Exploring Religious Community Construction: Case Analysis of Yuga Labs "Ape" Universe
Original source: Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute
Original Author: Peng Ziying
It is undeniable that the traditional technology giants have lost everything in the gamble of the "next generation Internet", while the rise of the cryptocurrency ecosystem is leading the transformation of this era. Compared with the relatively immature BRC 20, Ethereum has unparalleled advantages, and Yuga Labs is one of the most outstanding representatives in the Ethereum ecosystem. As its new CEO Daniel Alegre said at the consensus conference Consensus 2023: "We are not a game company, but a content (content) and community (community) company." Its forward-looking religious thinking has rapidly risen in the fields of games, NFT and metaverse, becoming the uncrowned king.
Data don't lie. Let’s take a look at the recent achievements of Yuga Labs:
Yuga Labs’ 16 NFT collectibles account for 34.6% of the entire NFT industry, with a total transaction volume of $2 billion in the past 2 quarters.
The first NFT series composed of 10,000 boring apes launched by Yuga Labs in 2021 - Bored Ape Yacht Club has the highest floor price in the NFT industry (the lowest market price in the NFT series), with a price as high as 9.6 million, followed by CryptoPunks at $92,000.
Otherdeed for Otherside (Otherside is a metaverse game world that brings together various NFT projects; Otherdeed is a brand new NFT designed for the game, which is a voucher for some kind of virtual land) is the best performing Metaverse NFT collection, in the past two Transaction volume for the quarter was $322 million with an average sales price of $3,112.
$APE (ApeCoin, also known as apecoin, a governance and utility token serving the Boring Ape community and related communities) has exceeded 1 million ETH in total transactions, reaching a market value of 1.68 billion US dollars, making it the leading metaverse game token.
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Boring ape created by two "boring" people
The original founders of Yuga Labs, long-term patient Wylie Aronow and unknown writer Greg Solano, had empty literary ambitions but nowhere to go. The beginning of their "ape" division originated from a text message: "Hey, let's make an NFT together." The creative source of Boring Ape is an imagination about wealth and freedom. The two conceived a club and decided to use a group of unique people in the currency circle as the protagonists of NFT. They developed because of brainless investment (to Ape in), and became people with both money and time overnight. Most of them are expressionless, wearing all kinds of hats, sunglasses, and fancy coats, some are smoking cigars, and some are biting pizza. Their entertainment is to paint random graffiti on the bathroom walls of the club. Correspondingly, holders of these NFTs in the real world can enter the virtual creation space BAYC bathroom, where they can perform digital creation and write and draw on the walls. From these collisions of ideas and concepts, Boring Ape was born. After that, the two founders hired five artists to design ape-like features, and added algorithms to generate 10,000 NFTs.
To this day, Yuga Labs is still expanding its empire step by step. As written in their Pitch Deck (funding briefing): "BAYC is just the beginning, we are building the next frontier"
Boring Ape's explosion was no fluke. As the founder of CryptoPunk said to the media after being acquired: "Our specialty is creating in the early stages of technology, not good at community management and maintaining public relations. Yuga Labs is an innovator of avatar-like NFTs, and they are better at project operations "The following will analyze how Yuga Labs moved from Web3, to Web2, and finally to the traditional world step by step from the three aspects of Yuga Labs' unique business methods, strong community marketing, and concept consensus building.
The business method of "letting some people get rich first"
In addition to Yuga Labs earning a lot of money, for those who hold boring apes, they are even more generous. Carrying out the airdrop plan, integrating knowledge and action, and a win-win situation with the community is also the core team's core team at the consensus conference. Repeated thoughts. According to OpenSea's highest unit price record, Boring Ape NFT holders will receive an airdrop reward worth up to $280,000. They first launched 10,000 Bored Ape “Pet Companion” NFTs — Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC), which were distributed to BAYC holders for free. As the popularity continued to rise, the price of the dog once surpassed that of the monkey, and the current floor price remains at 52 ETH.
Later, it continued to launch derivatives - Mutant Ape Yacht Club (Mutant Ape Yacht Club, MAYC). These NFTs are the "gene mutant version" of the first version of Boring Ape. The team airdrops "serum" with mutant genes to BAYC holders, which are divided into three levels from low to high: M 1, M 2, and M 3. Different grades of serum determine the characteristics and degree of mutation of the original boring ape gene. If you get M 3, you can get a very rare and unique mutant ape, and the market price is also higher. Among them, the Mutant Serum mutant serum NFT once sold for 888 ETH sold at sky-high prices.
