TON Ecosystem User Growth Path: From Social Fission to Traffic Monetization

Original author: Andrea Chang, Partner, Oak Grove Ventures; Alan Cui, Product Advisor, Oak Grove Ventures

Amid the rapid development of the blockchain space, the TON ecosystem stands out for its unique growth path. Drawing on the success of WeChat’s mini-programs, TON’s MiniApps not only drive user expansion for the ecosystem, but also provide innovative business models and effective traffic strategies for Web3 projects. These MiniApps have demonstrated strong traffic generation capabilities on Telegram channels, allowing Web3 projects to quickly reach a wide range of users. This article will delve into the rapid growth of the TON ecosystem and analyze how it provides valuable business model references and traffic generation solutions for future Web3 users on Telegram and other Web2 channels through MiniApps, helping them succeed in an increasingly competitive market.

· Significant growth in TON on-chain data

Common indicators for evaluating the level of ecosystem growth include transaction volume, number of active addresses, smart contract development, total locked value (TVL), network fees, validator participation, token transfer volume, and MiniApp interaction. These indicators fully reflect the development and activity of the ecosystem.

Source: https://www.tonstat.com/, as of September 30

User acquisition strategy on TON

Social fission: a low-cost and efficient user growth strategy

Social fission is a very effective user acquisition strategy, especially widely used in social platforms. By relying on the user's social network, social fission achieves rapid user growth through the spread of relationship chains. Compared with traditional advertising marketing, social fission is cheaper and more persuasive because users are more inclined to believe in recommendations from friends or family. In addition, social fission uses network effects and fission gameplay to form an exponential dissemination effect and bring precise user growth. These users obtained through fission are usually similar to the interests, needs and behavioral characteristics of the target users, which makes the dissemination more effective. At the same time, relying on social products that are used frequently in daily life, users have higher stickiness and can use these platforms and products more frequently.

Learn from WeChat's fission strategy

As a successful example of social fission, WeChat's mini-program operation, external link management, and personal account use provide rich reference experience for other platforms. The fission gameplay that was once banned on WeChat can be tried again on Telegram. By learning from WeChat's operating experience, projects on Telegram can use these social fission strategies to achieve viral spread and rapid user growth.

Application scenario: games

Depending on the complexity of the product and business, the customer acquisition methods of viral fission can be divided into several levels:

· 0 Online earning type: attracting users through simple online earning mechanisms, such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, which have hundreds of millions of user bases and huge channel subscribers on Telegram.

· Probability game type: Combined with the fission gameplay of probability lottery, such as opening red envelopes, lucky wheel, opening blind boxes, etc. Typical projects include Catizen (cat cultivation) and TonGifts (sending red envelopes). Such projects rely on social networks to quickly spread users.

· Casual game type: Attract users through more complex gameplay and entertainment scenes, such as Catizen and PixelTap (robot battle). These casual games increase user stickiness and participation through deep user interaction.

Application scenario: Memecoin

User acquisition strategy is not only applicable to traditional products, but also crucial in the promotion of Meme Coin. The diffusion path of Meme Coin can be likened to the difference between natural diamonds and artificial diamonds. Natural Meme Coin spreads spontaneously through the community, usually from Reddit to Telegram or Discord, and then spreads to a wider range of social platforms. Artificial Meme Coin, on the other hand, uses social fission strategy to achieve rapid viral spread within Telegram.

To create a hit Meme Coin, the key lies in the strategy of "working hard to achieve miracles + surrounding the city from the countryside", using low-cost and high-explosive social scenarios for promotion. A developer-friendly environment and fair design are also important factors in attracting users. In addition, by creating FOMO (fear of missing out) emotions, more people are encouraged to participate, thus forming a strong consensus and user traffic.

These user acquisition strategies not only played an important role in the incubation of Meme Coin, but also provided a strong impetus for user growth for Telegram and TON ecosystems. This strategy has opened up a broad space for the development of the Web3 ecosystem in the future.

Phenomenal success story: Notcoin

Notcoin is a social clicker game (Clicker Apps) accessible through Telegram. Since its official launch on January 1, 2024, it has quickly attracted a large number of users. The game has reached amazing numbers in just a few months: 40 million Telegram users, 8 million Telegram channel subscribers, and 6 million daily active users. The following are the key time nodes in its development history:

· January 1, 2024: Official launch of the game.

· January 26, 2024: Cumulative users reach 20 million.

· February 29, 2024: Joint event with Binance.

· March 8, 2024: Pre-Market opened on Getgems, 10M Notcoin points exchanged for one NFT voucher (ultimately equal to 10,000 NOT).

· March 30, 2024: Announcement of the token economy, and announcement that 100% of NOT tokens will be distributed to players.

· April 12, 2024: End of game mining and announcement of the official economic model.

· May 16, 2024: Simultaneous launch on Binance, OKX and Bybit.

Notcoin’s success can be attributed to the three major factors of “right time, right place, right people”:

· Telegram official needs: Telegram needs a prosperous ecosystem, a large number of applications similar to WeChat applets, and developers can profit from them. Notcoin just meets this need.

· TON Foundation needs: TON Foundation needs to establish the utility and business model of TON tokens by building an application ecosystem, and Notcoin is an ideal application scenario.

· Trading platform needs: In the current market downturn, trading platforms are in urgent need of new Web3 users, and Notcoin's large user base just provides them with this opportunity.

· Web3 and Web2 user needs: Notcoin's success is also attributed to meeting the needs of different user groups, such as the fairness pursued by experienced Web3 users and the desire for low barriers and high returns for new Web2 users.

