Commentary

JET8 Makes Data The Currency In Social Media

JET8 is planning to enter the United States after building a following in emerging markets, with its white-label branded social platform that allows users to earn money for sharing their content.

The move fits into legislation being worked on by California Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers. The legislation puts financial value on consumer information. Newsom's "data dividends" focuses on a payment system that would require businesses to pay consumers for their personal data that is sold. The concept has been discussed in Silicon Valley for years as a way to tackle growing income inequality at a time when tech companies have flourished and advances in automation have eliminated jobs.

JET8's commerce system is driven around data. “Brands have been losing their direct connections and relationships with people on the street,” said Josh Thompson, co-founder and chief strategy officer at JET8. “We enable brands to get back in touch and learn what works with consumers, including the use of data.”

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The technology enables the user to earn money for each engagement or piece of data they share with the brand. For every like, comment and share, users are rewarded for their influence. The reward — JETPoints — is redeemable online or in more than 30,000 physical retail stores worldwide such as Watsons, Circle K, and 7-Eleven. Brands drop money into the consumer’s JET8 digital wallet. The consumer can spent the money on any of the brand’s products.

The data pertaining to the funds dropped into the digital wallet -- along with the likes and other engagement metrics -- is trackable. Marketers from more than 50 global brands such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and McDonald's have access to the consumer data who use the platform.

Brands can now control campaigns from a dashboard, targeting product samples to a specific demographic. They bid for a user demographic and pay them for their data.

Today the company's connects with off- and online retailers. Soon users will have the option to pay their bills, buy music with Spotify, purchase products from brands, and send the money to their bank accounts.

“We started creating what’s called face value, meaning a consumer doesn’t take dollars out of their pocket to get something back,” said JET8 co-founder Victor Zabrockis told Data & Programmatic Insider. “They simply earn money by using their faces and their creativity. It’s a very meaningful way to earn money in communities in Asia and Africa. It’s growing as a concept worldwide.”

Women comprise between 70% and 80% of those who create content. These women are mothers and working professionals between the ages of 18 and 34 years old. Some 37% are between the ages between 26 and 34 years old.

These women often purchase the household items and create content to supplement their annual income.

On average a millennial will upload about 25 000 selfies in their lifetime, with over 100 million selfies posted on the internet daily, Zabrockis wrote in a recent post on Medium.

Singapore-based Jet8's first seed round, part of which came from a founding Rakuten entrepreneur, initially spurred the company’s entrance into Asia. Investments also came from “super angels” such as a creator of Google Maps and the agency Dentsu. The social media platform’s technology lets brands, agencies and influencers to engage and sell to social communities through user-generated mobile content. 

The peer-to-peer network, which uses blockchain technology and the ability to customize the white-label apps, launched in 2015.

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