Don’t worry about copyright! Social Creator Platform, OGQ
The Star YouTube Creators who boasted 1 million subscribers could not escape ____?____.
(This Youtube account has been banned in real-time …recommended to open a new channel.)
Do you know what it is?
It’s called ‘Account Suspension by YouTube’.
It’s a powerful sanction to YouTuber creators against infringed copyright content and harmful content. (The two YouTubers have never been warned before and have not been informed of the violation.)
What we’re going to focus on is ‘Copyright’.
It’s a world where anyone can create and distribute content, but if they don’t understand and deal with the increasingly powerful copyright issue, they can infringe on the rights of creations or lose their copyrights without knowing it.
This is why we should pay attention to the social creator platform “OGQ”. There are 13 million creators registered in OGQ.
They may sell copyright assets content such as stickers, images, videos, music, sound, fonts, voices, and even face assets. All creation by a human.
More than 2.6 billion cumulative downloads of copyright asset content since OGQ started.
In June 2019, OGQ made a partnership with the Agency of the Korea Copyright Commission for UCI Registration of all contents. OGQ issues the proof of copyright on behalf of the Korea Government.
UCI, Universal Content Identifier, National standard identification system that assigns a unique and permanent code to digital content
This means that creators who want to protect their copyrights would upload to the OGQ platform to verify and protect their own copyright.
OGQ system tracks infringement of copyright and notifies creators with automated reports. In addition, creators can request help from lawyers around the world with one click. It also distributes when got compensation for infringement.
We met with the OGQ team, which is creating an ecosystem of global copyright content.
OGQ becomes a platform for creators
Founded in 2010, OGQ started as an application for wallpapers.
OGQ founders who have been experienced several exits including IPO to KOSDAQ and have recorded over 100M of app downloads from all over the world. It has been selected as the world’s best 8 apps, 2015, on Google Play.
In 2016, a big crisis comes. Today’s interview will start at that point. OGQ had the decisive event that led to the social creator platform.
By Jung Ji-hye: “What exactly was the crisis?”
I.T. Shin: “OGQ’s MAU (Monthly Active Users) declined gradually, and in January 2016, it has shrunk to a quarter. It was 12M MAU at the beginning and dropped to 3M MAU.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “How come? ”
I.T. Shin: “Can you guess what app was the best in 2010? It was a video app that just shows a fireplace. It’s fun. But that’s all.”
At that time, users did not care about usability much.
Then over time, after 2015, mobile users began to evaluate the quality of their apps. The meaning of “LEAN” and “Product Market Fit” has been changed dramatically.
OGQ was once at the №1 of the global app ranking for two months, but it was not enough to fulfill user expectations. OGQ was useless to users who already downloaded their needs of image contents.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “When MAU declined by a quarter, I would have thought it would not be easy to reverse. What was the choice of OGQ in that situation? ”
I.T. Shin: “I thought that in order to get our user back, we needed to be reborn from a utility app to a platform that connects creators to fans.
In the past, we curated and provided image contents to users. However, users also had a big desire to create content and show them to their fans. We’ve read emails from our users since the beginning again. We should focus on what the user wants and execute it from their perspective. They had asked for years to upload their own contents to OGQ. I thought this was our unique chance to survive. Of course, the founders had a dispute on this.
OGQ’s identity is now totally different. We chose to change OGQ to a social creator platform. In the first and second months, there were about 20,000 new registers as creators and in the third month, 300,000 creators joined. Although it was not higher than our target, we were confident enough that users are coming back to OGQ and adapting to the new concept of creator platform.
And now we’re redefining OGQ’s service as a platform for all the creative content people produce, not just images. ”
‘NAVER OGQ Market’ begins
By Jung Ji-hye: “OGQ has not been invested for a long time since the start, but it has got a strategic investment from NAVER at the end of 2017. Is it related to OGQ’s transition to a social creator platform? ”
I.T. Shin: “OGQ has expanded from a social image platform to a platform for all creators, and this growth has needed much more budget to speed up for the market penetration.
I invested $500,000 to OGQ and it wasn’t enough to cover global expansion. OGQ reached to over 200 Monthly Terra-bytes traffics, and 13M creators registered for sharing their own copyright contents.