In addition, Notcoin's success also benefits from meeting the needs of different user groups, such as the fairness pursued by Web3 veterans and the desire for low thresholds and high returns by Web2 newcomers.

Telegram + TON's main business model

1. In-app purchase (virtual value-added)

As the main revenue model for WeChat ecological mini-games, this model has spawned a number of popular paid products, such as "Sheep of Sheep" in 2021.

As of Q2 2024, WeChat mini-games have exceeded 500 million monthly active users, with an estimated annual revenue of 40 billion yuan. The following figure is the best-selling list of WeChat mini games in June 2024:

Source: DataEye Research Institute

Similar to WeChat mini games, in the Telegram + TON ecosystem, in-app purchases have become a successful business model, especially in the field of games. Catizen is a typical representative of this model. Since its release in March 2024, Catizen has attracted more than 50 million users in less than four months and achieved revenue of more than 20 million US dollars through in-game purchases. It is worth noting that Catizen's success is not only reflected in its huge user base, but also in its high ARPU (average revenue per user). In addition, 40% of Telegram Premium users are Catizen players, which shows that the high integration of virtual value-added services and social platforms has brought significant profit opportunities to developers.

2. Coin Issuance and Listing

Coin issuance and listing is another major business model in the Telegram + TON ecosystem, and the Notcoin project is a successful example of this model. Since its official launch in January 2024, Notcoin has quickly accumulated 40 million users and successfully brought NOT tokens to the market through a series of activities and strategic cooperation (such as Binance co-branded activities and Pre-Market on Getgems). This model not only helped Notcoin quickly expand its user base, but also achieved a seamless transition from games to financial markets through the token economy model. In the end, Notcoin's tokens were successfully listed on major trading platforms such as Binance, OKX and Bybit, further consolidating its market position. In late September, Catizen and Hamster were also successfully listed on trading platforms.

3. Traffic conversion - sales, joint operation and incubation

Traffic sales: an efficient monetization strategy

In the Telegram + TON ecosystem, traffic sales have become an efficient and direct monetization strategy. Holdcoin, Tomarket and Banana are representatives of this model. They operate multiple projects every day and generate considerable income by selling user traffic of Telegram channels. Depending on the number, quality and regional distribution of purchasing users, the selling price of a single user on mainstream platforms ranges from US$0.03 to US$0.1. This model not only can quickly obtain cash flow, but also provides a convenient way to acquire users for small and medium-sized projects.

Traffic joint operation: incubating new projects with the help of mature ecosystems

The traffic joint operation model is called the "Cheetah model" and has been widely used in the Telegram + TON ecosystem. Catizen's long-term plan includes this strategy, planning to incubate 200 games that were once popular in the WeChat ecosystem. By leveraging the existing user base and traffic advantages, the traffic joint operation model helps these games quickly gain users on Telegram and revitalize them. This model not only reduces the marketing costs of new projects, but also greatly increases the success rate, allowing once popular games to be reborn in the new ecosystem.

Meme Incubation: Comprehensive Promotion from Community to Market

The Meme Incubation Model is an extension of traffic sales and joint operations, combining the functions of launchpad and DEX, providing a one-stop solution from incubation to market promotion for Meme Coin projects. Blum is one of the successful cases of this model, with 20 million Telegram channel users. Through Binance Labs' MVP program, the Blum project successfully promoted multiple Meme Coin projects on social platforms and crypto markets. The Meme Incubation Model uses Telegram's powerful social network and TON's blockchain technology to enable emerging Meme projects to quickly attract community attention, obtain initial traffic, and eventually achieve trading on DEX. This model not only promotes the spread of Meme culture, but also provides investors and community members with the opportunity to participate in innovative projects.

4. Advertising Revenue

Telegram's new TON-based advertising revenue model brings new profit opportunities to public channel owners. Channel owners can receive 50% of advertising revenue and pay in Toncoin (TON), the cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain. For channels that are difficult to monetize directly, especially educational and entertainment channels, this model undoubtedly provides more room for the development of high-quality content. At the same time, Telegram also offers the Telegram Star program, which allows channel or robot owners to run advertisements through the Telegram advertising platform and use the Stars in the channel or robot account balance to pay for advertising costs, enjoying up to 30% discounts. This provides channel owners with a more cost-effective way to attract new users, thereby further enhancing the exposure and growth potential of their channels or robots.

Summary – Thoughts on Telegram Traffic and Web3 Growth

With the continued growth of Telegram users, traffic sales and joint operation incubation models have shown great potential in the Telegram + TON ecosystem. In the future, these models may further integrate AI and big data analysis technologies to improve the accuracy of traffic matching and marketing effectiveness. At the same time, with the development of the TON ecosystem, the combination of traffic sales and blockchain technology will bring more innovative business models, helping projects stand out in the fiercely competitive market.

In the Web3 ecosystem, the most critical issue at present is how to acquire new users and traffic, rather than relying solely on narratives. As long as enough users can be attracted, strong traffic itself can drive the formation of narratives, and Meme culture is one of the largest traffic and narratives. Just like the metaphor of natural diamonds and artificial diamonds, although Pepe has unique value as a natural representative of Meme culture, artificial Memes can also create equally valuable value through careful design and marketing.

These trends show that Telegram, as a platform for traffic monetization, has great flexibility and diversity, providing project developers and investors with rich business opportunities. By effectively utilizing these traffic monetization models, project parties can achieve rapid growth in a short period of time and achieve their expected business goals.

This article comes from a contribution and does not represent the views of BlockBeats