Bullet points:

• Let’s build a DEX to list Tiktok influencers as public traded companies (especially those single-person IPs). That means fans can invest in and trade the Stock of Influencers. What do these stocks stand for? 10% of monthly after-tax revenues.

• This is the era of ‘super-humans:’ a grass-grown Tiktok influencer can generate annual profit much more than those listed companies in Nasdaq. A lady who gives lessons on how to work out can generate a profit of $15M, monthly.

• A decent revenue, if discounted, can be treated as a financial asset.

• Nowadays, fans can only like/comment/pay for their idols, but not invest and benefit from the growth. However, if they can, they will contribute more of their resources to their idols: network, wisdom, shoutouts, etc.

• Then, it’s a DAO for influencers and their fans ~ by the fans, and for the fans.

In June 2021, my 4-year-old startup run out of cash and bankrupt. It was a metaverse to connect kids globally so that they become friends since childhood and don’t grow into haters or ignorant of people not looking like him/her.

Mimic those founders of Airbnb in their early years, I try to earn money elsewhere to save the business.

And I found Douyin (the Chinese version of Tiktok), with daily active users of 0.8B, and a lady who gives lessons on how to workout can generate a profit of $15M monthly.

What attracts me more, is that: it’s controlled by the distributing algorithm. I’m not judged by how wealthy and well-connected, but whether every single short video I posted is loved by a niche of people.

Then I researched and dive into this new world. Then after three months of hard work, one single short video boosted my followers from 800 to 7900. And I find one of my peers to grow from 200 followers to 24K followers just overnight due to a single short video on how to educate his son. After that, he start to give lectures to parents about some daily-life tips on how to get along with their sons. And parents love it!!!

However, 90% of my peers just quit in 3 months. Here’s the dark side of the business: sometimes, it may take 1 year to get yourself into the Douyin world. I’ve found a lot of talents, who really deliver value to their audience but cannot survive the early period financially. Two folds of reasons:

1. they cannot create content their followers really love, especially in the beginning, not too many people give advice to a nobody.

2. to be an influencer is a full-time job and without financial and professional support, it’s hard to become financially self-sustained.

Does it look like those ship companies in the Age of Exploration and those railroad companies in the late 1800s? Huge growth and profit, but capital intense in its early days. Here for influencers, not only financial capital but also human capital ~ support from the network.

How to solve this problem? A financial market can: Angel funds, venture capital, investment banks, shareholders, and also exchange to provide liquidity.

I’ve asked 2 influencers of monthly revenue of $150k and $20k each, whether they would love to be listed? Yes!!! Provided those shares be purchased by advocates who would love to contribute ideas, monetization networks.

I’ve asked 2 MCNs, with 200 influencers each, the same question. They love it, like those VCs love Nasdaq.

I’ve asked 20 CEO friends around me, whether they would like to purchase shares of those influencers. Yes! This is one way that they can benefit from the booming of short-video-influencer-era. Otherwise, they themselves cannot invest their precious time into the platform, or even they do, they may not be the right person to be an influencer. Yes! They love this kind of watch-to-earn model.

However, concerns come too:

1. how does the DEX guarantee those influencers don’t cheat on revenues? ~ the answer can lie in all those listed companies. The ecosystem needs audit partners.

2. influencers are too volatile, is their revenue still a good asset? Sure, the market itself can price in the volatility.

3. influencers can quit their public life, and as human beings, they will cease for sure, does that affect the pricing of shares? Sure! It’s not the same stocks of listed companies in Nasdaq. However, as we mentioned in 2. All those factors can be priced by the market. For example, public companies can be unlisted due to poor performance; the Value of options decreases along with time, instead of increasing.

4. how to avoid manipulation of stock prices? it’s the problem of every exchange, let’s create this DAO and let our members provide the wisdom.

…

Even there are concerns, this DEX is beneficial to all people: the creators, their fans, those supporters in the eco-system. Let’s work on it!