In a nutshell: why start from scratch every time you want to make an app? If you’ve got an idea, the pitch goes something like, “Think of it as [some existing app], but for [some other purpose].” If you get funding, then you go build that already existing app from scratch. Shapiro’s thought was, “Why not have a platform where the apps are already built, and anyone can readapt for it any purpose?” Nobody needs to be an advanced Photoshop expert to digitally alter a photo; why should anyone need to know how to code if they want to make software? Bear in mind, that’s all a gross simplification of what’s going on there, but it’s enough for you to know that this is a platform where software development is democratized. It took the team at Koji four years to get it where they wanted it; it worked the way it was supposed to.
That was the easy part, of course, building out a way that creators could create a web-based profile populated with whatever links they wanted people to follow. But they could also host little mini-apps, right on the webpage—there are currently 300 of these apps available—that allow creators to monetize and engage with their audience, without ever having to leave the profile page.
What’s the Cost?
Setting up a Koji profile is free. It’s also free to use it: there’s no limit on the number of links or apps you can set up on your profile. You don’t have to pay extra for customization or analytics. Where you will spend money is inside the apps you use. The developers of the apps are creators, too, and deserve to be paid. Many of the apps are developed by Koji and are free. It’s the apps designed for monetization where you’ll pay anything which, at worst, is a percentage of each transaction—up to 15%.
Is It Easy to Setup and Use?
Yes, as there’s almost nothing to set up. Koji isn’t an app, it’s a web page, and when you create your account you’re just filling out forms. Do you know your name? Have a pic of yourself? Like a certain color? Congratulations, you’re more than qualified to set a profile up. You can do a lot more with backgrounds, too, including using videos, and it takes no more skill than if you just wanted the background to be green.
It’s worth nothing that the experience of using Koji is easy for a creator’s audience, too. If they click a Koji from any platform, they stay on that platform. If someone clicks a creator’s Koji link in Instagram, the Koji profile opens up inside Instagram. And if they wanted to click on the Tip Jar to send cash, that app opens up within Koji, which is all still happening inside Instagram. If this audience member does leave a tip, then the future gets even easier. They enter their card info to pay for the transaction and can opt to save the card info for an easier payment next time. And that’s where it gets really cool: their card is saved with Koji, not the creator. For any other transaction that ever happens through Koji, with any creator, and operating within any platform, that information is saved and available. So our hypothetical tipper in the last paragraph could then hop over to TikTok, click on another creator’s Koji link, and when she tries to buy an ebook her card info is already there and ready to use.
Show Me the Money
There’s no doubt that the opportunity to make money is here. Many of the apps are direct copies of apps and services that already exist, which shouldn’t surprise anyone given the premise of the platform. But this is a good thing. What it does is open up competition. Why pay Cameo 20% of your fee, when you can use Shoutout on Koji and pay 5%? Koji’s OnlyFans alternative, Rares, takes 15%—a modest bargain compared to OF’s 20%—but the nature of the platform means just about anyone can make another version and take a lower cut to attract customers. Beyond the apps, though, Koji gives creators the insights they need to stay on top of their earnings. Not just in terms of counting the money, but in understanding where it’s coming from—to help them understand where they need to be focusing their attention. The data goes deep: what apps people are spending their time with, which products sold, which apps sold them, who bought them, and what else that person has engaged with or purchased from you. In a perfect world, we’d get more demo- and psychographic data on the audience itself, but that would also add a layer of friction to the purchase experience.
The Bottom Line
One of the big conversations that’s happening around Web 3.0 is the way in which blockchain will hand more control over to the creators: they’ll co-own the platforms and even the currencies they trade in. No more relying on third parties, no more platform dependence. Strangely, it’s Koji—a Web 2.0 platform if there ever was one—that’s come the closest to realizing this more liberated future. Yes, a Koji user is dependent on Koji to a certain extent. But the alternative is multiple dependencies across the many platforms they rely on. Creators don’t just sell premium content for money. They sell merch, and education, and experiences, and personalized video greetings, and cookbooks, and sometimes they just work for tips. They do any or all or even more than these things, and each one is a different platform. Koji’s aim is to be the one place they can do all that. And if there’s no existing app that does the thing they want it to, they can build that, too.
