JET8 Quarterly Report— Q2, 2018

The quarter in brief

As the first quarter of operation for JET8 post the J8T token generation event, April-June 2018 was defined by rapid global expansion, catalysed by the appointment of executive and operational roles, technical developments, and the establishment of the JET8 Foundation.

The appointment of Shannon Cullum as CEO saw the founders turn their attention to guiding the JET8 Foundation; whilst the appointment of Growth & Development directors for South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, plus the addition of 15 new operational staff- increased industry awareness for each region due to optimised marketing and sales capabilities.

Technical developments focused on the transition from monolith to micro-services architecture, and blockchain integrations of transactions and services- however it was the launch of APPaaS verticals that gained the most traction, with the establishment of new communities globally.

‘This quarter has seen tremendous interest from brands and organizations for our APPaaS. With each new community our footprint grows and our user base diversifies. APPaaS allows us to build communities around passion points — the more genuine and passionate the community, the more valuable it is in terms of both content and commerce.’ — Shannon Cullum CEO

Finally, the establishment of the JET8 Foundation and the appointment of two new board advisors set in motion a global advocacy campaign for decentralized engagement networks.

Campaign metrics overview

A steady focus on the development of APPaaS technology and industry outreach this quarter resulted in the recent spike in community verticals. Figures show a 72% growth in JET accounts, signifying an increase in invested users in JET8’s peer-to-peer technology. Engagement per post also spiked at an average of 35%. In total, JET8’s community of users has grown by over 18% versus the same period a year ago.

Global accessibility

This quarter JET8 advanced towards global accessibility through approaching new regions and sectors with the new APPaaS offering.

The establishment of APPaaS (application as a service)

The APPaaS is a scalable offering that entails brands and organizations white labelling JET8’s Co2Co ™ (Content to Commerce) technology. Enabling the fast and unlimited establishment of new, globally accessible, powerful peer-to-peer communities- the APPaaS can be utilized by any brand, individual, or organization.

Currently, 6 verticals are being targeted for APPaaS uptake: Sports, Music Festivals, Film & TV, NGO’s, Universities, and Cities. To date, 23 communities have been established.

As more communities are established, influencer numbers grow, the variety and value of product availability in the JET8 Shop increases, and JETS transaction opportunities rise with increased retail connectivity.

J8T listings

With significant impact for the global accessibility of JET8’s offerings, the J8T token, generated in March 2018, was listed on both the Bancor Network & Kucoin.

New business

Global retail overview

From Head of Retail- Ridzuan Atmaza

Retail is focused on the establishment of new communities, and rapid expansion into current and new markets.

To this end, this quarter we introduced digital vouchers into retail stores, and the option of discount codes as redemption rewards. E-commerce vouchers are expected to roll out soon, with multiple verticals showing interest, including the fashion, travel, and electronics sectors.

Efforts are also being made to increase the number of brick and mortar stores; whilst discussions with digital partners in the Transport sector are looking to make rides available as a redemption option in-app.

Retail overview

• New retailers: ShopRite, Checkers and Spur Restaurants.
• The number of retail outlets accepting JETS grew to over 15,000.

Growth & Development

Philippines

From the Growth & Development Director for the Philippines- John Galang

JET8 is gaining traction in the Philippines with major telecommunication companies, as well as one of the nation’s leading airlines.

Numerous proposals have been lodged with gaming groups in a bid to corner the gaming community with our APPaaS.

A number of national sports teams have been pitched to by the JET8 Foundation, with expectations of considerable growth due to their extensive fan base.

Other verticals such as Cosmetics are being approached, with a global beauty care brand planning a pilot with JET8 in August; as are Financial verticals, such as those looking to offer micro-insurance to users.

In an exciting recent development, partnership interest has been floated by a new tokenized taxi service app. Competing with Grab, the new app aims to become the leading transportation app service in the Philippines.

Food & Restaurant verticals remain strong, with a global fast food chain preparing for its second campaign; and another chain consisting of over 8 popular restaurant brands across the Philippines in the second round of discussions with JET8.

Retail verticals are targeting the largest shopping mall chain in the Philippines, present in every highly populated city in the country.

The three biggest universities in the Philippines, the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, and Ateneo de Manila University have each successfully launched their apps with students and alumni, with brands expected to utilize this new platform shortly.

Across other sectors, a number of brands are being approached including theme parks, snack manufacturers, beverage producers, banks, and insurance companies.

South Africa

From Head of Growth & Development for South Africa- Gerjo Hoffman

South Africa is proving to be a gateway for JET8’s expansion into Africa, with particular interest being shown in the APPaaS offering. Financial solutions brands and beverage producers have shown considerable interest, while one of South Africa’s premier telecommunications companies is in the final stage of contracting.

Testing has begun for a new model allowing third parties to build and on-sell app communities. The first communities to take up the new model include South African app AfriSelfie; SA Taxi’s forthcoming application; and the SA community app Madiba Moments, which is driven by tech influencers and promising to yield even greater reach.

Team growth

This quarter saw rapid team growth, and the appointment of 24 new roles globally.

