Memeland Sold for $12 million in 12 Minutes: The Great Migration of 200 million Memes to the Empire

  Article:0xLaughing, rhythm BlockBeats     

Memeland's initial worldview

Memeland began 2023 as one of the hottest projects in the NFT market with the release of the latest NFT series. Throughout the project's history over the past year, there have been a number of notable milestones:

  • & have spentFlagship product MVP  In the aftermath of the Luna storm in June, the series was sold in the form of a "blind auction" at 5.3ETH.

  • The secondPotatoes Potatoz  The series took advantage of the "Free Mint market" to complete the 10k sale, witnessed the collapse of FTX, but still managed to stabilize the floor price above 1 ETH in the bear market for a long time, and even soared to more than 3 ETH recently.

•  最新的Captain Captainz  The series sold out in less than 12 minutes on the launch day, meaning the team raised more than $12 million......, despite the controversial 1.069 ETH price tag

Too many of the most famous NFT projects have been lost in the crypto world, where the slogan "under-promise, over-deliver" has become "under-promise, under-deliver". Memeland has been more impressive with each of its three launches, building a loyal community and gaining a foothold in the NFT market. This article will try to understand how 9GAG transforms from a Web2 content company to Web3 with the help of the Memeland NFT brand.

TL; DR

An overview of Memeland

•The first NFT seriesYOU THE REAL MVP"In June 2022, a total of 420 units were sold in a" blind auction "with a final price of 5.3 ETH, and the current floor price is as high as 44.4 ETH.

•"The PotatozIn July 2022, 9,999 units of the "series were released by Free Mint. The floor price soared to more than 3 ETH at one time, but now it has fallen slightly. The transaction volume in the secondary market exceeded 18,900 ETH.

•"The Captainz"Series was sold in 12 minutes in January 2023, and the team earned about 9801 ETH. This series is a total of 9,999 PFPS collection;

• Participate in "The Captainz" castings to earn Treasure Mapz, and earn Mapz with soft pledges later in the Captainz reveal stage;

• Earning Treasure Mapz requires matching Captainz and Potatoz, and MVP helps with this process;

• OfficialrevealTreasure Mapz is related to $MEME, valuable NFT, special utilities, etc.;

• Ownership of Captainz NFT can participate in the governance of the subsequent Memeland DAO and has priority access to Memecoin and Treasure Islands;

•Memeland websiteClues to the subsequent Token system, meta-universe land, creator economy, and pledge system are revealed, but there is not much information at present;

• Behind Memeland NFT9GAGFounded in 2008, it is an online entertainment content platform that mainly shares funny pictures and videos. Officials claim to have 200 million users on its official website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok and other social media;

• Strong roster of advisers/investors behind Memeland, founder of VeeFriendsGary Vaynerchuk, founder of MoonbirdsKevin Rose, founder of Kaiju KingzNathan, KOLKeungAll the well-known names in the NFT world are listed in this list.

Started with online entertainment content platform 9GAG

Chen Zhancheng (second from right), 23, started a part-time business with his younger brother Chen Zhanjun (first from right), his college roommate and two aNobii colleagues

9GAG founder Chen Zhancheng (now9gagceo) He 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. The boss of the Internet company he worked for was under 30 years old, which inspired him to start his own business. So Chen Zhancheng, 23, enlisted his younger brother, Chen Zhanjun, his college roommate and two aNobii colleagues to start a part-time business. They had previously worked on a cosmetics evaluation platform, a home appliance evaluation platform, a photo-sharing platform and an online karaoke platform, but all of them failed.

9GAG closed A $2.8 million Series A funding round

In 2011, they decided to go to the U.S. with the mindset that the best basketball players should go to the NBA and the best tech startup training should go to Silicon Valley500 StartupsAfter being asked by Google's senior product manager mentor at 500 Startups, they saw the most potential in their project 9GAG, which they started in 2008 and later made a focus of their development. They created the site as a way for Internet users to share funny pictures and videos before social platforms like Facebook became ubiquitous. The 9GAG follow-on was also favored by Y Combinator, First Round Capital, Greycroft Partners, and True Ventures, and completed A $2.8 million Series Afinancing.

9GAG has more than 58 million followers on Instagram

In the following years, 9GAG developed rapidly and became one of the most popular online entertainment communities in the world, with content covering a variety of subjects, including comedy, animation, games, movies, music, travel, sports, etc., attracting a large number of young people's attention. According to similarweb, a web research firmdataIt is shown that 9GAG is the second most visited humor website in the world in February 2022, and has excellent performance in average time per view, page count and bounce rate.

