#Convergence: Media, Culture & Fintech

[Music] hello everyone thank you for joining us and I'd like to thank our MC for the nice introduction but I'm just going to give a little more in-depth introduction into our panelists very inspiring individuals in their own right just so you can give some context to our speakers today and uh their very insightful thoughts on today's topic so I'll start with Aman here in the very monopolized world of social media Aman decided to create a social network called Vero which launched in 2015 and up till today it's got over about 6.5 million users and what I've noticed Ian talking about when it comes to ver which is very interesting is the focus is not so much on the software and feature features that's very much there but content creators are very much at the heart of uh Viro and he's got a very interesting strategy about how uh he's planning to go about that soon which we'll talk about very uh in a little bit our next panelist I don't know if I need to introduce him but I will anyway Mr Casper Lee Casper Lee was a YouTube sensation uh over a decade ago he had started with millions of followers he went from being a YouTube Star to becoming a Serial entrepreneur and investor and Casper has now is now the co-founder of a Global influencer Marketing business and he's also the co-founder of a venture capital firm uh Creator Ventures our next panelist Henry is the CEO of weade and basically everyone Henry built a gaming Empire on blockchain technology so basically the game Legend of Mir features a play and earn concept and any Gamers here know the play and earn concept very well but what me weade has done is that this play and earn concept is on we made's own blockchain platform called weix and just to give you an idea in just a few months after they announced this they garnered 6.5 million active monthly users on the platform so we have a great mix of panelists here who are going to discuss media culture and fintech and we will be discussing how millions of audiences of content creators can be turned into uh business so Iman I'm going to start with you here we're talking about business Vero is a adree and a free app and you have constantly said that the creators are at the heart of of uh the vo app but what I wanted to ask you is since the app is free and it's adree how do you monetize on that to make sure that your business has enough Revenue to be uh self- sustaining yeah so uh since day one we've said that um the app will be a subscription app so our our main business model is subscription we haven't turned subscription on yet um we plan on doing so uh in two in 2024 more and we're linking it with this uh big move that we've made recently uh which is uh buying our own Stock Exchange so we've we've purchased our own um stock exchange for tokenized Securities and we plan on allowing content creators to gain access to the equity of our platform because ultimately they're the ones that bring the most value to the platform users uh the community our customers bring the revenue to our platform and so we want to reward them by giving them access to the equity in the platform um since 2015 I have been funding the company in order to make sure that we stay true to the original premise which is to create an alternative social platform that isn't based on the attention economy that isn't based on ads we're not working for a third party we're working for our users who are ultimately our customers whether they're paying or not Casper you've been on both sides of the coin and Aman is talking about Equity here when you were a content creator over a decade ago do you wish that you had this option are you convinced by this strategy that I was talking about I mean Equity um is very helpful for building long-term wealth and a sustainable business so I think you know as a Creator I didn't actually started in 2010 knowing that there would even be money in this industry I did it because I just love making content and I think that's how a lot of creators start but over time they realize um that there is a certain lifespan of a Creator and you you know certain creators can make a lot of money from doing brand deals a lot of m a lot of creators can make a lot of money doing subscription Based Services um but what a lot of people and creators today are inspired by from previous celebrities people like 50 Cent who invested in vitamin water or got equity in it for doing something um or seeing what Kim Kardashian has done with like skims and so on I think a lot of creators today if you look on their Instagram profiles they're a co-founder of something yes um it's almost you know you you're not a Creator until you're a co-founder and what I love about uh what amon's doing is um that he's allowing their audiences to become shareholders in their ideas yeah and how how do you think that millions of audiences because content creators have millions of followers how do you think since you've been on both side of things now with your um influencer.com company helping these creators how do you help them monetize on that so yeah we help at.com we help creators monetize by working with Brands um but you know creators don't only monetize through that they also monetize through subscription and um uh they can also monetize through building their own businesses which is what I think uh you're going to be able to help uh you know connect the audience to be able to help be part of that funding journey I I think that there'll you know there'll be always be a difference between a professional investor who's investing in a startup and an audience member who's just a big fan and wants to own a little bit of that startup but I think both have an exciting place in the ecosystem okay and Henry this is an interesting side of the conversation here because if we're talking monetizing the um Global gaming Market this year is at over $250 billion uh in value but to me and correct me if I'm wrong here I feel like the culture and the The Gamers themselves are what make this industry uh so successful you have all over the world about 3.

