HOQU is a decentralized affiliate platform combining the performance-marketing model with blockchain technology. In an Interview with Alexey Shmonov, the CEO of Hoqu, he explains that the aim of the project is to create a decentralized ecosystem, which will be used to build CPA services, ranging from affiliate programs to affiliate networks and related products. HOQU integrates merchants, networks and affiliates into a single platform, significantly reducing the financial costs for all market participants.

1) Why do you think HOQU will do well?

Alexey: On the HOQU platform, a merchant can easily create affiliate offers, and the results of affiliate advertising campaigns will be stored in distributed registries (blockchain). Rewards will be paid through smart contracts that guarantee honesty and transparency of transactions. A smart anti-fraud system developed as part of the merchant’s decentralized application will not allow affiliates to engage in fraudulent activities, and independent, decentralized audit appeal centers will address any emerging, controversial issues.

The HOQU platform will also be useful for existing affiliate networks. The SDK will enable one to integrate networks with the platform, thereby lowering the cost of paying affiliate fees. As well, it shall and add transparency to your network by enabling all affiliates registered within the platform to work with affiliate programs of the network.

2) When and how did you realize that the blockchain technology could make marketing more efficient and effective?

The HOQU blockchain system records all data of participants in the platform ecosystem. This is the whole array of personal, reputational and other data on partners and merchants. Also, the unalterable journal of the system records all leads obtained by partners, according to which a calculation is made in a performance marketing system oriented solely at the result — the number of truly interested customers.

3) What are smart contracts and how do they ensure transparent and fair deals?

A smart contract is a piece of code executed on the Ethereum platform. The contract is primarily responsible for the transparent distribution of commissions and stores only the data that affects the amount of payment. The contract itself cannot physically conduct an audit of leads on fraud. Fraud is excluded only due to a single ecosystem, where punishment is provided for any fraudulent activity.

4) Regarding the ICO, how much are you planning to raise and what will it be used for?

Total hard cap during HOQU Token sale is $ 14,791,000

Team 10 %

Marketing 21 %

Development Product 19 %

Legal 3 %

Business Functions 15 %

Global Expansion 17 %

Overheads 12 %

Charity 3 %

5) What do ICO participants get by joining your ICO?

Token holders will reserve an opportunity to pay for high quality marketing services and participate in one of the largest industries, which has surpassed the $200 bln. mark this year.

6) What’s HOQU’s roadmap after the ICO?

After the Token Sale ends, we plan to conduct a lot of releases which have different types of influence on the HOQU ecosystem. Here are the main ones:

Release of the decentralized affiliate/merchant application by March 2018,

Launch of the world’s first decentralized affiliate network on the HOQU platform in September, 2018

Decentralized platform mobile application in February, 2019

Developer Toolkit (SDK) in March, 2019

7) Where do you see the value of HOQU Token in the medium to long term and the ultimate benefit for token holders?

The value of the HQX Token is certain to increase given the fact that the amount of tokens in circulation will be limited and there will be no issuance of new tokens. In addition, as the asset turnover on the platform rises, the value of the token will increase as a result. A greater number of transactions among participants require a greater number of tokens spent.

8) There could be potential investors out there who might not know how to participate in the HOQU Token Sale. Kindly give us a step-by-step guide on how to participate in the crowdsale?

First of all, you should have a compatible wallet – this is the most essential point as there are some investors who forget about the risk of not receiving tokens by using incompatible wallet. They are:

MyEtherWallet

Parity

Metamask

Ethereum Wallet

imToken

Secondly – you should register at https://account.hoqu.io and define your wallet in the profile page https://account.hoqu.io/profile

Thirdly – transfer ETH/BTC/LTC to the addresses stated in https://account.hoqu.io/invest

​We have a step-by-step manual on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0dbNBsAeqI

9) To what level of enquiry do you feel ICO’s should be held to?

It depends on the project, as some do not even need ICOs and should simply apply to venture funds by virtue of their idea. However, in my opinion, an ICO should be held only when there is proven interest in it from real market participants and future users of the product, not just investors.

10) What can you tell us about your team? How does it compliment the execution of the project?

We have more than 70 employees working hard to deliver the product to the world. Top executives are professionals with around 15 years of working experience in marketing and IT. We also have a working CPA network called marketcall which utilizes Pay Per Call model with More than 200 merchants already and 8mln USD turnover.

11) Is there any other important message you would like to pass across to readers?

Invest in HOQU, because it is a unique idea, a pioneering product and the future of marketing, because we see the future from here.

For more information, please visit the hoqu website here https://www.hoqu.io/

See the Hoqu whitepaper here https://www.hoqu.io/whitepaper/