In addition, 9GAG has accumulated a large number of users on various social platforms. The number of fans is as follows:

•Instagram: 58.15 million

•Facebook: 41.88 million

•Twitter: 16.83 million

•TikTok: 2.4 million

KOLkmoneyIn an interview with 9GAG CEOpodcastsLee isn't shy about his praise for 9GAG: "I think in the last decade, whenever I think of memes or anything related to meme culture, 9GAG is always at the top of the list."

It can be seen from here that 9GAG is a top Internet Meme platform, which has huge traffic and rich experience in collaboration with creators in Web2. Chen Zhancheng, the founder of 9GAG, is a serial entrepreneur with 15 years of entrepreneurial experience and can be regarded as a pioneer in this niche field. Now it has chosen to turn the rudder and head for Web3.

From MVP, Potato to Captain, from "minimally invasive new follower" to "industry talk guy"

In April 2022, Memeland's Twitter had just launched, and itswebsite"Memeland is 9GAG's Web3 ecosystem with a mission to empower creators by connecting Web2 and Web3," it reads.

The official website also reveals Captain Captainz's PFP NFT series (even the initial memelist) and the subsequent $MEME Token system. Just like the popular trend in the NFT market at the time, Memeland has no roadmap. It is also labeled as "under-promise and over-delivery."

But Memeland changed its strategy. Instead of selling 10k items on The market, Memeland launched a small collection of 420 NFT's called "You The Real MVP" in June. Using a unique "blind auction" format, the community set the price at 5.3 ETH.

MVP is defined as a senior member of the Memeland ecosystem, which is 9GAG's way of thanking and rewarding community members. In addition, each MVP has future rights, such as two Memeland Captainz NFT drops, a white list of all future Memeland and 9GAG projects, and an MVP character in Project Discord. At present, the floor price remains high at 44.44 ETH.

In July 2022, Memeland launched another 9,999"The Potatoz"Series, catered to the popular" Free Mint "at the time, and adopted a five-stage" debunk-pleat-reward "mechanism. The image of Potatoz was revealed in five stages, requiring holders to pledge their NFT before it could evolve. In the process, Memeland also gave out a lot of rewards, such as MVP NFT, Potatoz NFT, IPhone 14, white list, and even "free McDonald's for a year" among the prizes.

Potatoz is currently defined as a basic membership of Memeland. Thanks to the launch of the latest Captain Captainz series, the Potatoz floor price peaked at over 3 ETH and has now fallen slightly, while the secondary market transaction volume exceeded 18,900 ETH.

Initial Sneak Peak of Captainz on official website

On January 5, 2023, Memeland officially launched the Captain Captainz series. The total quantity is still 9,999 and the price is 1.069E. According toOfficial announcement, there will be no public sale. Memelist, Potatoz and Waitlist holders are classified as "guaranteed Casting" or "non-guaranteed Casting" based on their respective priorities. An unconventional "split" offering was also used, in which participants deposited ETH for casting and received Captainz drops 24 hours after the offering closed.

Within 10 minutes of the launch, the official announced that more than 9,999 deposits had been received, announcing that Waitlist Casting had been terminated (the "non-guaranteed casting" described above). The "guaranteed casting" would not be affected and could be completed within 48 hours.

The release of the Captainz also sparked a Gas War, according toblocknativeThe data show that the Gas Fee during the casting period once exceeded 80e.

  Treasure Mapz   

In addition, all participants in the offering receive Treasure Mapz in proportion to the deposit amount, which is not yet NFT, so they cannot be transferred or traded at this time. It is thought that Mapz is divided into five categories related to $MEME, valuable NFT, special utility, etc. It can also be obtained by placing up to one Captainz and three Potatoz's Questing, but information is limited at present.

Through the above three series of MVP, Potato and Captain, it is not difficult to see the shadow of many projects: "Proof elite club" to Moonbirds, corresponding to MVP and potato; The potato launch of Free Mint coincided with the Goblin Free Mint trend at the time; The changes in stage 5 reveal that there are Moonrunners, "Shit Monster" and other variable NFT projects for reference at that time; Not to mention the pledge bonus, which has been used in too many projects such as early NANOPASS pledge, Moonbirds "nesting", etc.

