SynchroLife — ICO review

SynchroLife is a restaurant search and recommendation platform where food lovers are rewarded for sharing accurate information and high-quality reviews of restaurants. SynchroLife aims to create a global platform of trustworthy, accurate, up-to-date, and helpful restaurant information, as well as a personalized search and recommendation engine.
The SynchroLife app was first released for beta-testing in Japan, at which point users were rewarded not with tokens or any kind of monetary incentive, but with in-app gamification mechanisms (“experience points”, “titles”, “emblems”, etc.). Even so, and with limited personalized recommendation capabilities, over 32,000 participants joined and over 35,000 restaurants were added to the database during this period. In June 2017 SynchroLife released the first international beta version of its app for iOS and Android in four languages (English, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese) and in over 155 countries — this version is currently available on the App Store and Google Play. The company is also developing a website (set to launch first in Japan).
SynchroLife analyzes the restaurant ratings, view history, likes, pins, search history, follows, followers and other user actions within the app to provide users with personalized restaurant recommendations and search results that match their individual preferences and tastes. Recommendations and results are curated in accordance with the actions other users with similar preferences, based on a similarity score. SynchroLife restaurant reviews are based on individual ratings of 1–5 stars or a 5+ Special rating, and users can view individual ratings and read other users’ reviews. Users are also provided with a daily recommendation on the app’s home screen.
SynchroLife will soon be launching a token crowdsale for its Ethereum-based SynchroCoin to fund the continued development of its platform. SynchroCoin tokens will be used within the platform to reward users who provide accurate information, high-quality reviews, good photos, and other content about restaurants from all over the world. Users will then be able to use the tokens to buy restaurant coupons and gift cards, tip other users or even make payments at participating restaurants.
SynchroLife plans to focus its development efforts first on growing the active user base, increasing the amount and improving the accuracy of information on the platform, and developing the personalized search and recommendation engine. Once the platform has grown, SynchroLife will also focus on developing an Online-to-Offline (O2O) marketing platform for restaurants so as to include user rewards, coupons, advertisements, and payment options. This will include CRM features that enable restaurants to attract and reward target audiences. Since the plan is to build a token-based economy that allows users to pay their restaurant bill with SynchroCoin tokens, restaurants will only be charged a small percentage of these transactions as results-based compensation. Users who submitted high-quality reviews or information about the restaurant will also receive a small portion of that percentage as a reward.
SynchroLife’s revenue model is based on $3 monthly subscriptions for premium user membership (giving access to special features, discounts, and rewards), $1-$5 micropayments for coupons and gift cards sold on the platform, results-based compensation from advertising restaurants, $30-$50 monthly subscription for use of CRM tools by restaurants, general advertising revenue, and commissions from cryptocurrency payments.
Team Members
*INFORMATION TAKEN FROM COMPANY WHITEPAPER/WEBSITE
- Tomochika Kamiya — CEO — Tomochika founded his first company, AI Pacific, Ltd. in 2005 while attending Hosei University. AI Pacific built and sold Online-to-Offline mobile marketing, advertising, and FeliCa tools to over 1400 restaurants and beauty salons. In 2015, Tomochika joined one of Japan’s biggest beauty companies as CMO to lead and maximize the return on investment of their several billion yen marketing and advertising efforts. Tomochika is currently the founder and CEO of both GINKAN, Inc and SynchroLife Limited.
- Hiroshi Mita — Development Director — Graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Worked on rescue robots while at university and since graduating has been involved with the development of over 50 Android and iOS mobile apps.
- Satoru H. — Blockchain Development — During his eight years working for a mobile app and systems company in Tokyo, Satoru worked on projects for many of Japan’s major cellular carriers, supermarkets, fashion, beauty, and entertainment companies. He has a wide range of experience as an engineer, developing AR and iBeacon apps, hosting engineering events/workshops, and more.
- Shun Sato — Creative Director — Shun is currently CEO of the design firm THE APP BASE, and has a wide variety of design experience having worked in architecture before moving to IT. He’s worked on the UI and UX for over 300 different web and mobile projects.
- Laura Symborski — Chief Director — Laura has a wide variety of translation and localization experience including translating for Japan’s largest recipe site Cookpad, working to assist Japanese companies to receive patents in the United States, doing Japanese ad quality checks with ZeroChaos and more.
- Eunjin Kim — Director — Previously worked at Netmarble, Gmarket, and other major South Korean portal sites. Worked with the LG U+ cloud service and as product manager for U+ Box Shoot and their set-up box. Joined GINKAN to assist with the direction for 10-minute dating app Festar.
- Motoshi Shimizu — CFO — Keio University Business School graduate and a certified public accountant / tax accountant, Motoshi earned his public account certification while in university (the youngest to pass at that time). Experienced public share support work at a large audit corporation. Studied at Purdue University Krannert School of Management and obtained a master’s degree in business management. After returning to Japan, Motoshi joined UBS Securities Company as the investment bank division director and worked with M&A and stock underwriting. Most recently Motoshi has worked as the Chief Financial Officer for one Japan’s largest resort management companies.
*Disclosure — At the time of writing, coins.best staff owned no SynchroLife tokens.
