Kin Ads: A New Way for Apps to Monetize with Kin

Developers can now monetize with Kin by allowing users to be paid for their time online

The vision for Kin is to power an economy where everyone is fairly compensated for the value they create online. As outlined in this recent post, in order to achieve that the ecosystem needs to focus on driving real demand for Kin. That means getting users to want Kin enough to be willing to spend their dollars or attention in order to get it. In this post, I will dive deeper into one of the ways developers are driving consumer and advertiser demand for Kin through ads. While it is still early days, we are excited about the role advertising can play in driving sustainable real demand.

If done right, incorporating advertising into a crypto based business model has massive potential. Apps can monetize by allowing users to be rewarded for their time online, and advertisers are able to more effectively garner the attention of those users. In turn, dollars generated by users consuming ads are translated into Kin on the open market which creates real demand. This has the potential to create the following win-win-win:

Developers benefit from an additional monetization option and added liquidity Users benefit as they earn Kin and are paid for their time online Ecosystem benefits from additional liquidity and real demand on the market (not just speculative demand)

We have been thinking about advertising and rewarding users for quite some time, and now is an opportune time to lean in. Personally, having been a part of the team that developed Kik Points, I have seen the revenue and engagement potential possible with rewarded advertising. We were early to the punch when we initially explored the opportunity with Kin, as seen here, given we did not have adequate scale. With over 5.5 million users earning Kin each month across 50+ apps, we now have levels of scale that are attractive to advertisers and can have a meaningful impact on sustainable real demand.

In November, a number of developers in the ecosystem came together to talk about things we could do to drive demand for Kin. One of the topics of discussion was advertising. A number of partners raised their hands indicating they were interested in finding a way to build an ad product with Kin. Today, I am excited to share that one of the driving forces coming out of that summit, Miquel Tolsa (CEO, MonkingMe), is launching the first Kin Ads related initiatives. Miquel will be spearheading a highly capable, decentralized, team consisting of Luc Hendriks (Founder, KinFit) and Joshua Doner (Marketing Manager, General Assembly). You can read more about what they are building here.

Developers from all over the world are coming together to drive the growth of the Kin Economy. To fuel that growth, the Kin Foundation recently launched the Kin Foundation Grant Program that enables qualified teams and individuals to submit a proposal and be awarded a grant to help drive real demand for Kin. Miquel and his team are the first recipients of a grant, providing them with financial incentives to drive demand through advertising with Kin. We look forward to watching them grow over the coming months and encourage others to submit proposals here.