9GAG CEO ininterviewZhong Zeng said that he had spent hundreds of ETH since January to buy NFT for various well-known projects,"Many project founders don't buy enough NFT to understand the bias as a Holder perspective."This "bias" can only be experienced after the real "skin in". In additionThey have adopted a strategy of "micro-innovation", which simply means learning from the strengths of NFT projects and building on them to do more integration and improvement. Now, the successful launch of the Captain Captainz series is also a sign of the success of this strategy. The continuous learning of the founder has enabled Memeland to innovate and progress, gradually transforming it from a follower to a speaker.

Guess the next step from the Memeland map overview

The official overview map of Memelands shows what they have to offer. Buried treasure islets, uncharted seas, giant sea monsters, pirate crews, launchers, and more. Every element of Memelands is presented in stylish and visually appealing graphic form.

Memeland Map Overview

According to the information released by the authorities through various channels, there are roughly 10 sectors in order of priority:

• & have spentMVP: Memeland is the top Pass card in the ecosystem, with the highest priority to obtain the rights and interests within the ecosystem. At the same time, it is helpful for other links in the NFT series

• & have spentCaptainz: Top membership on behalf of Memeland

• & have spentPotatoz: Basic membership into Memeland Ecology

•Treasure MapzAs the reward middleware of the subsequent pledge system, the randomness represented by the 5 types makes the operation of the subsequent pledge reward system more playable

• & have spentMemecoin: Not yet available, but officially hinted at a departure from the common NFT companion ERC20 Token system

• & have spentTreasure Islandz: Not yet available, but official hints are different from the common NFT meta-universe land system

• & have spentPetsland: Not yet available, official only revealed "pet lovers only"

• & have spentStakeland: Not yet launched, official only revealed "make cryptocurrency pledge fun"

• & have spentHolders.com: Not yet available, official only revealed "Web3 tour consultant"

• & have spentGMGM.com: Has not been launched yet, official only revealed "Web3 OnlyFans"

According to the website, MVP NFT can help with every key utility of Memeland NFT

Their relationship with each other has been confirmed by the MVP, Captainz, and Potatoz collections that have been released, according toOfficial documentIt was revealed that in addition to getting Treasure Mapz for participating in the sale, subsequent holders can get Mapz by placing up to 1 Captainz and 3 Potatoz's Questing money, MVP NFT can help with every key utility of Memeland NFT.

The process is as follows (see the Memeland map above for an illustration) :

• Max 1 Captainz + 3 Potatoz Soft Pledge (maybe with platoon mode)

• (Optional: "Turbocharged" if there is an MVP)

• Get Treasure Mapz rewards (MVP gets more rewards)

• Mapz for $MEME Token or possibly for meta Universe land Treasure Islandz)

• $MEME Token participates in the creator economy of GMGM.com

• Holders.com can provide consulting and consulting services for other NFT projects

What is Memeland's advantage?

Meme's "self-spreading effect" is the icing on the cake, with 200 million users driving traffic

In 1650, a German named Timotlitz published the first daily newspaper, The New Arrival News. Although it was only published for about three months, it was the first daily newspaper in the world. Later, it was gradually used in various countries. The appearance of newspaper changed the way people received information and promoted new ideas and culture. Before the advent of newspapers, the way people received information was mostly from person to person, the so-called "one to ten, ten to one hundred". After the emergence of newspaper, the dissemination of information changed from person-to-person to regional and scope promotion. News events are published in newspapers and can be rapidly developed regionally or nationally.

With the rise of Internet technology in the new era, the network platform of "information flow + we media" 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 come, and 9GAG naturally borrows from this trend.

Tweets on Twitter often get millions of views

The 200 million users officially claimed by 9GAG cannot be analyzed. After all, the number of tens of millions of fans on multiple social media may sometimes have moisture and overlap, but the daily view amount will not deceive, and will truly reflect the popularity of a platform. According to the daily views of 9GAG's official Twitter, it can be found that the views of ordinary tweets usually range from hundreds of thousands, and occasionally there will be more than one million "hot" tweets. This traffic volume is believed to be able to maintain the first echelon of this track.

The 9GAG website has a prominent entry to Memeland and Potatoz at the top

现在流量有了，随着 9GAG 的运营策略逐渐拥抱 Web3 和创作者经济，从其中向 Memeland 逐渐导流只是时间问题，目前9GAG websiteEntrances to Memeland and Potatoz have been placed prominently at the top.

The "self-spreading effect" of Meme is another killer card of Memeland. On the one hand, 9GAG became a behemoth from its origins as a meme-focused platform; 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 countless projects have arisen in NFT market with the help of Meme. Mfer, goblintown and other projects are the first. Memeland has also launched many activities of Meme creation in its daily operation.Many players in the NFT market have grown up with the Internet, so meme culture, comedy culture and content creation are commonplace, which is easy to arouse spiritual resonance and further promote the "positive flywheel" of the whole project..

