Purpose
The business concept that I am goind to discuss is associated with selling advertisement posts through the “channels” dedicated to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, in particular. Its core model implies creating several channels that function on the Telegram Messenger, which is widely used by the cryptocurrency community, and selling posts for the advertisement in those channels.
The two channels that my sister and I manage, CryptoHouse and RealMoney, inform users regarding the latest news in the crypto world, give tips and suggestions related to this area, as well as overview cryptocurrency market’s performance and express critical and independent opinions regarding this hot topic which has brought a lot of controversy and ambiguity because of the decentralized and self-governed nature of the blockchain. Our mission is to deliver a wide variety of relevant and interesting content associated with cryptocurrencies and blockchain itself for our followers. The main objective of the channels is to make our subscribers informed about the current state of the cryptocurrency market and everything that is associated with it. We are doing that by carefully selecting the most crucial and relevant news in our opinion that takes place in the cryptocurrency world and spotlights it on the channels we manage. We try to satisfy each unique follower we have despite his or her primary reason for following our channels. The information we post may be useful for making investment decisions; understanding the global perspective regarding cryptocurrencies and their status in different countries; building the knowledge base about blockchain and cryptocurrencies; and getting up-to-date news, in general.
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Competitive Advantage
Because the success of our business is mostly depended on the number of loyal followers we have, the first key factor is to post relevant content and the latest and the most important news. The followers must have a reason to follow our channels and once they subscribe, they should be satisfied with the content in order for them not to unfollow the channels. Because of the recent popularity of the blockchain technology, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, the market is constantly growing and there are plenty of people who can potentially become our followers. However, for the same reason, there are many other channels which compete with CryptoHouse and RealMoney. Because of that, the content we post must provide more value than the other similar channels. This additional value can be created in various ways, for example, we spend some time when writing a post in order to make sure it is written in the quality manner and can be understood by an average user. Also, in addition to the objective information taken from different sources, we express our own opinion by critically analyzing the subject matter.
More Channels
Another way that can facilitate the creation of the additional value for subscribers is to differentiate the content we provide by creating additional, more specified channels. For instance, right now we are launching, CryptoHouse Elite, which requires a paid subscription. This channel will assist followers in making investment decisions by signaling when it is a good time to buy a particular cryptocurrency, as well as when it is the right time to sell the digital asset. Another channel that we are launching, solely specifies on ICOs, analyzing the likelihood of the potential success of a particular project and all the risks that may be associated with it. In the future, we plan to launch a channel in the English language, as for right now we are only focused on the Russian speaking users. In addition, we want to create an educational- type channel which will be focused on the users that are new to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency market but are willing to learn about it, as well as on the recent adopters of the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. For example, we can educate followers on how to register on the trading platforms, what are some ways to purchase a cryptocurrency and where to securely keep it.
Getting Popular
The main objective for our business right now is to get both of the channels to the top 100 channels dedicated to cryptocurrencies on Telegram. It will allow our business to be more sustainable because we would be able to spend way less money on the advertisement of our channels itself. For instance, currently, we are spending up to 40% of our profit on the advertisement. As for now, CryptoHouse has 8.2 thousand followers and RealMoney has around 6 thousand. In order to be ranked among top 100 channels, it is necessary to have more than 8 thousand followers on each particular channel.
For our business model, CryptoHouse and RealMoney, represent so-called “gate” channels meaning that they will facilitate the vast majority of our followers for the additional channels we are creating. Once we reach the desired number of followers on our two main channels, the cost of advertisement will scientifically decrease due to the “world of mouth” and a better brand recognition of our channels. Finally, being ranked among the top 100 cryptocurrency channels will also remove the need to advertise our specified channels because we can simply refer to them using our two main channels and not to pay for the advertisement on the rival channels. Some other challenges include protecting our content from unauthorized usage.
Risks and Issues
Unfortunately, because of the ongoing hype towards cryptocurrencies, there are many channels that simply take someone’s content and present it as their own. The easiest way to prevent that kind of unpleasant activity is to be so popular and big, that the majority of users would know for sure where the content originated and how was the initial author. However, this approach would not work with smaller channels because the major ones can easily steal their content and most of the users would be sure that it is theirs’ due to the size of a channel. One method we use that helps to avoid content stealing is marking all of the images we post with a reference to our channel.
Due to the ambiguity and uncertainty regarding cryptocurrencies, our business poses some additional risks. For instance, many countries still have not determined the status of the cryptocurrencies in the economy. In addition, the recent hype in this market was mostly caused by an enormous price increase of Bitcoin. Consequently, it led to the growth of an entire industry bring in more and more new projects, cryptocurrencies and people. Many financial analysts refer to this growth very skeptically, saying that it can be a bubble. Those negative opinions make people think twice before digging into the cryptocurrencies. Finally, our business largely relies on the popularity of the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies’ growth. Because of that, a sudden collapse of Bitcoin, for example, will severely damage our business.