M1 Marketing Inc. worked together with Microsoft Taiwan and CTBC Financial Holding Co. to announce the launch of SOOCKER, which will provide a full range of services, at a press conference on 3 October 2019. In the era of the rise of Internet celebrity economy, SOOCKER combined blockchain technology to deliver the effectiveness of recommendation marketing in an instant and transparent manner. It also created a win-win situation for online stars monetizing their influence and for brands generating sales.
Cheng Cheng-mount, Deputy Minister of the National Development Council; Sean Pien, Enterprise Commercial Leader of Microsoft Taiwan; May Su, Head of Digital Finance Division at CTBC Financial Holding Co.; and Michael Wang, CEO of M1 Marketing Inc., as well as a host of brand representatives and online opinion leaders, witnessed the milestone of SOOCKER.
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1. The first e-commerce company in Taiwan to combine trans-industrial giants to build a blockchain environment
In his speech, Cheng said that the NDC had initiated Taiwan Block Alliance (TBA). “I’m very happy to see that M1 Marketing Inc., one of the TBA, has actively connected the core resources of Microsoft Taiwan and CTBC Financial Holding Co.,” Cheng said. He also expected M1 Marketing Inc. with innovations to continue driving more cooperation between “blockchain+” industries and expanding the blockchain ecosystem.
2. Online influencers are the best virtual salespeople
With online advertising costs increasing gradually, online influencers’ endorsement has become one of the strategic tools for brands to boost sales. The trend at the moment is for web influencers to gain profit-sharing by recommended sales, rather than make money by writing articles online for brands. This will become the mainstream of collaboration between brands and online stars in the future.
Only with successful recommended sales, the brands need to allocate the predetermined proportion of sale profits to Internet influencers. In this way, performance-based marketing expenses and orders strongly correlated can be carried out effectively. Online influencers with strong endorsement can also earn more money.
3. SOOCKER serves as a transparent and open platform for online influencers and brands
Wang said that the shortcoming of the current recommendation marketing lies in online influencers lacking a transparent mechanism to check out the effectiveness of instant guided selling. Even if they want to maximize promotion effectiveness, they have no idea how to do it.
Besides, it takes cyber influencers an average of one or two months to get paid through product endorsements. If the cooperation between both sides lacks immediate feedback, it won’t last. As a result, M1 Marketing Inc. set up the e-commerce platform for online influencers to do recommendation marketing. It aims to solve the problem of information asymmetry between brands and Internet influencers, as well as poor efficiency.
The brands can set up an online “flash-mob” store on the SOOCKER platform, keying their products, prices, and proportion of profit-sharing into the platform. If an online star is interested in such a project, he or she can just click on the button of “Participating in recommendation marketing.”
The platform will generate one-page of recommendation marketing link exclusive for the cyber influencer. It’s easier for his or her online followers to place orders. The web influencer can also view the order details through the SOOCKER management console.
As consumers receive their products and do not return the items within 7 days from the delivery date, the SOOCKER platform will allocate the predetermined proportion of sale profits to the online star’s virtual wallet. The influencer can withdraw cash and then deposit it to his or her bank account at any time. There is no minimum withdrawal amount or the waiting period for funds to be cleared.
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4. Combining Microsoft’s blockchain and cloud service to ensure the correctness of profit-sharing amount for Internet influencers
The SOOCKER platform used the blockchain technology to record the profit-sharing amount of sales recommended by online influencers, Wang said. It ensures the correctness and reliability of the profit-sharing amount, solving the blind spot of trust in the current recommendation marketing mechanism.
Pien said that one of Microsoft’s corporate missions is to help each organization around the world achieve greater success.“I’m glad that our Azure Blockchain Service has become a solution to help SOOCKER provide real-time recommended sales information,” Pien said. M1 Marketing Inc. is also one of Microsoft AI Infinity partners and one of the members in the first phase of Microsoft Startup Accelerator. We hope to deepen our partnerships with each other, deliver synergy, and work together to create value-added corporate services for our customers, he said.
5. Connecting to CTBC “SHAMAN – Payment Confirmation Service On Blockchain” as an online payment CHECKER
In the past, it is necessary for companies to attach proofs of payment while requesting a payment. They could get their payment approved only after going through a long verification process.
But in the SOOCKER integration service, web celebrities just click on the button of “Payment Requests” in the management console. SOOCKER will send a remittance notification to SHAMAN – a blockchain-based payment service platform developed by CTBC Bank.
Su shared that CTBC Blockchain Laboratory had launched the SHAMAN blockchain payment verification service in 2018. M1 Marketing Inc. is the first e-commerce startup to introduce this service. We are very glad to work with M1 Marketing Inc. and help to ensure that the amount of profit-sharing bonuses is consistent with the transaction record on the blockchain, Su said. This completed the last step of online influencers getting paid immediately and created thriving business opportunities for Internet celebrity economy.
Since debut in Jan. 2019, SOOCKER’s innovative and disruptive business model has received several local and global acknowledgements, including Microsoft Startup Accelerator, Echelon Taiwan Top 6 Champion, FTV Accelerator Top 10 and 2019 G Camp delegates.
Looking forward to the future, Wang expects M1 Marketing Inc. to advance the real-time payment scheme to freelancer economy and to connect with more representatives from different industries, build a wide variety of cooperation models, and create unlimited momentum for industrial development.
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