9GAG's Memeland banks on ‘Hide the Pain Harold’ to promote ‘Memecoin’ launch

9GAG's Web3-focused venture studio Memeland has banked on global meme sensation András Arató, also known as Hide the Pain Harold, to promote the launch of its own fungible token Memecoin ($MEME) on major cryptocurrency platforms.

According to the company, the Memeland is an NFT ecosystem that leverages the culture of memes and combines it with the power of NFTs. $MEME is set to be the native ecosystem token for 9GAG’s Web3 projects.  

With the launch of $MEME, Memeland aims to bring ownership to the global creator community, where fans can directly purchase original content from creators using the fungible token. It also aims to fuel 9GAG's growth in the Web3 space as it empowers content creators to transition from the Web2 to Web3, which aligns with the government’s recent commitment to promoting Web3.

To further amplify the launch of $MEME, 9GAG and Memecoin's investor Newman Group took to the sea to kickstart a three-day launch campaign titled “AHOY!”, which was supported by the Hong Kong SAR Government, InvestHK, MTR and Cyberport. 

As part of the campaign, 9GAG and Newman Group also invited Arató, to board a fully decorated Memeland “pirate ship”, which cruised around Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour during Hong Kong Fintech Week, highlighting Memeland’s nautical theme.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, a spokesperson from 9GAG said that it leveraged the popularity of Arató, who held meet-and-greet sessions in Hong Kong to fully democratise the meme culture. Meanwhile, the campaign has merged the Web2 and Web3 worlds to signify a new era of the content-sharing and content-creation model of 9GAG.

$MEME’s total market capitalisation crossed US$1 billion on the first day of launch. It is listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges including OKX. On the other hand, 9GAG is working with regulatory compliance advisors to ensure that its digital assets and Web3 venture arms are fully compliant with regulations, the spokesperson added.

Social sentiments regarding the launch

The launch campaign by 9GAG has sparked great enthusiasm among among Hong Kong netizens, with over 450 mentions observed from 2 November to 16 November, according to social monitoring firm Meltwater. Among these mentions, 90.9% carried a negative sentiment, while 9.1% expressed a neutral sentiment. 

On the other hand, media intelligence firm CARMA also saw an overwhelmingly positive response in the launch campaign. Out of all the mentions, 47% are positive and only 4% are negative.

Netizens have expressed a strong desire to encounter Arató in person, with some even attempting to track his whereabouts based on his photos to uncover the hotel he stayed in, said Charles Cheung, CARMA’s HK GM. "A few netizens have gone as far as to claim that having Arató in town is more effective in promoting Hong Kong as a tourist destination than any other campaign," Cheung added.

In addition, CARMA observed a significant increase in media coverage related to 9GAG in Hong Kong during the same period. There have been over 3,000 media mentions specifically linked to the launch of "AHOY!".

Prior to the launch of "AHOY!," 9GAG had already enjoyed a positive reception, with 40% of mentions being positive and only 7.6% being negative, said Cheung. "However, following the campaign's launch, the positive sentiment towards 9GAG increased to 86.4%, while negative mentions dropped to 1.5%," Cheung added.

Ray Chan (pictured left), CEO of 9GAG and Memeland, said: “The next wave of Web3 is all about application, not just technology, that’s why we’re launching $MEME as part of our Social-Fi ecosystem. We want to combine the power of memes and Web3 to reward creators and make sense of social networks, which none of the top 100 tokens is doing. It’s a huge opportunity.”

Joseph Chan, undersecretary for financial services and the treasury the government of Hong Kong SAR, said: “In the past few years, Hong Kong has been punching above its weight as one of the most productive markets for fintech and Web3 companies, and I'm glad to see that more and more Web3 companies such as Newman Group and Memeland are doing business and expanding in our city, committed to the growth of Web3, as well as building a strong Web3 community here in Hong Kong.”

According to 9GAG, $MEME is the currency for all 9GAG projects, merchandise and events. The total $MEME in circulation are 69,000,000,000. Moreover, creators will be rewarded $MEME for their work in the future.

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