AIP-123: Apeverse - A Multi-language Web Hub for Ape Ecosystem and $APE Holders

[ChrisL]

Proposal Name: Apeverse - A Multi-language Web Hub for Ape Ecosystem and $APE Holders
Proposal Category: Ecosystem Fund Allocation

Abstract

The aim of Apeverse is to bring more utilities to ApeCoin, deliver meaningful information about the Ape ecosystem, and facilitate an active $APE holders’ community.

Due to the large number and wide distribution of Ape community members, information such as news and activities cannot be effectively conveyed because of language and geographical restrictions. Therefore, we want to build an Ape ecosystem website named Apeverse to deliver Ape-related information to ApeCoin holders in a timely manner, and to show the development of the Asia-Pacific community to $APE global holders.

Apeverse will also bring more utilities to ApeCoin, including payment and membership systems. Our goal is to create a hub for users to view information and interact better with each other through ApeCoin.

Motivation

Ape has a big global community whereas information may not be delivered effectively due to language and user behavior differences. Our team has held and participated in many Ape-related events in Asia and found that many high-quality activities were not fully exposed to the global community and vice versa. Therefore, we hope to provide an international platform to break geographical barriers.

We are active members of the Ape Asian community, $APE holders, and BAYC/MAYC/Otherdeed holders. We have successful track records of building communities in the Asia-Pacific area with 80k followers across different platforms.

Founders of Apeverse:

• ChrisL: worked for several top 200 crypto projects (based on CMC ranking) since 2018; highly experienced in project management and business development; created global communities with 10+ languages across 30+ countries.
• AlbertK: crypto OG since 2016; the first batch of crypto KOLs in China since 2017; successfully incubated 98Kdao(Twitter:@98Kdao) and BroLeon(Twitter:@BroLeonAus) which are popular communities in Asia.

Rationale

The community can benefit from Apeverse in the following aspects:

1. Multi-language
   Apeverse will be a multi-language website, starting with English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. More languages will be added as our community expands to new areas.

2. Information Hub
   We want to make Apeverse an integration of all Ape-related information. News and activities across different geographical areas will be presented. Real-time statistics of ApeCoin and Ape NFTs will be shown for users to understand the trend in Ape markets.

3. Merchandise and Payments
   An online store will be on Apeverse selling derivative products designed by the community. We will implement ApeCoin payment system ($APE only) in the store and partner with events and exhibitions to use $APE for ticket sales and other payment scenarios.

4. Community Engagement
   We wish to make Apeverse a place where members can interact with each other. There will be a chat module on different pages for viewers to share their opinions about ApeCoin and Ape NFT, or to match product designers with NFT owners. There will also be links to live AIPs, active votes, and $APE staking (once the function is live).

Specifications

Products are presented in the form of web pages, which are divided into the following categories: homepage, news, activities, ApeCoin, Ape NFT, and merchandise.

1. Homepage
   The home page displays an overview of sub-pages, including news, activities, ApeCoin, NFT, merchandise, partners, and contact information. After the $APE staking function is launched, a dashboard will be added for statistics of ApeCoin staking such as APR/APY, TVL, the number of stakers, etc.

2. News
   The News page is divided into 3 modules. The 1st displays Ape related news, showing news from official channels and mainstream media. The 2nd module is the Ape ecosystem articles. We will regularly invite independent writers (Asia-Pacific region) to report on the recent development of the Ape ecosystem. The 3rd module is to show the latest proposal on the ApeCoin forum including the recent APIs and the ongoing votes.

3. Activities
   The activity page constitutes of 2 parts, online and offline activities. We will regularly launch creative writing campaigns with ApeCoin rewards. For offline events, we will update timely information about gatherings, conferences, and exhibitions of ApeCoin and Ape NFT holders in Asia.

4. ApeCoin
   This section displays the price chart of ApeCoin, real-time data (updated on time), and daily statistics summary (updated on a daily basis) on the dashboard. A message board will be added to this page. All holders of a minimum of 1$APE can sign from their wallet and leave their opinions on the board. A tipping function will be added for users to send $APE as tips to high-quality comments.

