AAG Company Update Q3 2023
Hi. It’s Jack Vinijtrongjit, CEO and co-founder of AAG. Welcome to our Q3 business update, reflecting the latest developments from the three months spanning July, August, and September 2023.
AAG started with a dream about the paradigm-shifting potential of Web3. This year, against the backdrop of a continually challenging macroeconomic climate, it has nonetheless proven extremely gratifying to witness (and play a part in) the continuing rise and popularity of this next evolution of the internet. The vision of a decentralized web, built on blockchain technology, has the potential to enable greater transparency, security, and control for users around the globe. This year we’ve already seen significant growth in Web3 applications and platforms, paving the way for seismic digital transformations of industries ranging from finance to healthcare to entertainment. By eliminating intermediaries and empowering users to have ownership and control over their data, Web3 is reshaping the way we interact and transact online. And things are just getting started!
I couldn’t be more proud of the work AAG has done to play a part in this revolution during Q3. We’ve had a slew of exciting developments, which I’m proud to share with you in this business update. Let’s dive in!
MetaOne Wallet
AAG’s MetaOne wallet enjoyed an excellent three months, both qualitatively and quantitatively. In terms of new features, we have focused on adding feature sets to drive enterprise and consumer usability (in-app swap, multi-tab support, support for eight languages, improved account creation/onboarding flow, and support for new blockchains Optimism, Dogecoin, and Bitcoin Cash), features for building engagement and utility (in the form of MetaOne Tier Benefits, Benefits Claiming, in app notifications, and TomoOne NFT claiming), and features for supporting additional growth (Marketing Referral Codes).
Cumulative users for MetaOne more than doubled over Q3, with cumulative user growth figures for the year to date being upward of 6x those using MetaOne at the start of the year. All five of AAG’s best ever days in terms of number of users logging in to the MetaOne wallet took place over the past quarter. In our strongest month of the quarter, August, MetaOne attracted more than 13,000 new users.
This is consistent with our marketing efforts being targeted on the SE Asia region, since all are fast-growing markets for Web3 technologies. Looking forward to Q4, we expect exponential growth due to partnerships in progress, while we expect that the virtuous cycle of new features and a growing user base will continue driving growth. Upcoming releases will support additional blockchains in the form of other Bitcoin derivative blockchains, Ripple, Stellar, Cardano, TRON, and Solana. We are additionally adding support for more languages beginning with the German and Dutch languages, opening up MetaOne to more than 100 million native speakers worldwide.
MetaOne Embeddable SDK
MetaOne SDK went live at the end of Q3. The SDK, a landmark development for AAG, enables businesses to enable and experiment in the Web 3 space with low cost, short time-to-market, and minimal disruption to existing operations. With MetaOne SDK, developers can enable any mobile application to support full-featured crypto wallet functionalities. All features that can be found on the standard MetaOne Wallet are available out-of-the-box. Its seedless architecture with single sign-on enables a smooth, frictionless user journey, while comprehensive UI components can be used across any dApp reducing development time and cost. Finally, we continue to emphasise our approach to security (something AAG is well-known for) minimizes hacks and scams due to user and system vulnerabilities.
MetaOne SDK currently supports React Native, Flutter, iOS, and Android. We are also looking to officially support Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot in the near future (can already be done using our iOS and Android SDK).
MetaOne SDK’s flexible approach enables the gamut of utility and enterprise demand from the simple enabling of NFTs, bridging online and offline (using MetaOne ZK) to implementing a fully enabled custom wallet with all the features of the MetaOne Wallet. We expect the SDK to empower a range of companies to enable and simplify Web3 interactions.
Saakuru Blockchain
In Q3, Saakuru Blockchain experienced an exponential growth in terms of active wallets with assets and daily activities. Three more games (Bandai Namco’s Ryuzo, Sing Sing, and TomoOne) went live on mainnet, racking up 50k+ users within the first two weeks alone (106k users total as of the start of October.) We have a healthy pipeline of games in the works, with at least four titles planned to go live in Q4.
Because of the gas-fee-less nature of Saakuru, coupled with the strong gaming focus of the Oasys ecosystem, we have attracted many games that have either extended their ecosystem or fully converted from popular networks such as Solana, Polygon, GOGA, BNB Chain, and ZKSync.
We have also attracted many non-game projects, especially in the CRM and identity space. These are scenarios in which the majority of users are current Web2 users, and expecting users to deal with gas fees is unreasonable — and account abstraction only puts an additional burden on the business, particularly when there is an expectation of high transaction volumes.
We are currently projecting 500k-1m users by the end of 2023. We foresee significant growth coming from South Asia, as well as East Asia, as we work with our partners to enter markets including India and Japan.
TomoOne
AAG’s newest major consumer product launch, TomoOne, is our NFT-based game designed to educate MetaOne users about the possibilities of Web3 while providing a fun and interactive experience. Taking the form of a virtual animal companion (the name “Tomo” means “friend” in Japanese), TomoOne boasts stats for areas including happiness, charisma, strength, agility, and spirituality — encouraging users to participate in activities ranging from games to meditation and mindfulness-related products to social platforms. As such, it’s a great way of driving engagement across a range of platforms — both AAG’s and also those of our partners.
To that end, one major product update for TomoOne this quarter was AAG’s decision to open up TomoOne to third-party applications, via the TomoOne API. Once integrated, these third-party apps can introduce novel use-cases associated with AAG’s virtual pet-raising experience. SingSing, a Sing-to-Earn karaoke application that launched on Saakuru Blockchain, was the first application to utilize TomoOne API for gamification.
