Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? especially at a younger age. We all have that urge. Here, in this blog posts I’ll be writing about all those young millionaires that will inspire you to jump on that one idea and make millions!
And by that I do not mean that each and every idea up in your brain is a million-dollar one. You need to be smart enough to analyse the viability of an idea in business world. How about getting a reward pop up rather than those irritating ad-banners every time you play a game?
That’s what Brain Wong is doing with his San Francisco-based mobile rewards network Kiip (pronounced “keep”). The 23 year old teamed up with his colleague Courtney Guertin and designer Amadeus Demarzi to launch Kiip in 2010.
After skipping four grades in elementary and high school, graduating at the age of 18, Brain Wong landed in a business-development position at news aggregator Digg. But soon after 5 months he found himself jobless and was trying to determine what to do next.
He was in the flight when he observed that everyone else were either ‘pretending to work’ or playing games on their smartphone. That hit him with the thought that games are so popular nowadays and was figuring out why they are so addictive. He noticed that the achievements while playing, leading the scoreboard, levelling up or hitting a high score were enjoyed. However, those happy moments were not actually appreciated but rather slapped in the face by those terrible advertisements.
To engage more and more users, Kiip’s technology integrates with Android and iOS apps, allowing developers to incorporate a code that connects brands with users during relevant moments; for example, Sour Patch Kids might reward gamers with free candy for reaching a high score.
Kiip’s network of 1,000 brands (150 are actively running rewards) pay on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis, such as when a user submits an e-mail address to claim a reward (as 25 million have done so far). Kiip typically earns 30 cents to $3 per CPE, depending on targeting criteria, and splits the fee 50-50 with developers. The company reaches 10 million active users daily, up from 4 million last year. The company’s annual revenue is between $10 million and $20 million. Kiip has received more than $15 million in funding from investors including True Ventures, Relay Ventures and Crosslink Capital. The infusions have allowed the company to expand its options. In 2013, it introduced a self-service platform for brands that now accounts for about 30 percent of revenue.
Kiip initially worked for mobile games but then expanded to fitness, music and cooking giving brands like Gatorade the chance to offer free drinks to users when they log athletic achievements. Providing users with rewards as well as developers and brands with high rate of engagement for their games and apps, Brian Wong is really turning time into currency!
-Vatsal Doshi
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