5. Ape NFT
   This part will capture and display the relevant data of the NFT market, including the floor price transaction volume, and other key data of Ape NFT. We will offer advanced data analytics for memberships, which will only accept $APE payments. Advanced functions include whale activities, KOLs account tracking, large transactions, address profits tracking, etc.

6. Merchandise
   This page displays and sells derivative products of Ape NFTs, accepting $APE payments only. In the beginning, we will make three types of products: T-shirts, mobile phone cases, and frisbees. Other community-designed products will be listed in the store when the first stage is done. A message board will be added to facilitate conversations between NFT holders and designers.

Steps to Implement

• Website UI design and development
• Smart contract development for payments and tipping function
• The launch of the official version of Apeverse
• Derivate products design, manufacturing, and sale
• Keep monitoring the news info and real-time stats; update new events and activities
• Invite writers and create campaigns
• Add community-designed merchandise and launch the swag voting system
• Launch Apeverse membership system for advanced functions

Timeline

• Proposal and voting - October-December 2022
• Website design and development – ​December-February 2022
• Official launch – March 2023
• Merchandise and tipping function added – April 2023
• Community-designed products added – May-June 2023
• Membership system and advanced stats and functions – July-September 2023
• On-going operations and updates – October-December 2023

Overall Cost

The future revenue includes the profit from the sales of merchandise and the membership subscription fee. We expect to reach a break-even point after 1 year. We will need starting funds to cover the cost for the first year.

• UI/UX design * 2 people * 2 months = 5,000 * 2 * 2 = 20,000
• Website front-end development * 3 people * 2 months = 4000 * 3 * 2 = 24,000
• On-going development and maintenance of the website * 1 person * 10 months = 5,000 * 1 * 10 = 50,000
• Smart contract development *1 people * 1 months = 7,000 * 1 * 1 = 7,000
• Smart contract audit = 10,000
• Website content operations * 1 person * 10 months = 3,000 * 1 * 10 = 30,000
• Invited writers * 1 articles per month * 10 months = 500 * 1 * 10 = 5,000
• Marketing campaigns * 1 every 2 months * 10 months = 1000 * 0.5 * 10 = 5,000
• Derivative product design and physical prototype building = 10,000
• Others (domain name, server, etc.) = 3,000

Total: $164,000 for the first year.

Appendix

1. The Chinese Version of this proposal

As suggested by community members, we made a Chinese version for showing to Chinese $APE holders and Ape NFT holders. We created a separate link to avoid making this page too long to view.

The Chinese version can be viewed at: Apeverse - Ape 生态系统和 $APE 持有者的多语言信息分享平台 — 0xChrisL.

2. Past articles we published about the Ape ecosystem

We have published Ape-related articles on Asian media platforms, e.g. BAYC’s Successful Evolution: Analysis of the Brand Value Behind It. This article was widely spread in the Chinese web3 communities: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/h3OpFpfWUdVevKMpdd_o0Q
The English version: The Successful Evolution of BAYC: Anatomy of the Brand Value Beh… — 0xChrisL.

We also periodically summarized stats of Ape NFT to the Asian community groups. Here’s one example we made before: Bored Ape Weekly Report (Aug 1 to Aug 7) — 0xChrisL.
The Bored Ape Gazette forwarded our work: https://www.theboredapegazette.com/post/stats-take-a-closer-look-at-the-sales-numbers-for-the-bayc-mayc-from-aug-14-20-2022.

[Amplify]

This is very cool! Thank you for writing this up.

I’m a big fan of the chat module. Can you expand a little on Merchandise and Payments section? Will there be a future AIP to request usage of the ApeCoin logo and other assets or is this AIP essentially asking permission to use the logo on T-shirts, phone cases, and frisbees?

What are your plans with the revenue from the merchandise section of the website? It’s totally fine to say you want to keep it, I’m just wondering if funneling revenue back into the DAO is something your team has been thinking about, and if so, how you would go about doing it.

Thank you again for putting this together!