While it’s still early days for TomoOne (this was the first full quarter in which it was available, making it impossible to compare performance to previous quarters), every indicator we have suggests that our goals with TomoOne are being fulfilled. We expect this to become an ever-greater part of our product suite.
Enterprise-Focused Business Development
An Enterprise focused business development strategy is perhaps the most significant shift at AAG in Q3. From the beginning, we knew that focusing on the enterprise side was an essential component of our value proposition. This move allows us to acquire a significant number of users quickly, and at the same time create and refine more predictable revenue streams. As part of the enterprise focus, we now have a team of 12 people at AAG dedicated to actively sourcing deals — with four people dedicated exclusively to business development. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of deals, both in terms of quantity of deals and deal size.
The total addressable deals in our pipeline currently exceeds 100m users across the 10+ verticals we are working in. When narrowed down to deals with a chance of 50% and greater, we have 21 deals and an estimate of almost 2m addressable users.
Our strategy — based on the prediction that CRM, identity, certification, and gaming will lead enterprise companies to adopt Web3 — has also paid off as we are seeing the majority of our deals touching these areas. We are now in the position to utilize our extensive range of product offerings to create solutions specifically tailored for each use case. Our goal is to minimize time-to-market, the cost for development, and the impact to existing business models so that more businesses are willing to experiment and benefit from what Web3 can provide.
Here are some of the use cases we are currently engaged in:
- CEX: Exchanges use our MetaOne SDK to contain their users within the same ecosystem instead of having them transfer assets to an external non-custodial wallet. With MetaOne dApp Store and built-in in-app browser, users can access dApps within the exchange application while exchange operators can better understand users’ behaviors and tailor personalized experiences for them.
- Retail: A mall with 100+ branches is looking to use a fresh take on CRM because their existing loyalty program failed to attract customers to physically spend more time and shop at the mall. With our TomoOne gamification layer, along with our rule engine, customers can be incentivized to spend more time at the mall and participate in various activities.
- Government: We are working on a deal that is aiming to replace national ID with a Web3-based solution for one of the world’s largest countries. Our unique software stack doesn’t simply allow the government to issue the ID, but can also help to manage how the ID can be used without violating the privacy of the ID holders.
We will share more details on the use cases on our AAG website as we develop solutions for them. The goal is to help educate businesses and help them understand the future impact of Web3 and how they can potentially go about adopting it.
Other notable updates from the quarter
AAG’s marketing efforts greatly expanded: During the quarter we hosted two live events in the Philippines — including an event held in partnership with Sven Group (https://thecurrent.world/), one of the largest Marketing Agencies in PH, attended by brands such as Unilever, Philippine Airlines and the largest mall in PH — SM Supermalls. The event was streamed globally online, watched by 2K+ viewers. AAG also launched its first episode of a webcast called Pocket Aces, began running paid ads on Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter to reach 3M+ unique users, and overhauled our SEO efforts — focusing on long tail keywords with high search volume and low competition focused on the APAC region. We additionally attended Token 2049 and shot content with Jack and team, alongside appearing on multiple conference discussion panels, and more.
- AAG Community and AAG eSport have been gaining momentum: We currently have the largest number of scholars for games such as Genopets. AAG Community has been a great lead acquisition for us as game studios have approached us to collaborate and better understand how we can help streamline their development process with MetaOne SDK, as well as how hosting their games on Saakuru Blockchain can provide a superior experience for their users. We are looking to expand to around 1,000 scholars, while also completing 100+ tournaments by the end of 2023.
- AAG continues its focus on building utility for both blockchain and cryptocurrencies: A focus area for AAG is to build a sustainable, transparent and open ecosystem which brings clear and strong utility. As AAG continues to explore partnerships and new business opportunities, we expect the AAG Token to play a key role in that future.
Next Phase: Activating Web2 Users
In the past three quarters, we have been focusing on educating and creating the experience and usability that Web2 users are accustomed to. Collectively using our products, we have been able to provide a concierge approach to guide our users through their Web3 journey.
However, there are still very few reasons why a Web2 person would engage in Web3. We are looking to change that with our new product set to be launched in Q4. We believe that if users are able to receive crypto simply by participating in their daily activities, they will be more likely to be open to explore. This is especially important in certain regions where people have less spending power, such as in SE Asia. We are incredibly excited about this so please keep an eye out for the announcement.
Where We Need Help
Although we have an incredible pipeline of opportunities, there is certainly room for more. If you know of any companies that may be interested in utilizing our products to streamline their business, please let us know. Here are the type of companies we are especially interested in:
- Game studios looking to deploy on a blockchain and/or looking to improve the user experience for their users
- Centralized exchanges looking to beat the “not your key, not your crypto” trend
- Governments that are looking to revamp their national ID
- Retail businesses that are looking to explore Web3-based CRM
- Academic institutions that are looking to provide Web3 learning opportunities for their students
- Any companies that can utilize gamification to increase engagement for their businesses
- Non-profit organizations seeking to generate additional revenue/donation from their existing members
- Event organizers who are aiming to reduce fraud in the secondary market while providing a more connected experience for their audience
Thanks again for your support over the past quarter. We’re building tools that we are incredibly proud of, and firmly believe will form an important part of the growing Web3 industry. With the Web3 market predicted to reach USD $81.9 billion in value over the next decade, this is an enormous market opportunity, and one we are well-placed to benefit from. As ever, follow us on our Social Media Channels to keep up to date with the work that we are doing.
We can’t wait to share with you what we have planned over the next quarter! Keep watching this space…
