“Kakao’s global public blockchain project Klaytn is an enterprise-grade, service-centric platform that brings user-friendly blockchain experience to millions.” — Klaytn.com

Several months ago we announced that the GET Protocol was one of the launching partners of GroundX’s Klaytn blockchain. On the 27th of June Klaytn(Korean Standard Time) will launch their mainnet. An exciting moment for sure!

How the GET Protocol will work on top of the Klaytn blockchain, will not be disclosed in this blog. Rest assured that details about this will be provided as soon as they are relevant. If actions are required from GET holders, instruction will be clearly communicated and the timeframe to act will be extensive (if not indefinite).

To summarize, until further notice, the GET Protocol remains running on the Ethereum blockchain as does its ERC20 token. As we are not rushing the migration process. We will await the Klaytn mainnet to stabilize before making permanent decisions.

Why we are choosing for Klaytn

Our choice for choosing to be an Initial Service Provider of Klaytn is based on two aspects. The first aspect is the fact that Klaytn’s blockchain infrastructure is fully business and integration focused, more than any other blockchain in the market. This results in huge improvements in areas as cost-efficiency, scalability, and data reliability. The second aspect is fueled by the potential of being part of the Klaytn ecosystem.

This blog will mainly expand on what exactly constitutes the Klaytn ecosystem and why it is especially interesting for the GET Protocol to join.

End users all over the world care more about usability and price of the service they receive. Business ethics and transparency are important, but they generally come second. While this fact can be frustrating, it is important to embrace its merit and deal with this reality.

Recipes for adoption

Putting your tech in the hands of ends users requires more than having a code base available. You need a strategy to actually commercially roll out the solution.

Our tech

As a company active in the ticketing industry for over 3 years we have experienced that having an objectively more elegant and complete service, doesn’t mean you have the keys to the whole ticketing sector. It just doesn’t work that way, although GET Protocol is undoubtedly gaining prominence (with Itix and Audio Obscura additions being prime examples).

We realized soon that if we want to make bold and rapid moves in countries far beyond our ‘reach’, we would benefit from having a strong local partner. This partner would have to bring us deep market knowledge, access, and connections needed to gain traction and market share effectively.

Where traditional ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and Eventbite enter market this by company acquisition in a foreign market, GET uses a novel approach, by creating added value through organic network effects. Partnering up with Kakao’s Klaytn is a prime example.

Kakao’s network & reach

This partner we found in GroundX, a subsidiary of Korea’s Kakao Corp. In the following paragraphs, I will briefly elaborate on what the ‘Kakao/Klaytn ecosystem is and how we envision this ecosystem to support further GET growth and integration in the Korean peninsula.

More users, more room for synergy

In 2017 Kakao had more than 220 millions users on their messaging and content platform. The last few years the company has been rapidly expanding in other industry verticals.

Whereas gaining market share by simply buying it with brute force surely works (as proven by LiveNation), at GET we believe that in this day and age of connectivity and decentralization more opportunities for adding value lie in vertical integration, meaning that we believe that platforms allowing for different services to compliment each other drive more value than platforms or products that are about locking a user in completely (WeChatbeing an example of this value model).

It is this immersive and integrated ecosystem we see in Klaytn’s platform. While the vision is surely ambitious, Kakao’s track record and company portfolio are more than sufficient to back this up. The Klaytn blockchain makes this vertical integration possible as it is a scalable base-layer for asset, identity and content distribution.

In the next few paragraphs I will list a few of Kakao Corps achievements and from there will show that we have a fertile shared vision to build on.

Kakao Corp & the Klaytn business ecosystem

GroundX is a subsidiary of Kakao Corp, a large Korean conglomerate that is owner/shareholder in a wide array of prominent internet & media companies. All data listed below are all available for the public on Kakao Corps website.

Overview of all business verticals in which Kakao has a presence. Source: https://t1.kakaocdn.net/kakaocorp/admin/ir/results-announcement/3888.pdf

Kakao is active in almost all internet & media verticals in Asia. Totaling more than 250 millions users spread over 50+ countries it is safe to say that this Korean company is a leader in building consumer-facing and innovative products.

Business focus

As Kakao controls a large number of large internet businesses, they set out to build a blockchain component that would be able to support actual real-world use of blockchain technology. As such Klaytn is specifically built to be a blockchain for economically scalable and 100% legal business models.

Kakao’s strategy to create an immersive ecosystem for the end user. Klaytn will be the foundation for all these different applications to interact and settle.

A shared vision of the future

Partnering with a company that is part of a larger conglomerate only really makes sense if there is a shared vision in how the future looks. As stated in one of the reports, Kakao aims to bring a portion of the companies in their portfolio together on the Klaytn blockchain. By joining this network the GET Protocol will also be able to tap into this network of collaborating companies and their users.

A peek in Kakao Corps portfolio

To give an idea of what is possible, I will list a few companies in Kakao Corps portfolio that have overlap in our ambitions.

Crypto /Blockchain: GroundX -> The Klaytn blockchain.

Kakao Chat/Talk-> Messaging app with more than 50 million active daily users.

Melon Ticket -> Ticketing providing services for prominent K-pop stars and other events.

Fintech/Crypto -> Exchanges like Upbit & Coinone.

Kakao Game, Kakao Friends, Daum Portal -> Digital content, e-sports, gaming

Kakao Music -> Music distribution, Fan engagement, artist management & event promotion

Focus on actual adoption and business use case

There is no shortage of high-performance blockchains with little to no actual users. Even if a blockchain has high amounts of traffic, generally this traffic then originates from applications in the ‘grey zone’ of the digital economy (like gambling, prediction markets & erotic content).

What is more, since the very start the team of Klaytn has shown tremendous support in stimulating growth in the Korean event market.

“Klaytn welcomes GET PROTOCOL’s active efforts in effectively adopting blockchain to not only address long-standing ticket scalping issues within the existing industry, but to also bring forth new business paradigms to further enhance the ticketing experience for global users. We are very excited to support GET PROTOCOL in establishing its strong foothold in Korean market.”

- Chase Choi, Head of Business Development at KLAYTN -

It is safe to say that this all-encompassing ecosystem of Klaytn & Kakao offers a wide array of possibilities for us to collaborate on. The future looks integrated! We are very excited for what is to come.