every day to communicate with holders and reward loyal people." In addition to the resources, traffic advantages, and Meme culture of the original platform, in terms of quality, as long as you have listened to or watched 9GAG CEO's Twitter Space, interviews, and podcasts, it is difficult not to be infected by his sincere, humble, and humorous personality charm.
Memeland has witnessed the collapse of Luna and FTX in the past year. It has tried to survive in the bear market. The most important thing is to "stay alive". Although the "micro-innovation" operation strategy of this team is safe, it is also questioned for its lack of innovation. The flaws do not outweigh the merits. If Memeland can transform 9GAG's 200 million platform users into new traffic for Web3 in this era of "traffic is king" and "content is king", it may benefit the entire NFT market and even the crypto world. At the same time, it will also be a great migration of the meme empire.
9GAG's slogan is "Make the world happier". Indeed, happiness is the greatest common factor of mankind, and it is also in the crypto world. With the Meme culture, will Memeland spread the Web3 spirit from Hong Kong to the world? I believe the answer is not far away.