On the evening of November 1, Memeland co-founder and 9GAG CEO Ray Chan visited the Binance Chinese community and shared the latest information about the Memeland project. The following is a collection of content shared this time!

team introduction

Ray Chen graduated from the Law Department of the University of Hong Kong. He is the CEO and founder of Memeland and the CEO and co-founder of 9GAG. Ray Chen and his partners established the international cross-platform creative community 9GAG in 2008 with the goal of "making the world happier", allowing users to easily share new and interesting content and meet like-minded friends.

Project Introduction

9GAG is a Fortune 500 website backed by companies such as Y Combinator. 9GAG has a monthly audience of more than 200 million people, including more than 58 million Instagram fans, more than 41 million Facebook fans, more than 17 million Twitter fans and more than 4 million Douyin fans. Its team has been developing community-based products for more than 15 years, working with hundreds of brands, thousands of creators and tens of millions of fans. Ray Chen and his partners founded Web3 creative studio Memeland in 2022. MEME is a social network meme currency. Memeland focuses on SocialFi and the creator economy, aiming to connect creators and communities through NFT, tokens and products. . So far, a total of 3 NFT series have been launched, including You The Real MVP, The Captainz and The Potatoz. In just one year, it has caught up and became the number one NFT project in Asia, ranking among the top five in the world in terms of market value.

Q1. Why is it called Memecoin?

Ray Chan: 9GAG is a platform for sharing memes. When drinking water, think of the source. Our project is called Memeland, and the currency is of course called Meme. Also, 15 years ago, when no one knew what Meme was, we started sharing Meme. Because we really love Meme, and the most important thing in life is to never forget your original intention, so of course the currency we issued was called Memecoin.

Q2. What are the advantages of MEME?

Ray Chan: The advantage is me😂, of course I’m just joking. Looking at many web3 projects, it is often said that web2 and web3 should be connected. However, most teams actually do not have much operational experience and no vision. When the economic market is down or problems arise within the team, they often end without a problem. On the other hand, many big companies also want to get a share of the web3 pie, but they often don’t know how to run a community or how to pay first, which leads to many users losing confidence in projects done by big companies. I think our advantage is The reason is that we are a team with rich community operation experience, and we are also willing to be taught with an open mind. First, understand what is blockchain? First understand what is web3 community? Just like myself, before releasing our project, I first used my personal money and spent 2,000 to 3,000 Ethereum coins to "invest" in many NFTs, so I know very well what exactly do users want? I can feel their joy and happiness because I am also a participant in one of the communities, not just the project side. I think this is what makes us different from others. Of course we are also very "greedy", but we are "Long Term Greedy". I don't know if it should be translated as "Long Term Greedy"😂. So we don’t mind giving first, working hard first, and then asking for rewards.

Q3. Could you please tell us what the vision and development focus of Memeland are?

Ray Chan: I have been making community-related products for 15 years. We are headquartered in Hong Kong, but our users come from different parts of the world. We are among the top 500 websites in the world. If our vision cannot exceed 9GAG’s achievements, What to do? After understanding the power of blockchain, I believe that blockchain and cryptocurrency can impact many major platforms. The same is true for DeFi, and I believe the same is true for SocialFi. We have been deeply involved in social media for many years and have worked with different creators. After many cooperations, we deeply understand that the current social media has many accumulated problems, so our vision is very simple, which is to use our experience and the power of blockchain to impact the current "big bull turtle". Give real power back to creators and community participants

Q4. Both 9GAG and MEMELAND focus on the community. Can you share the similarities and differences on the entrepreneurial journey? Which one is more difficult?