So, we had prepared the pitch deck for finding new investors.
At first, we went to China. We thought that Silicon Valley or China could understand how to connect the global creators and fans that meet our missions, and the size of the copyright content market which both for business and for individuals. Our plan was rejected by about 30 venture capitals but found one Chinese fund who is willing to invest $10M to OGQ.
At that time, I had the opportunity to meet Sung sook-Han, the CEO of NAVER.
I asked her to acquire the ‘Grafolio Market’ of NAVER service, which was a creator market for trading images, music, and various creative content. NAVER has 27M DAU(Daily Active Users) and $27B market cap in KOSPI.
Han CEO of NAVER, listened carefully and respected our mission. This is a short story of how NAVER OGQ Market created based on strategical partnerships with NAVER. It is a global digital content market created by NAVER and OGQ. NAVER invested $7.5M and Central Investment Partners and others invested another $7.5M.
OGQ NOW
By Jung Ji-hye: “What is the business model of OGQ?”
I.T. Shin: “OGQ Plus. When copyright content is sold, the creators receive 70% of it and OGQ shares 30%. If creators invite their friends and their content is sold, then they take 100% without any cut.
OGQ market is expanding with partners such as NAVER, Afreeca TV, Adobe, and Samsung Electronics, we still share 70% for creators. We divide the rest 30% with our partners. Under the policy of OGQ OPEN APIs, thousands of OGQ partners apply it to their blogs, comments, chats and creating videos and documents. CaaS(Copyright as a Service) helps lots of users to keep copyright with the lowest cost and effort. Alsop, these distribution rates help creators to focus on creation.
OGQ automatically creates real products with creators’ digital assets, and we share profits with creators more. (Average 20% of its revenue). They don’t have to care about all processing including manufacturing, shipping, and managing stocks.
When a creator uploads copyright asset content, we provide an automatic infringement report when illegally used it. All creator has to do is a click to raise the legal issue without any cost, then the lawyer network in OGQ solves the rest of it. If wins legally, the distribution returns to the creator.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “How much were your revenue last year? What is your expected revenue this year? ”
I.T. Shin: “$2.7M revenue last year. Estimated revenue this year is about $7M.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “How many are the total app downloads?”
I.T. Shin: “230M”
By Jung Ji-hye: “How many creators are registered?”
I.T. Shin: “13M globally. About 20% of creators uploaded copyright asset contents.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “I am curious about how geographically distributed.”
I.T. Shin: “Creators from all over the world. Korea is about 30%, India 10%, Russia 7%, and the United States is about 4%. These are major countries of OGQ creators. Brazil, Japan, Ukraine, and Germany are in the top 10 countries.”
By Jung Ji-hye, “What is the cumulative content downloads and MAU?”
I.T. Shin: “The asset content downloads exceeded 2.5 billion times and MAU is about 6 million.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “How many team members at OGQ? What kind of team is organized? ”
I.T. Shin: “64. There are OGQ Market Expansion Team and User-Driven Team (UDT) that I focus more on. OGQ Market Service Division, C & C(Creative and Commerce), and Core Tech division which deals with image & video recognition.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “I heard that OGQ celebrated July 1 as the re-establishment date of OGQ corp. What does that mean? ”
I.T. Shin: “We thought 13M creator is a symbolic number that we could move forward more rapidly as a social creator platform.
In the meantime, we have been deeply concerned about how to make our eco-system for creators longer.
CEO is not permanent, and the projects are constantly changing. The only thing left is the mission. The team, our people are leading it. So, we wanted to focus on the mission and the team.
I wanted to prove that we are moving together. Being more proud of the dedication to creators’ eco-system and being more economically compensated to live more stable in OGQ team. So, we had to make sure that the team members are not just taking salaries, but really feeling that they are the owner of OGQ. Not ownership, but the owner.
$40M value of stocks has distributed to OGQ team members of the $140M valuation. About 25 members out of 64 hold stocks and stock options of OGQ corp. We called this day as the new beginning.
By Jung Ji-hye: “Wow. Do you feel that the morale of the OGQ team has increased?”
I.T. Shin: “I don’t know. It wasn’t meant to promote morale. It was mandatory that we should follow as a culture of the OGQ earlier.
