In developing countries, many people can’t afford to pay for internet. There are also a lot of people everywhere who really want to surf more than they are doing today. Therefore, an incentive model has been developed where people get free megabytes to surf in exchange for being exposed to advertisements or participating in surveys.
Joorschain, a blockchain company that launched earlier this year with the goal of revolutionizing the advertising industry, is now launching a new service to take this incentive model further – by using cryptocurrency.
“If mobile users don’t have enough money to pay for their daily surfing, with Joors’ solution they are served an opportunity to keep surfing without paying for it”, says Mats Palving, CEO of Joors, one of the founding partners behind Joorschain.
Uses cryptocurrency instead
Joors is already offering the old incentive model. However, the big difference with the new model is that Joors uses the cryptocurrency from Joorschain called joorscoin. So instead of getting 20 or 30 megabytes of data when people watch ads or complete surveys, the user gets a certain amount of joorscoin. In turn, the cryptocurrency can be used in many different ways.
“For example, you can exchange it back to data, if that is what you want. In this case, we offer the user to return joorscoin (JIC) to Joors and we will provide the top-up. Or maybe you want to sell it off for normal money. There are many opportunities”, says Mats Palving.
“A win-win-win kind of a set up”
According to Mats Palving, Joors and Joorschain see this solution contributing in three different ways.
“Joors’ solution in its current form is good for the end user because otherwise, they wouldn’t have the possibility to reach the internet simply since they couldn’t pay for it. This is also good for the advertiser who here finds a new or slightly different channel to get their content out to the public. And this is, of course, good for the operator who otherwise maybe wouldn’t get any money for this data capacity. A win-win-win kind of a set up”, says Mats Palving and continues:
“Adding the option for the user to get joorscoin instead is widening the addressable market considerably, as no direct connection to the operators is needed. And the end user can use the joorscoin for other things”.
“Joorscoin provides openness to basically any other industry”
Since this summer, Joors has three commercial projects in Central America up and running, where local publicists offer the megabyte incentive model.
“These publicists are pushing out the service through both mobile and web apps. It appears as a banner for the end user with the message ‘click here if you want free internet’. The user is then presented with a survey, an ad, or a combination thereof. The megabytes are then topped-up to the user’s account”, says Mats Palving.
A majority of the current and expected future publicists and brands who are buying into this business model are showing a direct interest in using the new cryptocurrency service, instead of, or combined with, the more classic megabyte model. And since these clients already handle a similar operation, the transition is expected to go smoothly.
Listed on crypto exchange
As of November 1st, joorscoin is also listed on the cryptocurrency exchange Hotbit, which means that joorscoin owners now can take the cryptocurrency and exchange it for fiat money.
According to Mats Palving, the main advantage of using cryptocurrency in this way is the flexibility.
“Cryptocurrency is something that is exchangeable for either real money or other cryptocurrencies. This is not the case if we compare to a bonus program, frequent flyer miles, for example, that has a very specific quality token that is obviously only usable within that specific program and therefore very limited. Joorscoin provides openness to basically any other industry since you can always exchange it for real money”.
