In an increasingly experience-hungry world, Virtual Reality (VR) has long been touted as the next big way for brands and consumers to connect. But creating VR worlds isn’t cheap – and without a way to commercialize them through advertising, that potential has remained unfulfilled.
Until now.
Because the team at VR/AR monetization platform Gaze have not only come up with a new approach to commercializing experiential content in VR worlds – they’ve also built the platform to bring it to life. And now they’re offering the world the opportunity to invest in the company through their Token Sale – the kind of opportunity usually only afforded to Silicon Valley-based VCs.
VR needs a new monetization model
Directly monetizing VR is fairly limited – it’s mostly about the initial hardware purchase, and then the media/ application kinds of purchases. While there are a few micro-transaction streams available – for example Decentraland, they’re very limited.
In contrast, the internet garners the bulk of advertising spend, thanks to commercialization models that were developed and continued to evolve to suit the medium. Efforts to commercialize VR via advertising have tended to use these same models, albeit with limited success. Mere impressions don’t accurately reflect multiple brands’ contributions; the inability to find an effective means of processing micropayments has made it difficult to pay users for consuming content.
But as attention turns from traditional screens to VR and AR, brands are actively seeking ways of being present in these worlds.
How Gaze monetizes VR
Imagine putting on your VR headset and attending a concert put on by your favourite band. Remember you’re still on your sofa – it’s just that you’re experiencing the concert in a more immersive way through your VR headset.
After you’ve been at the concert for a certain length of time, you’d be considered to be “immersed” in it. What Gaze does is use its proprietary tech called “Gaze Control” to track where you’re looking, and for how long, so it can determine whether you’re immersed in content (like the gig) and for how long.
And then the monetization opportunities kick in: if you can measure content immersion – basically, user attention – then you can charge brands for access to it. So imagine that a music streaming service is sponsoring the gig (there’s no reason you can’t sponsor a VR gig just like a real-world gig). Gaze Control measures and tracks the volume of user attention that the band attracted. The sponsor gets this information and pays the band based on the volume of Gaze. Payments aren’t made in cash – they’re paid in Gaze Coin, which is the platform’s cryptocurrency (more of which below).
It’s a win-win setup: sponsors get trackable, metrics-driven results for content consumption; content creators are rewarded for creating attention-grabbing content.
Not a music fan? Imagine you’re in the market for a new pair of shoes. Rather than battle the crowds in order to get the full experience of buying from your favourite store, you put on your VR headset and head to the virtual mall.
At the virtual mall, you enter your favourite retailer’s virtual store, complete with music and sales assistants to help you. You see hundreds of pairs of shoes on offer, and browse until you find a pair you love. Gaze Control means the retailer has data on what you’ve looked at, and can charge brands accordingly for the user attention they have received.
And if the content creator – in this case, the shoe brand – is really innovative, they may even pay you a small amount of Gaze Coin for interacting with their brand and products.
The tech behind Gaze
In a nutshell, Gaze Control is an API that enables the company to monitor and track how long a user engages with or consumes a piece of paid content or media – whether by looking at or interacting with it.
That data enables companies to pay multiple parties for their contribution towards engaging user attention. For example, a retailer might charge brands for “advertising space” in their virtual store, as well as rewarding VIP customers. Using the same data, brands may also choose to reward their most valuable customers – perhaps using different criteria than the retailer – for content consumption or interaction.
Managing a potentially very high volume of very small payments is uneconomical with fiat. But cryptocurrencies, developed with micropayments in mind, are both a fast and economical solution.
In the Gaze universe, the GZE token is the cryptocurrency of choice. An Ethereum-backed token built to be E20 compliant, it can be stored in the vast majority of Ethereum wallets currently available.
What you need to know about joining the ICO
First of all, the Gaze team are a strong, experienced group of people – not something that many projects can boast, or that many investors consider.
CEO & founder Johnny Peters has led ground-breaking entertainment and tech projects at BSkyB, KGrind and Bravo. CTO Bok Khoo is a leading Ethereum ecosystem developer who’s also gained serious experience across Financial Services in both APAC and Europe. Landon Curry is VR Technical Team Director, ad the man who was behind the eBay’s first VR department store, as well as Red Bull’s first VR racing simulator.
The advisory board includes Jeremy Lam, Product Lead at OmiseGO; founder of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading platform BTC.sx (now Magnr), George Samman; and Travis Rice, well-known VR industry advisor and co-founder global VR company The LENS Group.
The Gaze team want to raise a minimum of US$2 million, with an ideal target of $12 million. The ICO is hard capped at US$35 million – meaning if this amount is raised, the sale will end immediately.
When the ICO launches on 10 December 2017, 1 GZE is set to be worth approximately 0.35 ETH, the token used to store and transfer value on the Ethereum platform. The ICO is set to run for 7 days, and offer 70% of the total pool of tokens. The remaining 30% of tokens will be distributed amongst the Gaze team – advisors (5%), employees (10%), contractors (5%); and a 10% reserve or the user growth pool.
It’s worth noting that this is a relatively high level of token retention amongst the people running Gaze – which is generally a good sign. It means that the people running the company day-to-day have a big financial stake in making it a success.
To find out more about the full tech stack and market opportunities, check out Gaze’s white paper – available here in English, and here in a variety of other languages.