Ray Chan: It’s like asking me whether primary school is more difficult or middle school is more difficult. They have different difficulty levels. We are very lucky, 9GAG has a small success. Even more fortunately, Web3 is all about community and sharing is Meme. It’s like we have been preparing for 15 years just for today. As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning, so it was really hard before. Remember us When I was at Y Combinator, I slept in the same bed as other founders because we wanted to save money, but we forgot to renew the hotel lease, so we had to find the cheapest B&B nearby. That B&B was usually rented to newlyweds. , so the three of us slept on the same big round bed, it was a quiet night, and what we touched was a warm thigh, but it was not a beautiful woman! But at that time, I was younger and had to endure more hardships. I didn't mind it and could enjoy the hardships. Now that I am starting my second business, the main challenges I face are that I have less energy and I have a son. It is inevitable that I have to take care of many aspects. Fortunately, I have more experience and have a strong team to back me up, so I can get twice the result with half the effort and have a good start.

Q5. What are your views on the future of Web3? What roles do you expect MEMELAND and MEME to play in this?

Ray Chan: Even though Web3 is still dominated by hype, as long as you really invest in it and see the fundamentals clearly, you will know that web3 cannot go back. To give an example, corporate relations, we have to remit money abroad every week, and we need to collect money from each other. It takes a lot of time to fill in the company's bank account information in online banking, and it often takes three to four days for the other party to collect the money. On the blockchain, it can be completed in three to four minutes. All you need is a wallet address. Let me ask. How can we go back to the past? So I have full confidence in the blockchain, and after working in the entrepreneurial circle for many years, I understand that there must be different cycles. During the bull market, there must be many awesome projects, but during the bear market, it is when the real entrepreneurs shine. See that social media and financial markets have something in common. They are all oligopoly, the platform gets the maximum benefit, and the participants can only make small profits. We believe that web3 provides a good opportunity to impact the vested interests. We hope that MEMELAND will become the leader of SocialFi. Looking at the market, we are the only ones who have both. With the traffic of web2 and the support of web3, I believe that one of the focuses of the next bull market must be "product application" Application. Most people don't care about L1L2L3, they just want a fun, interesting and useful product. This is what we strive for.

Q6. As a project that has survived through bulls and bears, how is the development plan of the Memeland project completed at each stage? How to expand market visibility?

Ray Chan: After many years of entrepreneurship, I understand that a good entrepreneur, especially a CEO, only has three jobs: 1. Clearly explain the vision to the team. 2. Organize the best team possible. 3. Make sure there is money in the bank account to provide food, so when we started, we have always been very prudent in financial management, because we are not other ordinary teams and do not need to rely on issuing NFT to make money. We regard MEMELAND as a long-term strategic investment, so At the beginning, we were different from other projects. Other projects like to talk about roadmaps and do some paper talks that students studying business management in college would do. We understand that what we need is not a roadmap, but a direction, because the road is people. Our thesis is very simple. Cryptocurrency is used to share value, and products are used to reach millions of people. We have become a "blue chip project" in just one year. Most of them are Luck, partly because we know a little bit about it, we half-joke that we are strong, but other opponents are too bad. So on the one hand, we continue to learn what other projects have done well and are worth learning from, and on the other hand, we add our own ideas and do micro-innovation. Then we should adapt to the times, continue to listen to the voices of the community, and constantly revise our strategies in response to market conditions.

Q7. Will MEME be a pure meme coin as its name suggests, or will it actively create empowerment and uses? Among the many meme coins, which project’s business method will MEME refer to?

Ray Chan: We will refer to the methods of all projects. As long as it is good, we can learn it. As a Meme Coin, we can do almost anything you can think of, Be water, my friend. Many of them are Meme Coins. We hope to have the flexibility of Meme and a team that works hard.

Q8. How does Memeland differ from other NFT projects in terms of content and functionality? What are the future plans for Memeland? Are there any upcoming features, collaborations, or partnerships that the community can look forward to? How to get a bigger audience?

Ray Chan: The biggest difference from other projects is that we have a community of more than 200 million viewers every month. The bridge web2 & web3 we are talking about are not just words. Please look forward to the different applications we will launch soon, as well as different new cooperation projects. Many times, brands do not want to cooperate with blockchain projects. We do not have this problem because many partners have been working together for many years.

