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[Korean Startup Interview] UwUFUFU Transforms Social Media with an Interactive Content Platform Targeting the MZ Generation

2024-02-13 5 min read

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[Korean Startup Interview] UwUFUFU Transforms Social Media with an Interactive Content Platform Targeting the MZ Generation

Reading Time: 5 minutes
  • funding Stage : Pre-Series A 
  • Raising Amount : $2M
  • Desired Fundraising Timeframe : 1Q 2024

In this insightful interview, UwUFUFU.com unveils its innovative approach to meet the evolving demands of social media users. The platform aims to revolutionize organic brand promotion and content creation by offering unique, user-generated interactive quizzes. 

Unlike traditional static platforms, UwUFUFU.com fosters a sense of community, allowing users to actively engage and share diverse content. With a remarkable 767% YoY growth, the platform has gained 1.44 million monthly active users. UwUFUFU.com’s revenue model integrates advertising and subscription services, targeting a substantial serviceable addressable market of USD 2.37 billion. 

The team’s competitive advantage lies in their diverse skill set, a track record of continuous innovation, and a commitment to problem-solving. Investors are drawn to the platform’s impressive growth trajectory and ambitious plans to achieve a $3 million ARR within 18 months. 

Positioned as a unique player in the industry, UwUFUFU.com stands at the forefront of the next stage of growth, driven by user-generated content and community involvement. As the platform continues to evolve, it invites potential partners to join its exciting journey.

What problem is our team trying to solve?

Companies and brands want a more organic and efficient way to spread brand awareness and acquire customers at scale. Gen Z and Millennials want to share their interests with the world in a more interactive fashion to people with similar interests. Current social media platforms are one-way communication in the form of static content. Content creators post text, images, or videos, and consumers participate through comments or likes. However, the Minecraft and Roblox generation seeks interactive content beyond simple static consumption.

How are we solving this problem?

To solve this problem, we have created UwUFUFU.com, a web based social media platform where users can create content in the form of interactive quizzes. Our quizzes are not typical trivia or poll type quizzes, but instead are user generated interactive quizzes such as ideal type World Cup, MBTI, balance games, and music quizzes, which have gained popularity globally.

How does our competitiveness compare to competitors addressing this problem?

Our competitive advantage lies in our focus on user-generated interactive content within a growing community. Unlike other quiz platforms that primarily adopt a casual gaming model, we encourage users to form their communities by creating, sharing and playing content they are interested in, enhancing our competitive edge. 

We have established a user habit flywheel where they are creating all the content, playing the content and sharing the content bringing in the traffic. They have helped us moderate and translate our platform in 28 languages and are being played in 200 countries. 

Additionally, our proprietary feed algorithm and search functionality contribute to a tailored and enjoyable user experience.

What product do you offer, and what is its current status?

Our service, UwUFUFU, is a website with an Android app launched at the end of January. Users can easily create and play various quizzes and generate other general content. Our quizzes, including ideal type World Cup, balance games, MBTI, and music quizzes, have gained popularity, and we plan to release new quiz types regularly. Our user base has grown to 1.44 million monthly active users (MAU) +767%YoY, with monthly quiz plays reaching 2.2 million.

What is the target market size, and who are our core customers?

Everyone knows the social media advertising market is huge with an estimated total addressable market (TAM) of US$204 billion. Our core target customers are companies interested in advertising through social media, with a serviceable addressable market (SAM) estimated at US$2.37 billion.

What is your business model?

Our business model involves a combination of advertising and monthly subscription services. We currently focus on advertising publishing, with plans to incorporate direct advertising as we grow. Our monthly subscription options include B2C plans at $2 and $5, along with B2B plans at $49 and $99.

What achievements has our team accomplished?

Over the past eight years, we have pivoted seven times, developed multiple products, and collaborated with global gaming companies like EA and PUBG. In 2018, we secured seed funding from Bluepoint Partners. We then flipped to a Delaware C Corp in 2019 and secured angel funding.

What is our team’s competitive advantage?

Our team boasts a diverse skill set, including a CEO with a 10+ years at global investments banks such as UBS and Merrill Lynch, a CTO with experience at major gaming companies such as NCSoft, Riot Games and Smilegate. 

He was early employee at Riot Games Korea serving instrumental role in establishing League of Legends as the #1 game in Korea. We also have a dedicated team of developers with 5-7 years of experience working together. 

Through thick and thin we have been through a lot together, and we have stuck through it. Our commitment to continuous problem-solving and iterative testing, fueled by passion, forms the foundation of our competitive advantage.

Why should investors consider investing in our team?

Firstly, with a 767% growth in MAU in 2023 and monthly quiz plays surpassing 2 million, we are poised to take the next step in rapid growth. 

Secondly, With rapid growth we are seeing our server and database costs rise as expected. As we start rapid growth we need the architecture and systems to fuel our growth. 

Lastly, during the process of reaching critical mass, we will continuously test and experiment new monetization strategy fine tuning based on data and metrics. Through these monetization features we target $3million ARR within 18 months.

In Korea, Von Von, a quiz startup, grew to 200 million MAU but then failed. What sets us apart?

Our approach focuses on community growth through user-generated content. Users voluntarily form communities, create content, and actively engage, differentiating us from platforms like Von Von which had to create all the quiz and content themselves. Their model was more like a casual game where they had the burden of generating a hit game. Our users are already part of the communities of their particular interest and know better than us what people with similar interests want. So this user generated content angle differentiates us from Von Von. 

Also, our genesis has similarities to other successful community based platforms like Discord, Reddit, Instagram, and DC Inside in Korea. All of these started with a highly affected core value proposition which were excellent user acquisition channels. But once they started to acquire a substantial amount of users, their users demanded more to stay and come back to the platform. 

Discord started as VoIP for gamers and allowed users to then make communities in the form of ‘servers’. Reddit started as a site where you could up or down vote internet content and created ‘subreddits’ which allowed them to create communities. Instagram started as a photo sharing app, DC Inside was a community for digital camera enthusiasts and added ‘galleries’ which allowed users to form their own communities. 

UwUFUFU is taking a similar approach. We are starting with quizzes which are effectively acquiring users, but our users are forming their own communities so we are preparing features and functions which help them expand on this.

UwUFUFU, led by our users, is moving towards the next stage of growth through community involvement and is seeking partners to join us in this journey.

[Korean Startup Interview]

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