How come have team members been compensated only the events like IPO or M&A? In order to survive for 100 years, we must choose the long-lasting culture to work with. We all deserve to be the owner of an organization that we belong to if we are willing to. I have always wanted to come true to this belief.”
OGQ NEXT
OGQ got a $5M investment from AfreecaTV which is №1 live streaming video service like Twitch. AfreecaTV wanted to provide copyright content for its creators.
This investment was made to expand the copyright asset content market and “AfreecaTV OGQ Market” will be launched in the coming November. OGQ’s CaaS(Copyright as a Service) would help to enhance the quality of video content. It will also provide a market for monetizing the creators of AfreecaTV’s.
By Jung Ji-hye: “How did you find AfreecaTV as a strategic partner?”
I.T. Shin: “Central Investment Partners who had invested in us arranged a meeting with AfreecaTV.
We found that both companies are pursuing the creator’s ecosystem. There seemed to be a lot of synergies. For example, if you search for ‘YouTube Copyright’, you will find that many YouTuber creators’ accounts have been suspended or deleted. That’s because of copyright infringements.
AfreecaTV creators use BGM(Background music), MR(Sound like Karaoke Music), images, fonts for subtitles and other asset videos for their live broadcasting. For maintaining the ecosystem continuously, an environment that creators to comply with copyrights in the easy interface and the low price is essential.
CEO of AfreecaTV(See Soo-gill and Jung Chan-yong), also agreed with this.”
For example, AfreecaTV creators can sell their ‘signature stickers’, ‘IP based products’ and their ‘short video as GIF’ to fans. These are the highlights of the broadcast made into GIFs and uploaded to OGQ Market as assets. These would be an additional chance to increase revenue by auto-splitting their videos. During their live broadcasting, AfreecaTV creators show “Buy button” to their fans. Then, fans purchase these items as a gift for showing their affection.
“Fans are happy when listening to music when creators play it on the air. Fans give ‘MR balloons’, ‘BGM balloons’ to AfreecaTV creators for that”
And there’s one more service coming in November. OGQ Creator Studio. Based on deep learning technology, it helps creators to make stickers, images, videos, voices and even products based on IPs automatically.
We will continue to provide services that will make it easier to create copyright content.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “What is the ultimate goal of OGQ? ”
I.T. Shin: “Connecting creators and fans and makes profitable ecosystem for creators.
The average monthly income of photographers is less than $400. If we respect the creator’s right of copyright, the eco-system will be maintained. More valuable artworks and the content will be created when they keep concentration on creating content. It is OGQ’s mission to make creators’ lives better.
OGQ will do an important role in connecting creators and fans.”
By Jung Ji-hye: “I see. Thank you for your time. ”
OGQ has been doing outstanding role in the creator’s market
In March 2019, the European Parliament released a copyright directive. The most controversial part is that the platforms are responsible for keeping copyrights of the user’s content. It mainly relates to article 13: “With the new rules, liability now lies with tech giants to ensure their platforms aren’t open to copyright breaches.”
All companies in Europe are required to keep these new copyright laws by 2021. This movement will eventually lead to the spread of the global copyright asset market.
What impressed me most about OGQ was that moving fast in this ever-changing content market. OGQ keeps the right speed to catch up with the new emerging markets.
Switching to the platform, expanding from social image platforms to social creator platforms that distribute all forms of creative content that people produce. OGQ aggressively address the copyright issues that inevitably applies to all kinds of platforms like social media, messenger, blogs, and builders. OGQ was not hesitating M&A and strategically partnered with companies that could create synergies fast.
OGQ’s valuation had been significantly lowered when NAVER’s strategic investment comparing the valuation of investments from Chinese private equity funds offered at that time. But, OGQ chose NAVER as the first investor because of that OGQ believed in expanding mission faster is more important than its valuation.
Does startup’s valuation mean more than its mission?
If you accomplish your mission, you will be able to increase valuation later, even if your company valuation is evaluated as low currently. In fact, in less than a year, OGQ’s valuation has been restored to $140M and is now far beyond it.
I applaud the fact that OGQ has overcome the crisis and prepared a leap for the future. I hope OGQ’s mission that a billion creators connect to fans and build a profitable ecosystem would come true.
