Ryde debuts NFT collection in loyalty marketing push

Ride-hailing company Ryde has launched its debut NFT project as part of its efforts to grow and strengthen its community of users. Additionally, the NFTs will serve as great tools for building loyalty among communities as it offers greater operational efficiencies in administering a membership program than traditional systems, Ryde's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

"We spent a lot of time thinking about how other NFT project communities and game developers keep their communities engaged, and reward desirable in-app activities. With this project, we hope to be able to deploy NFTs in a way that generates more real-world value, especially for the rapidly growing market segment of Singaporeans who hold crypto assets," the spokesperson said. 

The NFT campaign will allow the first 3,350 users a chance to receive Ryde's NFT, RydePal. To qualify, users must hold an active Ryde+ subscription by 31 May 2022. Ryde said in a statement that each RydePal will be built using generative art, a combination of different design elements such as gender and age, colour, and accessories, to represent the diversity of the users in the Ryde community.

The RydePal NFTs will also provide holders access to exclusive reward tiers in the Ryde app. Ryde's spokesperson added that the NFTs will provide holders with cashback as well. Outside of the token sale, RydePal NFTs can only be earned through in-app activities such as accumulating rides, or staking RydeCoins in the Ryde wallet, Ryde said. The RydePals can also be traded on secondary NFT exchanges such as OpenSea.

Ryde's "ride-to-earn” model of breeding new NFTs, and gamifying rewards can turn each ride from a perfunctory activity, to something rather fun and exciting, said Ryde's spokesperson. NFTs also offer greater consumer trust, and operational efficiencies in administering a membership programme. "It does not rely on Ryde as a central authority to maintain a ledger of its members, and they are free to trade the NFTs as they see fit. All benefits and rights accrue to users whose wallets hold the NFTs. The long-term vision is that when you own a RydePal, you own an NFT that supports real-world community use, and establishes you as a member of the Ryde community," the spokesperson added. 

The RydePals will be hosted on the Polygon blockchain network to ensure that everyday Ryde users can easily and cheaply mint their RydePals. In keeping with the ethos of web3, the NFT metadata will be content-addressed, and stored on the decentralised file storage platform, Filecoin using NFT.Storage. We want to deploy NFTs in a way that generates more real world value, especially for the rapidly growing market segment of Singaporeans who hold crypto”, said Terence Zou, founder and CEO at Ryde. 

At the same time, Ryde will also expand the range of crypto payment options for its users to top up their in-app Ryde wallets. From the third quarter this year, Ryde users will have the flexibility to choose from a list of over 70 different currencies and over 10 blockchain networks, or to top-up their in-app wallets. 

Ryde has made a name for itself since its founding in 2014. In September last year, the company reported that it has organically grown its number of users by over 300% since the beginning of 2020 and also maintained over 13,000 active drivers in Singapore. Ryde also recently reported this year that 70% of his customers joined the app through referrals. Ryde also underwent a rebranding, with its new logo adopting softer edges for a friendlier look and feel. This aimed to further signal Ryde’s commitment to being a company which is accessible, approachable and in-tune with their riders’ and drivers’ needs. 

Last year also Ryde launch its premium service, RydeLUXE, in Singapore to position its service as a premium ride-hailing and carpooling app for commuters, business executives and tourists. With RydeLUXE, users will be matched with professional drivers with luxurious private-hire car hires within the Ryde App. The service is designed for business executives, tourists and premium customers on special occasions, where Ryde is banking on growing demand to come from Downtown. Ryde has also inked a deal with business owners, restaurants and hotels to provide this service to guests looking for a premium ride.

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