If you’re unaware, 9GAG is a global content platform well known for its GIFs, memes and viral videos. Earlier this year, it entered the Web3 and NFT realm with its first project called Memeland. 9GAG was founded in 2008 and is an online digital platform and social media website based in Hong Kong. 9GAG allows users to upload and share user-generated content or other content from external social media websites. 9GAG states that it is “the largest meme community on the internet”.
Across all social media platforms, it has a global audience of 200 million followers, meaning that there is an existing fanbase ready to be exposed to its NFT collection. Earlier this year, 9GAG brought its 14 years of online experience in community building and social media to Web3 through Memeland, which has proven to be a huge success.
What Is Memeland by 9GAG?
According to its website, Memeland is not “just a JPEG”. But instead, “Memeland is 9GAG’s Web3 ecosystem, AKA Metaverse.” The project primarily consists of 9,999 utility-enabling PFPs (captains), with their pirate crews exploring the Broken Sea in search of the worlds legendary treasure island known as the Memeland.
Similarly to many recent projects, Memeland offers no roadmap as there is “no road at sea.” Instead, it has preferred to go with the under promise and over deliver route. The first step Memeland took was launching You The Real MVP, which is a private group of 420 legendary MVP tokens which act as the premium membership into the Memeland ecosystem. The perks included “2 x Memeland main collection FREE mints, allowlist for all future 9GAG/Memeland NFT collections (e.g. POTATOZ), MVP role & MVP lounge in Discord, and more to come.” It’s safe to say that You The Real MVP has been a success considering it currently sits at a floor price of 28.5 ETH on OpenSea. After, the second step was Memeland Captains.
What Is Memeland Captains?
As mentioned previously, Memeland captains is the primary NFT collection in the ecosystem. There are 9,999 tokens packed with exciting utilities and rewards. By holding a MemeLand NFT (captain), holders yield $MEME daily. $MEME is Memeland’s native currency, the ecosystem’s governance token, and it was made to support the creator economy. $MEME can also be earned through staking, actively playing or creating content.
Token holders also get many other benefits including private club membership, exclusive access to a creator NFT marketplace, in real life events and all future drops, such as Potatoz.
What Is Memeland Potatoz?
Potatoz is a 9,999 supply utility-enabling prequel to the Memeland Captains collection and it was free-to-mint. Each Potatoz acts as an entry ticket into the “great Memeland ecosystem”, which invented the grow-to-earn staking mechanism. Grow-to-earn allows holders to lock up their Potatoz and participate in things such as raffles and contests. Memeland’s website states that Potatoz “make for a great side dish, but some may feel a calling to become the main course”, which suggests they may adopt a primary role moving forwards.
We already knew that Potatoz were going to grow into something if staked. The more a Potatoz grew, the more of its traits would be revealed. Recently, on September 3rd 2022, Memeland’s official Twitter page announced that if people had been growing their Potatoz for 14 days, they should have evolved to stage 2 (after metadata is refreshed).
Even though Potatoz are very meme-like and silly, this has not stopped them from enjoying a ton of success. Currently, the Potatoz collection sits at a floor price of 1.66 ETH despite the bearish market conditions. In addition, it has very strong unique holders and “growing Potatoz” (staked) statistics. In total, there are 5,085 unique holders, which means that on average, each holder holds two tokens. Also, out of the 9,999 Potatoz, 9,500 of them have been staked.
Why Is Memeland So Successful?
With 434k followers on Twitter, very strong engagement and high floor prices, no one can disagree with the fact that Memeland is one of the most successful projects in the NFT space at present. Why is this? Well, it comes down to a number of reasons. First, 9GAG is a well established and globally recognised platform with a proven powerhouse team in digital brand building. Across all platforms, it has a total audience of over 200 million followers, and 16.8 millions of them are on Twitter alone. For this reason, there are many people who Memeland can target to create a huge demand for the project, and there is only ever going to be a limited supply. The fact that 9GAG are experts of the internet means that they certainly know how to appeal to the masses.
The second reason is that Memeland is backed by some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Y Combinator, First Round Capital, Greycroft Partners and True Ventures. Additionally, Memeland boasts an all-star team of advisors and investors. The list is too long to mention them all, but the most notable names are Gary Vee, Kevin Rose (PROOF Collective), and Takoa. If you know the NFT space at all, then you’ll know that betting on founding teams, especially ones of this caliber, is one surefire way to profitably navitage the space. While it is not bulletproof, it is one of the strategies that has proven to work time and time again.
Given the fact that there is no roadmap, no one can be entirely sure what the future of Memeland and Potatoz holds. Looking at 9GAG’s history and previous activities, we can only assume that whatever it is, it will be on brand with meme-esque culture. Be sure to follow Memeland on Twitter to keep up to date with future events, this project is certainly one to keep on your radar.