2 billion people play games um so when you uh started we made and legend of Mir the game were you sort of banking on this culture of Gamers or were you more on the software side of things to make this a successful company and game oh yeah uh monetization is uh one of the core fundamental and basic elements in gaming uh every Gamers uh can buy items from from game developers and they they buy and sell game items with each other so every game has in their economy in their games but traditional games the monetization and the economy is within the game it is contained in the game but by blockchain technology the ingame economy can be extended to the real economic value you mentioned the midle four midle four is we launch it the game in 2021 two years ago it is the most successful blockchain game ever it earns $20 million per month its uh registered users is around 100 million users uh it it can be made the huge success by combining blockchain technology and tokenization into the game to extend the boundaries of game economies to the real real value and did you feel that the gamer community that is playing this game really reacted to this technology did you see a difference in your uh revenues and amounts of users sure sure uh m is a traditional Korean MMO RPG based on the uh Korean tradition so so many countries uh they don't understand the this culture but they respond to the blockchain technology and toomics we we we we conclude that so uh but by combining technology and to toomics gaming games can be more enjoyable and we're talking technology here a man you mentioned using web 3 enabled Stock Exchange tell us more about how this helps Viro and how you came up with that well a stock exchange uh essentially is always a Walled Garden when you have uh Securities traded on a on a particular exchange those Securities remain on that exchange but what we three allows you to do is add a layer of um being able to prove your ownership which then leads to things like utility that you can add to that ownership and uh so imagine a situation where you own um let's say one share in something and that affords you uh a thank you from the the issuer or or uh the gaming company Etc but if you own a hundred or a thousand shares and you can prove that you can start to unlock different uh utility according to the the circumstances and what web 3 allows you to do is make that um that ownership and the proof of ownership portable outside of the platform so when you own a a an asset within one uh platform web3 enables that portability outside in other venues whether physical or digital and in the case of the stock exchange which remains a separate company although we bought it um and it's it's been acquired by Vero it is um a regulated exchange and so the the interface between that regulated exchange and Vero itself the social network will be using web 3 so using the wallet so it's very similar to what Henry was saying there's an in-game economy Absol in your case in platform let's call it and then you're giving away to see this in the real world see this Revenue in the real world is that you're saying it's a it's a protocol that then let's say one day you could own uh shares in a football team for example on our tokenized exchange you can interface with that football team on Vero the social network but you can also load up your wallet go on a website of that football team and have access to an experience there yeah go to the stadium have uh unlock whether it's um you know a discount or something else on uh in that Stadium so web 3 is a technology that we really believe in because it it allows for this portability of that ownership that then can unlock utility in other places and Casper I want your inputs here because you know you have platforms like YouTube like Instagram like Facebook they've been around for a while and maybe haven't had this strategy per se it's pretty new I think you would be the first who would um execute that but they have been successful in their own right and you have found success on those platforms so do you think with what aan is saying and we can tie it into what uh Henry was saying that this will um motivate content creators to them move to these platforms will it make them more successful over the success that we're already seeing from them is that enough yeah so I think I think those original platforms um are a place creators go to not because they just like The Branding of YouTube but because that's where the audience is and so creators will usually go to to the platforms where they can acquire Their audience and then they'll also use other platforms to help monetize that um so for example a lot of YouTubers also use patreon if you can combine those two things I think that's very powerful um Henry I want to go back to the blockchain B um how profitable has it been and explain to me more of like we can elaborate on what Amon was saying how the in-game economy works for we made and for legend of Mir and how this is translated in the real world uh the profits uh by blockchain technology and economics can be shared among the older parties first game players uh get have their ownership of the assets within the game which they make by their time and resources so they can uh trade the items with from the games to the real in the real real real world value to other games so the first profit uh was given it can be given to the gamers and second uh the blockchain technology and to toomics can make the games more enjoyable more enjoyable enjoyable games can make more more users and more users can make the companies more profitable more profits