Backed by professional advisors and investors support

Memeland has a strong roster of advisors/investors, founders of VeeFriendsGary Vaynerchuk, founder of MoonbirdsKevin Rose, founder of Kaiju KingzNathan, KOLKeungAll the well-known names in the NFT world are listed in this list. On the one hand, professional consultants and investors can ensure the "survival" of the project. On the other hand, as a project in continuous development, Memeland is relatively new in this market. Facing the changeable and unpredictable NFT market, NFT OG's in Degen state for a long time can sense market changes at critical moments, and their opinions can escort the development of the project.

Why is 9GAG going to Web3? Time also, luck also, life also

The giants in the era of we-media chase after the deer and survive in the gap with 9GAG

Short videos can't even be adjusted

When you experience the 9GAG website and APP, you will have the illusion that you have traveled to a portal 10 years ago. Compared to the current youth favorite platforms like Instagram and TikTok, 9GAG is far behind in terms of content, UI, recommendation algorithm, etc.

In terms of business, 9GAG is almost a content carrier, while Instagram and TikTok are content + social interaction, which produces "network effect" : the more users a product has, the more valuable it is to users and more users can be attracted to use it. Therefore, social products have the feature of "natural monopoly". Thus, network effects usually lead to the stronger the stronger, leading to oligopoly or winner-takes-all. In this situation, on the one hand, 9GAG does not produce quality content and lags behind other quality content platforms; On the other hand, the social attributes of competitors rely on "natural monopoly" to further erode the market of whale eating 9GAG.

In an April 2022 article in the College LineExclusive interviewYou can also see the crisis 9GAG is in, as described in the article:

"In early 2020, the epidemic was about to hit, Chen Zhancheng realized the huge risks it might bring to the operation, so she prepared for a rainy day. At a plenary meeting of 9GAG, she used the" cash runaway "scenario to calculate how long 9GAG could survive without any cash inflow based on the company's existing assets, and said: "If costs are reduced, we can do it for five years, if costs are maintained, for a very short period of time..."

The epidemic has brought negative impact on the economy, further squeezing 9GAG's business space. 9GAG May not be able to make further profit through advertising fees and PRO membership fees to achieve balance of payments, and it is going downhill in the era of we media giants. It is in urgent need of transformation.

Web3 Creator Economy - New Opportunities for 9GAG "Last Stand"

The platform-centric, ad-powered attention economy may have won the Web2 era, and thus many content giants, but its victory is not inevitable or final. The Web3 creator economy, constrained by the "Code is law" of smart contracts, is creating a revolution that changes ownership. Creators want to own the platform they created and have the right to vote, rather than be continually "exploited" by the platform.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs will evenThe "creator Economy" in which individual creators monetize through ContentAs an important trend of Web3 era.

Goldman Sachs lists the "creator economy" as one of the key features of Web 3.0

9GAG will test the water of Web3 creator economy through Memeland, MVP, Potatoz, Captainz and other NFT with the complete Token system of $MEME may be triedReshape the creator economy, change the value ownership of individual creators and capture the transmission media. Web2's traffic advantage, Web3's support for Meme culture, and unlike other giants, "The Last Stand" 9GAG is actually a forerunner.

conclusion

9GAG CEO laughs at the host of a podcast

"We're trying to tell good stories and deliver good products to a group of people with high expectations," says 9GAG CEO. "On the other hand, our Twitter feed is constantly communicating with holder with daily tweets and rewarding loyalty." In addition to the resources, traffic advantages and Meme cultural heights of the original platform, in terms of quality, as long as you have heard or watched 9GAG CEO's Twitter Space, interviews and podcasts, it is hard not to be affected by his sincere, humble and humorous personality charm.

In the past year, Memeland witnessed Luna's thunder and the collapse of FTX Tower. It tried to survive the bear market to achieve survival. The most important thing is to "survive". In this era of "traffic is king" and "content is king", if Memeland can transform the 200 million platform users of 9GAG into the new traffic of Web3, it may benefit the entire NFT market and even the crypto world, and it will also be a great migration of the meme empire.

The Slogan of 9GAG is "Make the world happier". Admittedly, happiness is the biggest common factor of human beings, even in the crypto world. Will Memeland spread the Web3 spirit from Hong Kong to the rest of the world through Meme culture? I believe the answer is not far away.

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