-Amplify

[ChrisL]

Hi Amplify,

I’m glad that you like the chat module. The goal is to create a place for members to engage with each other. We hope this could be similar to a community group.

I may not be clear enough on the merchandise part. The store will be selling derivative products of Ape NFTs (BAYC, MAYC, etc), similar to the pictures shown above. So we were not requesting the usage of the ApeCoin logo in this proposal. But I think it is also a good idea to make merchandise with the ApeCoin logo. We will submit another AIP for this usage in the future.

A big part of the revenue will go to the NFT owners because we want to incentivize owners to use their NFT for derivative products. Another part of the revenue will be used for continuous operation. We want to build a sustainable business, and it will probably not be profitable in the first year. However, we do have plans to share the net profit with ApeCoin DAO. We are thinking to give out 20% of the net profits (similar to an angel investment). What do you think of this?

– ChrisL

[Amplify]

Thank you for clearing up the Merchandise section. I think it would be pretty cool to get ApeCoin’s logo on some merch.

I love that you are considering flowing some of the net profits back into the DAO. I agree with you though, that the platform likely won’t be profitable in the first year while marketing ramps up and we crawl our way out of the bear market.

So while I’m glad you guys are thinking about this, it definitely shouldn’t be a priority IMO. Revenue should go to the NFT holders and your team. If you were using the ApeCoin logo, I do think that would reopen this conversation though, as I expect the DAO would want to experience some upside from allowing usage of brand resources.

Thank you for answering my questions, and providing your feedback.

-Amplify

[ChrisL]

Yes I totally agree. Our team did not think of using the ApeCoin logo to make products before but it’s nice that you brought it up. There will be a much bigger revenue sharing to ApeCoin DAO if we sell swags with the ApeCoin logo. I think it could benefit the whole community, especially ApeCoin fans.

We will write another AIP for the usage of the ApeCoin logo after we start to build Apeverse. Thanks for the idea again!

– ChrisL

[Marklar]

Long believed that no project can truly scale without being multi-lingual. Have directly witnessed constricted growth in other projects, and have privately discussed BAYC within this risk vector. The one project I’ve seen try to capture this out of the gate is 0xThulu, hosting spaces in different languages and so forth.

No comments on specifics right now other than: this is an important initiative.

[riva]

I like the idea of building a website for multi-language. We’d love to see different communities united in one place. My question is why put a chat module under the ApeCoin chart and how does this benefit for ApeCoin?

[ChrisL]

Thanks for the comment. Yes we want to create a place for the global community and eliminate language barriers, which we think are currently fragmented. The Exposure of news and activities among different geographical areas would definitely help in developing an international community.

[ChrisL]

Hi Riva. The chat module is to build a space for members to interact with each other. On the ApeCoin page, we encourage members to share trading strategies and opinions about ApeCoin secondary market.

There’s a tipping function in this chat module. High-quality comments may receive tips ($APE) from other members. Only users with at least 1 $APE can send messages in the chat module. Plus, in our roadmap, we will unlock more advanced functions to $APE holders and paid members. We think this could bring more utility to ApeCoin in payment as well as social functions.

Hope I answered your questions.

[Waabam]

Thanks Chris for putting this AIP idea together. I really like the idea of strengthening the community in the Asia-Pacific area.

Being from the west, I don’t have a thorough understanding of the Asia-Pacific part of the Ape community, can you tell me where the bayc/ape community in Asia is found?

Do you use discord and twitter or are there other more popular platforms?

Where do people in Asia-Pacific go to learn about what’s happening in the Yugaverse?

I’m trying to understand how/where the Apeverse hub would fit into the larger ape ecosystem in Asia.

Great work so far. It’s an impressive AIP idea.

[ChrisL]

Hi Waabam. Thanks for your support! I assumed what you raised is a common question in the western community, and that’s also a reason for the creation of Apeverse.