so the game developers can more profit by using the blockchain technology and third one is the platform uh as you mentioned that we are operating our own blockchain game platform called remix it is the uh number one blockchain game platform now we have the most successful blockchain game ever called midle for Global and we have the most games on our platform around 50 games and we are adding two or three games every week and as part the uh gaming platform you you you think about that Apple App Store and Google Play Store they combined revenue of the platform uh using gaming uh is over the 100 100 billion US dollars so but they are Distributing platform to distribute the games and we are a different layers platform and so we are compatible with them and at the end of the day uh if one Platform One blockchain game platform is dominant their profit or will be more than that we're talking technology here and and Casper you've always talked about that you know in yesterday's panel AI cannot replace content creators because people always want to know the story behind the person who's creating this content and Aman on your application it's all about the niche community of artists and music and you know going back to the the core of what content creator creation is about now we've spoken about monetizing and it seems that there's you know Technologies being used in that regard but are you worried that the essence of content creation you know is on the line here a little bit and as we were just speaking not any content creator can be used for you know promoting a gaming platform not any content creator can be used for you know an nft or or promoting something specific it has to be true to them themselves so just talk to us about your view on that as cont I think when we we talk about content creators we think of them as a particular type of person but it's basically just a distribution channel for all sorts of different creatives athletes professionals just Educators and so I think the the the you know certain people who are maybe there just to be super creative um and all they care about is the art of their work the whole idea of this you know talking about money so much and the monetization aspect that might not interest them but then you'll have other creators who maybe their role is literally to teach others how to create money or build money on the internet they'll love this kind of stuff so I do think it depends on on who you speak to ultimately though if if I'm going to advise someone to be you know someone says I want to become a Creator I think it's one of the most sought after jobs for young people in the world I would say that don't put money as the first reason for doing this because 99.9% of you will fail before you get to a place where you can make a lot of money but if you're do doing it for the fun you might push through that failure to a point where you can actually monetize Ian do you have a plan on voo since you're putting a strategy in place where the content creators can get Equity do you fear that they may turn into what you know Casper is saying that money is first and you know the content will be not as as good basically the the best Regulators for that are the is the audience and um fans know when they're either somebody's trying to take advantage of them or if the the Creator that they're following is is just basically looking for some way of just making money and that's it and and uh you know history has shown the successful creators uh from from the ones who maybe start off being successful and then become un successful or the ones that that don't succeed from day one I think at the end of the day what we want to what we want to do is we want to level the playing field creators are always looking at platforms uh as a means of distribution and then tacking on other means of making money they bring their own monetization strategies to the table and what we want to do is it's okay to bring you know even on Vero a sponsor to your content and that's fine uh but at the end of the day you're bringing a lot of value even on the platform itself and there is a huge difference um between the equity value and the the money that you're getting from a sponsor from AdSense all of this stuff it it pales in comparison and having access to equity I think over the long term allows you to get off of that hamster wheel you can get on it for a particular purpose but then you allow for a longer term um return for the time that you've spent on the platform and the earlier that you come on and the more nent the platform the more value you're bringing the more value you get over the long term that is the that is what we're after and I think all of the the the stuff around technology AI all of these things as long as we always keep in mind for creativity for authenticity to be in the front seat and Technology to be in the back seat because whenever we've reversed that we always find ourselves getting into trouble yeah technology should serve us we we should be in the driver's seats people with their creativity with their fans with their audience with their authenticity with whatever is the objective that should be in the front seat and Technology should be in the back seat allowing us to get there I think we can end on that note we can agree that content creation needs to be at the core of anything you do in business and it's people like you that pave the way to just have the content creators go in the right direction and make some money out of it which is always nice thank you very much everyone for following this panel very insightful I must say