Q9. How does Memeland plan to attract and retain users in a highly competitive meme-driven market? Can you talk about Memeland’s governance model and how community members participate in decision-making?

Ray Chan: The power of Meme is community. To put it nicely, it is a community. To put it poorly, it is a mob. So you have seen many different DAOs achieving nothing. We understand the importance of the community, but we will not blindly follow the community's suggestions. The reason is that there are many voices in the community. What is the largest Exchange? Binance values ​​​​the community, but it does not mean that we only follow the direction of the community, because our 15 years of community operation experience teaches us that the real community is the most important, not just doing what the community tells you, but making decisions. We always take the interests of the community as our starting point, so we have the flexibility of Meme and the professionalism of a team.

Q10. As we all know, memeland is committed to building a web3 social platform and wants to change the current social innovation of blockchain through socialfi. First, I would like to know if memeland will have its own independent social software? The second is to know that there are many directions in social networking at present. Does memeland have a certain positioning in its social applications? The third is whether our memeland loyal holders have unique rights and interests in social platforms?

Ray Chan: MEMELAND started out in the bear market in June last year. All of our NFT projects have grown 10 times or more. Although past performance does not represent the future, I think this is a good performance chart, so please stay tuned for our future news. , I can run a website that shares funny pictures for 15 years. I don’t have any advantages, I’m just more affectionate, hardworking, and silly.

Q11: At present, Gamefi of the blockchain has been developing continuously. 9GAG has a huge user base. Memeland now has three series: mvp, potatoz and captainz. Meme token has also been launched. So has Memeland considered entering gamefi and creating the next product? Game NO.1 of a bull market?

Ray Chan: Thank you for your question. Many people have asked the same question. I like what Buffett said about the Circle of Competence. We have been deeply involved in social media for many years, so we will only continue to focus on SocialFi, but many times social and game are actually inseparable. Many product designs have something in common, so we have the opportunity to cooperate with other web2 and web3 games, but we will not publish the game ourselves. . I have many friends who make games, and they complain every day. I definitely don’t envy them. Another special thing about social media is that it can be “turned around” very quickly. If this application is not popular, it can be modified very quickly, within a few weeks. Then you can create another app until you find Product Market Fit. As the native ecological token of social media, you don’t have to worry too much about no one using the application, because you don’t need to succeed every time, you only need to have a big success once.

Q12: How does Memeland ensure the security of smart contracts deployed on its platform? Are there any mechanisms to detect and prevent potential vulnerabilities or exploits?

Ray Chan: Thank you for your question. After 15 years of business, the company is still not standing. What wins is not intelligence, but caution. The most important thing in starting a business and being a human being is to avoid Single Point of Failure. Checking once is definitely not enough, so our intelligence The contract found two leading Audit Firms in the market, and they each conducted an audit to ensure that there were no loopholes. It cost twice as much, but gained twice as much confidence.

Q13: Which aspect does Memeland focus on in terms of technology, community and marketing? Which one is more important? Ray Chan: Thank you for your question. Different stages have different importance. The biggest feature of Web3 is that doing a good job in the community is equivalent to doing a good job in marketing, because the community is our best salesman.

Q14: How do you plan to address regulatory challenges and ensure memeland complies with all applicable laws and regulations?

Ray Chan: Thank you for your question. We attach great importance to some areas that many teams do not pay attention to, because we plan in five or ten years. No one can know how the regulations will change, but we must do things legally. We are very lucky that the base is in Hong Kong. Now Hong Kong is vigorously promoting Web3, and what we do is not in a sensitive category. Social media and entertainment are relatively "safe" topics. Plus our legal counsel is the legal counsel of the Ethereum Foundation, plus our legal counsel is the legal counsel of the Ethereum Foundation.

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