The token $APE, which was launched one after another, and Otherside, a metaverse game world that brings together various NFT projects, also reserved a place for BAYC/MAYC NFT holders when they were announced. Recently, in their latest game, Otherdeed landholders can claim a vessel—Vessel, which is scheduled to be claimed in early April. Each Vessel is a separate ERC-721 NFT, which will be issued in the application form. After receiving it, it will be airdropped to the wallet of the Otherdeed holder.
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If "empowerment" is the key to the value of NFT, "sharing" is the gene of Yuga Labs.
Yuga Labs has created its own business monetization model, which is what makes BAYC different from other NFTs. It is a wealth code that has been proven to be feasible at present. By dividing one's own intellectual property rights, a decentralized alternative cooperation model for intellectual property IP is carried out, and this De-Collab (decentralized collaboration model) has also been emphasized by the core team many times at the 2023 Consensus Conference. BAYC grants its NFT buyers a wide range of rights, and they can use BAYC for any commercial use without having to worry about rights protection. While this license grant is unlimited, users may copy to create derivative works based on BAYC artwork. After buying the CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs, Yuga Labs immediately returned the commercial rights to the holders. This is unprecedented for traditional licensing.
Since then, consumers are not only consumers, but also participants, owners and entrepreneurs.
As a result, a large number of extended works were born soon. What to wear, play, watch, and even eat, covering multiple fields including entertainment, music, fashion, games and virtual worlds. The team also subsidizes entrepreneurs who use ape IP to encourage their creativity and expand their brand influence. And this bottom-up approach allows everyone who uses the ape image to make their own commercial products to participate in Yuga's brand building at the same time. A group of community members are empowering the community and the brand in various ways, just like a community version of Supreme, creating their own culture.
According to Bitpush News, Yuga Labs' IP ecosystem has grown rapidly: the number has grown from 80 in August 22 to 200+ now.
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Like Rolex, like Ferrari, BAYC has developed into a status symbol in the Web3 world. Whether you own or have the ability to own BAYC seems to have become a standard for identifying financial resources in the industry. With the price of Boring Ape in the secondary market rising, if your Twitter avatar is an NFT of Boring Ape, then your sense of pride is no less than driving a Maybach on the street.
The rapid development of BAYC is inseparable from the role of the community. Since its release, it has rapidly grown into a huge community in a short period of time. For players holding BAYC, this is not only a collectible, but also a club. BAYC became a trendsetting crypto enthusiast who believes in the field and sees many applications of the technology in industries such as art, music, gaming, and entertainment. This belief makes people willing to join a community that shares the same values. At the same time, it satisfies the sense of belonging in the hearts of users. The background of BAYC's story comes from the voice of many NFT collectors: In the encrypted market, investors realize their dream of wealth and freedom in NFT.
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In general, whether it is at the Consensus Conference or the author’s case analysis this time, the core of Yuga Labs is to give people a vision of “common wealth” and continue to use “empowerment” and “sharing” to achieve it. From their history From story to business model to consensus building, from NF of BAYC, BAKC and MAYC, to the token $APE, to Metaverse Otherside, they are constantly enhancing their IP power. The core is to give users an attractive enough story, let users use their own heads to think about where this story should go, and what contributions they should make to it on the way.
The new gameplay they created can not only lead the way in the encryption industry, but also provide inspiration for traditional businesses. Compared with the usual sales of products or services, Yuga Labs’ business model focuses more on creating and maintaining IP, and Interaction and cooperation with the community. This kind of community-based collaboration and co-creation can be used for reference by traditional businesses, and it has inspired them to think about how to discover new business value under the background of decentralized intellectual property rights and co-creation ecology.
The success of Yuga Labs is inseparable from the powerful cornerstone of Ethereum. As an advanced ecosystem, the Ethereum NFT community has more mature and efficient tools and solutions in minting, trading, storing and displaying NFTs, providing more inspiration for Yuga Labs every step of the way. At the same time, there are many active developer communities in the Ethereum ecosystem, which have made important contributions to the development of the entire ecosystem. In contrast, BRC 20 is still in its infancy, but only by standing on the shoulders of giants can we see further. Now it is a great opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Ethereum and discover more opportunities and development space in its ecology.
On the track where all horses go together, can Yuga Labs dominate and become the dark horse that breaks out? And can BRC 20 catch up and gain a firm foothold in this competition? Let's wait and see.