Asia-Pacific is a large place where users have very different behaviors and hobbies while the language barrier is still huge for different countries/cultures. For the majority of them, the primary social apps are not Twitter or Discord, but their local app, e.g. WeChat in China, Kakao in Korea, and Line in Japan. There are many small groups in these social apps with hundreds of members (maybe even fewer) but super active.

The way they learn the news is by active members copying official announcements from Twitter and posting in the group chat. Their focuses are on official channels only because other English resources are hard for many of the local community members. Therefore, local news and writers are important resources for these communities. This is why we have plans to invite local writers periodically.

Now you may understand why we put Multi-Language as the first attribute of Apeverse. By putting news and activities together (both western and eastern), members are easier to know what’s happening in other places. Additionally, we are connected to leaders of many local groups. Some of them are making derivative products, opening Ape-themed bars/cafes, and doing other contributions but they don’t have enough voice to spread out, and Apeverse will be the place for them.

Hope I helped you understand more about the Asian-Pacific community. I’d love to answer more if you have further comments.

– ChrisL

[adventurousape]

Thanks so much for your proposal! I love what you’re trying to do and think trying to bridge the communication gap between the East and the West is so important.

[ChrisL]

Thank you AdventurousApe! We will try our best.

[Pearson]

Hi @ChrisL,

Your topic will be automatically closing in less than 24 hours. Are you content with the feedback received, or do you wish to extend community discussion for a further 7 days?

If we do not hear from you within 48 hours after your topic closes, your topic will be moved straight to the AIP Draft process.

We look forward to hearing from you.

-Pearson

[ChrisL]

Thank you @Pearson . Please move the topic to the AIP draft process after this topic is closed.

[Lost]

Everything here is well outlined and seems like a good addition to the available media content in web3 as a whole. There are a couple proposals that have passed creating formal ApeCoin DAO newsletters, maybe there’s a way you could collaborate with them to get some initial content going. @Boredapegazette @Vulkan @0xSword are a few of the ones to connect with for that.

Thanks for submitting!

-Lost

[ChrisL]

Thank you Lost. We talked to The Bored Ape Gazette before the initial of this proposal, and we have discussed further collaborations. Thanks for the advice again!

– ChrisL

[Novocrypto]

Wonderful AIP! Thank you for sharing! I love the focus on expanding the ape ecosystem across continents while integrating other languages. This is an amazing idea! Here are a few thoughts I’d like to share at this stage:

1. would you be able to create a map of the areas that you plan to cover and support initially including any stats on the number of existing community members in these areas and the languages they use? I understand that your initial focus is on Chinese Korean and Japanese? Would expansion be limited to East Asian countries and languages or will have the potential to include other parts of Asia, for example West Asia?

2. Is onboarding new people into the ape ecosystem one of the goals of this project or is it mostly focused on providing services and support to existing community? If the former, then do you have a vision and a number in mind for how and how much you could grow the ape ecosystem’s outreach in Asia via your website?

3. it looks like most of your budget is currently focused on pre-production with monthly payment for team involved in building the website and smart contract development higher than what you envisioned for content creation and maintenance! I’m not sure if I fully understand the rationale behind these figures and how they can contribute to a sustainable project with in-built longevity strategy. You also mentioned 2 articles per month commissioned at $200 each if I understood correctly. That to me sounds a bit on the low side and I’d be concerned about quality and continuity of content especially given you are planning to publish in different languages. Will you have in-house editors and content creators? I’d suggest at least one editor in each of your operational languages who are also able to do translation work.

4. will there be a language choice option meaning all the website content to be translated and available in all your working languages including English? If yes then this will be a relatively large task and would need additional budget. I hope that this is something you are thinking of including so everyone can stay informed about developments in the region even if they don’t speak the specific language!

Again, loved your idea and think there’s great potential in this AIP.

[river]

Thank you @ChrisL for your ideas and the ApeCoin DAO community for the thoughtful discussions. A moderator will get in touch with the author to draft the AIP in the appropriate template. Once the AIP is drafted and meets all the DAO-approved guidelines, the proposal will be posted on Snapshot for live official voting at: Snapshot

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments. @ChrisL please see your messages for the next steps.

- river