Hi there all,
Klaytn meets initial service partners series is back! We announced the 2nd batch of partners back on December 13th — for re-cap, go back to this post. Using the deployed Klaytn testnet, the partners work towards further strengthening Klaytn’s ecosystem by releasing their DApp services at the time of mainnet launch, and will thereby contribute to the popularization of blockchain.
Today we are introducing SPIN Protocol, a decentralized commerce ecosystem that directly connects suppliers and influencers using blockchain technology. SPIN Protocol allows suppliers to directly work with global social media influencers with no interventions or limitations on regional boundaries, products, or brands. The influencers, too, can achieve fair and clean compensation solely upon their performance with an objective proof of their market influence. SPIN Protocol aims to provide solutions for a decentralized, transparent, and fair commerce ecosystem.
We sat down with Scott Lee, the CEO of SPIN Protocol.
Klaytn: First and foremost, we are interested in knowing more about you.
Lee: I studied business administration at Wisconsin and mostly worked in Canada afterwards. My interest in beauty and cosmetics industry first piqued while I was working at KOTRA helping Korean cosmetics SMB’s to expand their businesses to North American region, during which I witnessed much difficulties and challenges. Despite the large size of Korean cosmetics market, the Korean products were little known globally because the operating companies lacked tools or resources for global marketing. Then by chance I came across Seungjae Yu, the co-founder of Womanstalk. Womanstalk is Korea’s very first video commerce platform that enables brands to meet influencers for promotional campaigns with their fashion or beauty products. Womanstalk’s partner, SPIN Protocol, was looking for somebody who could take the initiative in global marketing for Korean cosmetics industry, and I joined as CEO.
There are about 16,000 cosmetics and beauty-related companies here in Korea, and my mission is to help them expand their businesses overseas through influencer marketing — whether it be Korean influencers or local influencers — to ultimately create a transparent, fair, and wholesome ecosystem, and also increase sales, of course.
Klaytn: Can you tell us more about your blockchain service?
Lee: SPIN Protocol is a decentralized e-commerce ecosystem for social influencers. We directly connect suppliers and influencers with a goal to establish reliable ecosystem and provide transparent business environment for all participants. Our project is, in a way, a response to a number of problems that current influencer marketing holds. For example, there exists an excessive commission charged by intermediaries between suppliers and social influencers. Also, there is no systematized structure for the influencer sales performance measurement. Influencers prove their market influence only by the number of followers, likes, and comments, which, however, are easily abused and manipulated.
In efforts to provide transparent and data-driven influencer marketing, we began our blockchain-based SPIN Protocol. By eliminating intermediary intervention, influencers receive a fair share of revenue based on the agreement with suppliers through smart contract. In this way, we are making a direct connection between suppliers and influencers. The participants are also provided with credible assessment data of influencers so that any fraudulent activities such as fake followers and liking bots could be strictly controlled.
We are working closely with our strategic partner, Womanstalk, and our protocol will first be provided through Womanstalk.
Klaytn: What was the motivation behind partnering with Klaytn?
Lee: As a commerce DApp, we expect tremendous user traffic. It would thus be beneficial in many ways to work with a platform with enterprise-grade performance with focus on mass adoption and producing real use cases. In that sense, Klaytn was our ideal partner.
Klaytn is creating an ecosystem consisting of blockchain projects that already proved their success in their own businesses, and we are glad to be part of it. Our team was able to use Klaytn testnet Aspen with great stability and trust, and we also had a real easy time communicating with team Klaytn. Klaytn truly is the optimal public blockchain platform for DApps.
Klaytn: Can you tell us more about how your token economy works?
Lee: We work with our token called SPIN. First, for suppliers, they pay SPIN token when registering products on our platform. The tokens paid by suppliers are directly transferred to SPIN Ecosystem Reserve as donation. This reserve has a token reward pool to distribute SPIN tokens to each rewarding parties. The suppliers also make revenue share agreement with influencers, who make their own shops and start promotional activities through their social media. We offer data-driven revenue sharing consensus system, which suppliers and influencers can make a direct agreement on promotional product selection and revenue share ratio. The respective influencers of the deals can then receive a fair share of revenue by smart contract with suppliers.
The customers visit influencers shop and purchase products via either fiat or token, which is internally processed on protocol’s payment service and deposited in the Reserve likewise. Although the corresponding suppliers and influencers will be paid in fiat or token, we give benefits to those who prefer our SPIN token. For example, the influencers can use SPIN token towards marketing to promote their activities. All token transactions are stored on-chain, enabling the transparent recording and management of all influencer activity including sales.
Klaytn: How do you foresee the future of blockchain industry? Any words of wisdom?
Lee: We are, at the end, still at an early age, so I don’t want to sound too negative, but there are just too many mainnets and too many exchanges out there. Despite the market hype, it’s difficult to find meaningful service or use case. Our users make honest and fair judgments, and their reaction reflects the market condition. Again, we are still at an initial stage, and I look forward to seeing a kind of ecosystem that creates synergy.
SPIN Protocol’s vision is to create a transparent and fair ecosystem in which suppliers and influencers can freely interact with one another. I hope that together with other great initial service partners of Klaytn, we will be able to contribute towards driving mainstream adoption of blockchain technology.
