Original article by EVALUAPE

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A. Introduction

Contents Protocol is a decentralized premium content exchange protocol on which content provider, platform and user can sustainably coexist and cooperate, powered by WATCHA Inc.

Advantage

• The parent company is quite successful in domestic market

• Accelerated by #Hashed, which is one of the biggest token funds in Korea.

Disadvantage

• No blockchain experience and do not see any progress in development

• Two-token system may confuse users

B. Industry

According to the world’s №2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports, MarketsandMarkets forecasts the VOD (video on demand) market to grow from $25.30 billion in 2014 to $61.40 billion in 2019. In terms of regions, North America is expected to be the biggest market in terms of revenue contribution, while Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa are expected to experience increased market traction, during the forecast period.

While current traditional VOD platforms such as YouTube and Netflix make huge profit due to users consuming large amount of contents produced by content providers, content providers need to pay for an unreasonably high commission (30%-70%). In the meantime, content providers can only oblige the revenue distribution systems, which is lack of transparency and reliability. In addition, while users voluntarily participate in leaving reviews and viral marketing, their contribution to the platforms were not rewarded. Contents Protocol intends to solve the problems mentioned above.

In Korea, the major VOD market players are TVing, Pooq and WATCHA. TVing and Pooq are leading market players but they have not released any information about internal blockchain projects. So, there is no direct competitors inside Korea. Outside Korea, there are tons of projects trying to solve problems existed in traditional VOD platforms. In the whitepaper written by the project StreamSpace, a blockchain company based in Texas trying to use cutting edge technologies like decentralized storage systems and blockchains to serve independent filmmakers and indie film aficionados, listed 21 competitors that offer blockchain-based propositions for secure streaming video content distribution. There are some famous programs such as CinemaWell, Current Media, DECENT, LBRY and Steem. Details of the 21 competitors can be found on StreamSpace whitepaper. Other than these 21 competitors, there also exists some famous project such as Viewly and Livepeer. Some of the projects mentioned above have a fully operational service in the market but they are not backed by any previously existing VOD platforms. There exists a noticeable project that backed by previously existing platform called Contentbox. Contentbox is a project based in China and backed by a platform called Castbox. Castbox is a platform providing spoken audio including podcasts, on-demand radio and audiobooks and it is also the top audio platform on Google Play. Castbox attracted some top-tier investors from China and it was on exchange on July.17. Netflix and Disney are the largest potential competitors. In March, 2018, Disney Studios announced an alliance with Accenture to apply VR, machine learning, and blockchain in immersive entertainment and film production through an R&D collaboration. Netflix has not released any information about internal blockchain projects, but it is likely evaluating Amazon’s AWS Blockchain Templates BaaS.（7.5/10）

C. Mode

Contents Protocol try to distribute 70–85% of the total license fee to content creators. While the platform will only keep 5–10% of the total income, the rest will be distributed to the consumer. There will be two different tokens (CPT and CP Power) comprising the network. After consumers purchase content using CPT, CPT will be distributed to content providers and platform through smart contract. CP Powers is a network staking token. According to other second-hand information, CP Powers can be converted by CPT in 1:1 ratio and cannot be directly sold. There will be a lockup period for conversions from CP Power to CPT. When staked, it can provide various benefits to the users and content creators. The more CPT are converted into CP Power, the less CPT are circulated. More content providers and users will stake CP Power if they benefit from doing so. But description of CP Powers is missing on its official website so the design of the two-coin system is doubtful.

Its two-token system is a potential risk. It could be a double-edge sword. If the design of two-token system is beautiful, it can be a big plus point. But there is no two-token system proven to be practical in VOD area. It may confuse users and harm their experience.(6/10)

D. Technology

They did not provide any information on their technical framework. GitHub is also not available. They do not have engineers with blockchain experience. According to the answer in telegram, they also claimed that they are not sure what based protocol to build on.(2/10)

E. Team

There are 36 members listed on the official website. LinkedIn links of key players are listed. Most members of Contents Protocol are from WATCHA Inc. CEO and COO of Contents Protocol are also the CEO and COO of WATCHA Inc. Head of Content Relations is Teddy Zee. Teddy Zee is a Chinese whose films he had produced and supervised have amassed over $2.6 billion in revenue. He served as Executive Vice President at Columbia Pictures, Senior Vice President at Paramount Pictures, President of Sony-based Overbrook Films, President of Fox-based Davis Entertainment, and now under the banner of Teddy Zee Productions. He is also the advisor of the program. Other famous advisors include CEO and CAO of #Hashed, partner of Kakao Ventures and so on.

WATCHA Inc. has attracted 3.8M users with 380M reviews while providing WATCHA, WATCAH PLAY, WATHCHA MUSI, AND WATCHA WEBTOON services in South Korea and Japan over the 6 years. They provide services such as pay subscription, VOD, music streaming and so on. WATCHA has licensing deals with famous content providers such as Disney, HBO, Sony Pictures, Fox Network, BBC worldwide and so on. WATCHA and WATCHA PLAY has also been awarded the ‘Best APP of the Year’(KR) by Apple Store and Google Play since 2013. WATCHA TV will be the first platform that integrates with Contents Protocol.(6.5/10)

F. Ecosystem

Telegram 22231 members, mainly talking about private sale. Nobody talks about product or tech. Admins are always online to answer the question；Facebook — 12120 followers; Twitter:11.7K. (7/10)

Conclusion

Contents Protocol are backed by WATCHA which has already established a large market share in the Korean VOD market. Very few VOD blockchain projects have such advantage. They are also accelerated by famous token fund #Hashed and backed by some top-tier investors from Korea. The biggest concern is that the team has no experience in blockchain. Most of all, there is no Whitepaper on official website. In telegram, it claimed that the Whitepaper is only shared with strategic partners at the moment but they will publicly disclose it soon. There is only one pager on their website. We do not have any information on their technical framework. On their official website, there is no blockchain engineers listed among 36 members. Their advisors also did not have any experience in blockchain development. According to the answer in telegram, they also claimed that they are not sure what based protocol to build on. They will consider changing or creating their own blockchain based on Ethereum’s as well as other protocols’ development progress or the market situation. This project has potential to success in Korea but it is hard to be adopted globally. Its two-token system design is also a potential risk.

Hype Score: Medium

Risk Score:Medium High

Expectation:Medium

Total Score: 5.9

All information in this article is provided for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.