Growth and Development Directors

• Gerjo Hoffmann (Africa): former Chief Innovation Officer for Tencent Africa, responsible for launching applications WeChat, JOOX and VOOV, as well as numerous other multiple print media, ecommerce and mobile applications in Africa.
• Marthin Romero (Indonesia): Senior roles within the media landscap, including multi-nationals MTV Indonesia, Astro TV, MNC Group, Viva Group, Ogilvy Indonesia, IMD Group, and Adstream Asia.
• Nissorn Ratanawijarn (Thailand): Over 20 years in marketing and advertising, including positions at Thailand’s leading radio station, Click Radio, and at Ogilvy & Mather BKK / Enterprise IG.
• John Galang (Philippines): 15 plus years in digital marketing for brands in both the U.S. and Philippines such as Yahoo, Komli Networks, and AdParlor.

Retail

• Ridzuan Atmaza, Head of Retail: Affiliate marketing and e-commerce expert, previous roles with Expedia, RedMart, Lazada, Zalora and Ensogo.

Operations, Admin, & Finance

• Den Marie Balingit, Head of Operations for the Philippines, established a 24/7 Help Desk team of 8 monitors, ensuring communication capability meets global demand. Whilst the Help Desk and comprehensive Monitoring have always been core product features, this upgrade reflects the growing requirements of the rapidly developing ecosystem.
• Rachel Lee, Financial Controller: With 10 years of accounting, holding a notable position at Deloitte (one of the Singapore ‘Big 4’) for the last 3 and half years, including work for Pfizer Pte Ltd and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

Development

• 1 DevOps Engineer
• 2 iOS developers
• 2 Android developers
• 1 QA

Communications & Creative Department

• Zaya Pono, Communications Director: Joining from iflix, where she was Regional PR & Communications Manager for 13 markets across APAC. Previous positions were held with McCann Worldgroup and Melco Crown Entertainment.
• Trisha Kuek, Social Media Manager: Formerly of Lazada.
• Genevieve Yip, Designer: With prior positions within design studio Couple Creative, and companies Shophouse & Co. and Supermarket Creatives.

Executive Team

• Shannon Cullum, CEO: Cullum joined JET8 as the company’s Global CMO, bringing with him over 20 years in the marketing & communications industry, eight of which were spent as country CEO for major multinational agency networks including CEO for Saatchi & Saatchi in Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore, and most recently CEO of MullenLowe in Singapore and Vietnam. He has held executive roles in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and across multiple markets in Asia, while working closely with some of JET8’s largest clients, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and The Coca-Cola Company.

The JET8 Foundation

To aid in the development and promotion of decentralized engagement networks, major headway has been made by the JET8 Foundation, including joining the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the world’s largest open source blockchain initiative.

The first two advisors to the JET8 Foundation Board were also announced this quarter. Julius Wiedemann, senior editor for design and pop culture at TASCHEN Publishing House was announced on the 21st of June; and Joelle Macoin, ex-FIFA sports marketing veteran, announced on the 5th of July.

Both advisors are renowned figures in their respective industries, placing them in unique positions of influence and access.

Technical developments

After the successful token generation event, the development team focused all efforts on blockchain migration of services, architecture migration from monolithic to micro-services, and system optimization for improved scalability.

J8T Token

• Bounty App Program airdrop distribution completed.
• J8T presale bonus distribution completed.

Server/Services Infrastructure

• Added the J8T equivalence from the JET Points in the users’ wallets.
• Migration from monolithic to micro-services architecture completed, with the aim of making all services independent & interconnected, including: API, Data Processor, Wallet & Shop.

Metrics & Reports

• Significant improvements on the performance of the live report for time ranges over 3 months.

APPaaS

• Updated FB content sharing policy, effective by end of July, to give users more control over the content they generate and help increase the engagement and content quality. Flow also available for Instagram & Twitter.
• jet8.app sub-domains set up to be automatically assigned to all app verticals.
• Community Builder improvements were made, including increased scalability & customization.
• Auto-publishing to Google Play on Android set up. The platform is currently adding 5 new apps per week, set to increase to 50 per week by the end of the year with upcoming improvements.
• Community App Store updated to help users discover new and relevant communities hassle-free and with ease.
• Asset marketplace improvements for scalability, including addition of animated frames added to the list of asset types available.
• Migration from APNGKit to AImage library, ensuring better APNG decoding performance and correct and consistent animation rendering.
• In order to focus on more active publication targets and offer better user experience, we will deprecate Tumblr publishing on August 1st. System-level sharing to Tumblr will still be available for legacy users.
• Rear camera support implemented, a small but very relevant change for communities.

User Data Exchange Protocol

• UDEP SDK transitioned to a modular system that improves user and brand options for data exchange, not limiting the interaction to product redemptions at a retail store.

GDP compliance

• Adaption of privacy texts for more transparency.

Future growth

• Continued expansion and entry into new markets via APPaaS, including African expansion out of South Africa, and Myanmar expansion out of Thailand.
• The implementation of dedicated sales teams in new geographies (LATAM, NA, EMEA, etc.) as communities are established.
• Growth of the JET8 Foundation with new Director appointments covering key verticals.
• Continued development of the JET8 central team with an emphasis on building out strategy and communication capabilities.
• Continued retail development with an emphasis on global partners and digital vendors.

Words from the JET8 Foundation Board Chairman

The overwhelming enthusiasm for the APPaaS offering really cemented our belief in the potential of white-labelled apps to connect people all over the world, as well as in local communities. In our new roles as board directors, we’re excited that we can focus all our attention on communicating the value of these decentralized networks, and the technology behind them. — Victor Zabrockis.

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