Gaming and finance are two fields closest to money, with the immense wealth effect generated by DeFi, chain games, and the metaverse belonging to these two areas, making them the most likely to land on blockchain. In this round, a finance chain focused on trading, hyperliquid, has opened up the ceiling for on-chain derivatives, with on-chain funds even surpassing many public chains, and it is one of the few that can achieve positive cash flow for projects.
Aside from financial chains, another main line is the gaming chain. Sui's initial positioning was to serve gaming, allowing users to have a Web2 experience in Web3. However, today I want to introduce SonicSVM, which is a pioneer in acquiring users in the gaming field and on TikTok. It is a gaming chain based on Solana, fully compatible with all EVM smart contracts, providing game developers with a high-performance platform to achieve faster transaction speeds and lower, stable transaction fees. (The following includes the interaction process of SonicSVM.)
SonicSVM raised $4 million in seed funding, and in the last round, it secured $12 million, with a valuation of $100 million. Investors include the chairman of the Solana Foundation, the largest compliance service provider in the Solana ecosystem, the largest gaming industry fund in Europe and America, as well as investments from two exchanges, OKX and Bybit.
The team's CEO, Chris Zhu, has a background with Bilibili, Deloitte, dollar venture capital, and ByteDance, previously being a product manager at TikTok. As a Canadian of Chinese descent, he has a deep understanding of TikTok's pop culture, and he spoke at this year's KBW in Korea.
The recent reason for SonicSVM's rise is the airdrop to TikTok users, attracting over 2 million users. The SonicSVM team members have a background in ByteDance, utilizing TikTok's wide reach and user-friendly experience, allowing new users to easily register and participate in games. Users log in with their TikTok accounts, and the system automatically generates an encrypted wallet, eliminating the common complexities found in traditional Web3 applications. This seamless experience has garnered significant attention for SonicSVM among young users, especially in Generation Z.
SonicSVM's user acquisition strategy from Web2 is likely influenced by this year's Telegram gaming craze, where mini-games on Telegram attracted over 20 million users, and three projects made it to Binance. In comparison, Telegram's monthly active users exceed 950 million, while TikTok's global monthly active users reached 1.58 billion. TikTok has a larger user base, and the potential number of users to be developed will not be less than Telegram. Moreover, short video content has a stronger virality and potential for viral spread compared to text content.
It can be seen from several data points that TikTok users are of higher quality than Telegram users.
Monthly active users: TikTok has 1.58 billion monthly active users, Telegram has 950 million monthly active users.
Natural traffic: TikTok's short video content has dissemination traffic, while Telegram's community mainly relies on private traffic.
User quality: TikTok requires real-name verification, with most users from Europe, America, and the Asia-Pacific region, while Telegram is non-real-name.
Therefore, SonicSVM's promotion strategy is also to reapply the previously successful Web3 strategy, and through this approach, they have already established community and influence. The user quality is higher than that of various mini-games that attracted users on Telegram.
The Tap-to-earn mechanism of SonicX games.
Deep integration with TikTok directly generates encrypted wallets.
Token airdrop to TikTok users.
Last weekend's news SonicSVM airdropped $SONIC to eligible TikTok users. The user verification for TikTok is higher than that of Telegram, allowing login through Google or Apple accounts.
Open the mini-program registration page in the browser: https://sonicx.app?refer_code=6RK7LOFO
Click 'Log in with TikTok', you can log in using TikTok scan code, Google, Apple, and other methods.
Authorize login as shown in the figure below.
The remaining part is similar to the original click-to-earn mini-games, with various tutorials for participating in interactions to earn tokens in Earn.
In narrative, SonicSVM aims to achieve landing in the gaming field, which is the area closest to money in blockchain. In finance, there is already a successful hyperliquid, and a similar product will also emerge in gaming.
Technically based on Solana, a Layer-2 protocol designed specifically for gaming services, it has high performance, low cost, and low latency characteristics. It is also compatible with all EVM smart contracts and features a native game engine, providing comprehensive On-Chain game development components for game developers.
Operationally grounded in acquiring users from TikTok, but in promotion strategy, it has reworked the original Web3 strategy that was already on Telegram, accumulating a community and influence of 2 million users.
With the upcoming TGE and token airdrop of SonicSVM, more new games will be launched, exploring more opportunities for integration with social media. TikTok presents a larger traffic pool for Web3 projects compared to Telegram, allowing Web2 users to seamlessly log into games and receive rewards, with the potential to stand out in the competitive crypto gaming market.