SINGAPORE / ACCESSWIRE / January 11, 2019 / We live in an era where information and data are at the center of everything. The public's dependence on social media is at an all-time high, while at the same time, social media usage comes with numerous issues, such as information security, over-commercialization, fake news, or lack of incentivization. With a lack of user trust in the social media sector and the arrival of social media blockchain applications, the future of social networks will have a completely different sentiment.
Brian Cheong is the one with the vision of reinventing social networks. Back in 2006, Brian chose to leave South Korea and studied at Peking University in mainland China. During that period, based on trends and opportunities within the social atmosphere among Chinese college students, he established tataUFO, a social APP aiming at creating a comfortable and safe social environment for students.
TTC Protocol Founder and CEO Brian Cheong
Fast forward to recent years, with previous experience within the social network space and software development, Brian established a new social networking platform that applies blockchain technology, changing the very fabric for how we view social networks.
A Quick Turn of Events
In 2017, the number of digital cryptocurrency investors in South Korea increased from around 50,000 to 3 million in just two to three months. "To be honest, I didn't realize that until the end of last year that a lot of smart, talented people around me had started working in this industry, so it gave me an opportunity to reflect" Brian recalls. "We must always be careful to make judgments or decisions with regards to a new thing based on our old experience and knowledge."
By zooming out to get a better picture of his entire industry, and giving the industry a fresh view, Brian determined that there is an opportunity that could overturn the entire social networking industry as we know it.
According to Brian, blockchain is a technical solution similar to a distributed ledger, where records cannot be tampered with, ensuring authenticity and credibility. For regular users, it is essential that there is a trusted unmediated network platform. When applied to social networks, peer to peer social platforms can become a place of complete trust.
"I didn't hold any crypto-currency at the time, but with more than 3 million people already trading digital currencies in South Korea, it seemed like it was already too late to enter the blockchain industry. But if we change our perspective, we notice that there are less than 20 million people around the world who hold tokens, which is a good number when comparing 20 million to the total world population of over seven billion. So, I decided, why not be a part of it?"
After three days of deliberation, he met and discussed his project with CEO of Hashed Korea and FBG capital partner Richard Liu successively. A week later, he had a clear direction and the team started writing the white paper. In March of 2018, TTC Protocol was formally established. A new generation social network protocol based on decentralization and token incentives. Through this platform, a social network ecosystem was born, allowing developers to integrate their own DAPPs into the TTC Ecosystem, aiming to bring value back to the user.
"Fortunately, I am surrounded by people who are calm and practical, so I get a lot of advice and feedback to help me to launch in the right direction."
Brian interpreted that from the perspective of the development of social network platforms at that time, such as the social giant Facebook, faces the problem of spreading false information, cyberbullying, data privacy leaking, and excessive commercialization, which is unfair to its huge user group. Therefore, from the perspective of users, people need a decentralized social network to guarantee the security of their personal information. From a strategic point of view, the blockchain era is still in its infancy. In order to build a blockchain ecosystem, it is necessary to gather as many users as possible in a short period of time.
From the perspective of the application, social products are more acceptable and understandable by the general public, allowing a more natural transition to acceptance and adoption.
For Brian, he has focused on the "right occasion, right timing and right people." With Brian's years of deep involvement within the social industry, and a well-developed and mature product, tataUFO, it has opened the door to an opportunity.
TataUFO, founded by Brian in 2010, is a personal life-sharing platform for young Chinese. Today, tataUFO is the first DAPP integrated into the TTC Protocol and has attracted a user base of more than 13 million.
Not only is tataUFO a part of the TTC Ecosystem, but in early July of 2018, TTC Protocol acquired ALIVE, a video editing App popular in Europe and America, bringing a huge user base from the United States, UK. India, and other countries. Bringing TTC Protocol to a whopping 23 million users.
In recent events, TTC Protocol partnered with four popular South Korean based social apps, which is going to increase the user base of TTC Protocol to 30 million. Pikicast - A popular content platform for millennials in South Korea, Cobak - South Korea's #1 mobile community for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, Womanstalk - South Korea's first and largest fashion-beauty video commerce platform, and SocDoc - South Korea's #1 anonymous mobile community for women.
TTC Protocol believes that working with major social platforms from South Korea creates a perfect real-world sandbox environment for testing and releasing its first ecosystem partners.
At present, more than half of the population of South Korea lives within 100 kilometers away from the capital city, Seoul, and its surrounding areas, and the internet penetration rate is extremely high, which provides a good foundation for rapid adoption of technology. As one of the first countries to legalize digital assets, the whole nation has a friendly attitude toward digital currency. The four new DAPPs have brought more than 7.5 million users to the TTC Protocol ecosystem, enabling TTC Protocol to quickly become a part of the lives of many young people in South Korea, creating a powerful network effect.
Under TTC Protocol's general incentive mechanism, users can obtain TTC rewards through content contribution, their online reputation, or even promotions. Among these rewards, social users can earn blockchain-based tokens, called, TTC Tokens, by interacting or producing high-quality content. This also comes with the added bonus that as users help to grow the platform, the value of their earned tokens will increase.
"We're smart enough to move faster than others,'' said Brian.
Not Afraid of the Winter
When TTC Protocol was first established, it coincided with the overall crypto bear market. Brian admitted that "when we just started, the blockchain market was already in a downward stage, but on the contrary, such a market environment made us more engaged in technology development and project development."
TTC Protocol published its white paper in March of this year, completed its ICO in April, and acquired ALIVE in July. Along with these milestones, product updates and iterations have been progressing methodically.
In September, TTC Protocol launched the test chain "Merapi" and the wallet application "TTC connect".
The launch of TTC Protocol's test net and its wallet is a major milestone for the TTC Protocol team, indicating that the project is one step closer to an independent and complete ecosystem. Meanwhile, with Hacken, a world-renowned white hat hacker organization, our cooperation has enabled the project to move forward while maintaining a focus on cybersecurity.
From the founding of tataUFO to the successful involvement of a blockchain project, Brian acknowledges that he has experienced a lot and took many detours. "The blockchain industry is very different from the internet industry in terms of how it plays, and to be able to make such a leap is to be lucky enough to meet awesome friends who have helped along the way, and on the other hand, it creates a wonderful foundation for our team members."
Currently, TTC Protocol has more than 60 employees, of which nearly half are IT engineers and product managers.
TTC Protocol's Global Strategy
Brian is optimistic about decentralized social networks. He believes that due to the equivalence of blockchain integrated social networks, users can be free and reflect their own value, which is more advantageous than current centralized platforms.
"Through the TTC open platform, any developer can create a blockchain DAPP and push it onto the TTC ecosystem to enjoy the convenience brought by a decentralized social network and token-incentive mechanism. TTC Protocol's business value will continue to grow over time as the number of users increase and more advertisers enter the system," Brian said.
TTC Protocol is committed to strengthening international cooperation with other mainstream social network platforms. In the foreseeable future, peer-to-peer decentralized social networks will be highly attractive to users who pay attention to their privacy, data security, and are averse to commercial advertising. TTC Protocol will help users gain the value they deserve - forming a truly open and global community.
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SOURCE: TTC PROTOCOL