Will Dating on the Blockchain Lead Consumer Utility Like It Did for the Internet Almost 3 Decades Ago
The Start of The Internet
In the 1990s, the “World Wide Web” created a boom like never before. Thousands of start-ups and projects were initiated by entrepreneurs and businesses to take advantage of the new technology that promised to revolutionise the world. However, the concept of Internet was new and it was hard to explain to the average person on the street what it was. It was inconvenient and unstable to access; remember the clunky and noisy modems? Advertisers and companies use images like these to explain what Internet is and how it works which often confuse the public further.
In 2000, the internet bubble burst and the values of stocks on the NASDAQ fell from $6.71 trillion to $5.78 trillion in just a few weeks, and in less than a month, nearly a trillion dollars worth of stock value had completely evaporated.
Sounds familiar?
The blockchain is in early days is just as clunky as the Internet in its infancy stage. The bearish trend which some say has likened to the burst of the Internet bubble has resulted in over 59% of startups in 2017 failing spectacularly. Another report said that 80% of ICOs and their concepts have either fallen through or did not even materialize as many were scams. A concept is only a concept until the team executes well enough for the venture to start generating revenues and then becoming a sustainable business.
Of the many different industries that emerged during the early days of the internet, online dating was the exception and one of the early stars, both in its ability to engage audiences and to establish real revenue streams from customers. The first online dating Match(dot)com was created in 1995, and as of 2002, has had over 26.6 million people registered.
By 2007, online dating had become the second highest online industry for paid content! As more people become comfortable with the idea of meeting a partner online and paying for the service, this open up their minds (and pockets) for people to pay for other things on the internet.
The dating industry has grown to a multi-billion dollar industry and it will continue to grow. By now, the Internet has matured and has changed every aspect of our lives forever — including, and especially love, dating and romance. This might seem obvious now with hindsight, but initially after the internet bubble burst, many were skeptical, left in disgust and the naysayers had a field day saying “I told you so!”
Today, many internet giants such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Baidu, and Alibaba have emerged collectively being worth over $5 trillion! However, many have forgotten that digital dating content was the first industry that paved the way.
The blockchain technology has invited similar wonder, curiosity and skepticism that Internet had at its early days. Again, entrepreneurs and businesses are racing to find ways to incorporate blockchain technology into their projects. Many people outside of the blockchain ecosystem are being extremely cautious and skeptical, and many think that it is yet another bubble that would burst.
Dating could once again lead the way, and be the early star of blockchain application and establish real revenue streams from the general public and paying customers.
It is no surprise that when more people are using blockchain, the greater utility it has, and the faster the adoption rate. Unlike many other blockchain projects, Viola.AI will have strong utility cases from the get-go as VIOLET tokens can be used in their parent company, Lunch Actually Group which hosts a total of 10 dating products across Asia.
Lunch Actually Group is a pioneer dating player in Asia which has successfully monetized their business models. With their last 14 years in the business, strong expansion strategies and brands differentiation, the team is committed to repeat the monetization success with Viola.AI.
Viola.AI is also one of the few ICOs that has developed a working MVP from scratch with good reviews from the Alpha testers within the ICO period. Thus, it would have a higher chance to make money due to its simplicity of utility of the VIOLET tokens compared to the usual protocol-centric ICOs.
Viola.AI will also adopt a freemium strategy which has proven to work for many other dating and relationship services. Users can use the app for free and for those who want to get the most value can pay for premium subscriptions and add-on features. With its ecosystem of dating and relationship products and the team’s experience and ability to cross sell, monetization and sustainability will come quickly on the Viola.AI platform.
Like how dating has successfully trigger the ‘utility breakthrough’ for the internet 20 years ago due to its consumption simplicity; dating and relationship platforms like Viola.AI can today pave the way for a stronger and wider-spread adoption of blockchain for the tens of millions of consumers via utility.
