ChatWise is like Instagram but where creators and users build equity stake. Nearly 50% of all company shares have been for creators to build a democratic organisation. Its like Facebook, but where founder shares are shared with community.
As a finance expert who spent a decade valuing company shares professionally, I was deeply interested in understanding wealth generation on social networks: where it came from and who benefitted? It became clear that creators & users play the most important role in supporting share price of companies like Facebook (now Meta). India is their biggest market. And 9 out of 10 countries where Facebook is used the most, are in Asia or Africa. But majority of wealth they create went to a few share holders in the US. This feels very unfair.
*Wealth๐ต generation by Creators*
We further realised that social networks now were less about โsocialโ and more about โmediaโ: creators these days are like film starts in a movie: they bring people through the door, keep them engaged and create wealth for networks. But creators get nothing back. In these films, actors get paid nothing as all wealth is held by shareholders.
*Scale of wealth creation*
By our calculation ๐ข, Facebook alone created over $450bn of wealth, that's more than the GDP of 150 countries but most of it went to a very few shareholders in the US. This is unfair. All creators we spoke to, talked about their hard work that gets nothing in return as social networks keep all the cash.
*This is going to get worse*
Under pressure from shareholders for more money, social networks recently started selling "blue tick" verification. This came as shock to many but was somewhat expected to us. Social Networks will continue to squeeze creators to get more cash.
*Purpose of ChatWise*
ChatWise was built with a single purpose to equalise wealth and power. Me and Abhijit (a software engineer who led technology teams for large banks in London) joined forces and a team of 20+ passionate developers.
*Fundraising experience*
We thought it'll be hard to raise money for something like this with global competitors with deep pockets but we raised significant sums of money in two different rounds from smart, professional London based investors who could see the vision, the purpose and simply said "If this happens, it'll be good for the world and I want to be part of that". One investor actually gave us more than we asked for (for a bigger stake in the company).
*Product Development*
- Over 100+ versions built
-Android ChatWise app has been tested by 75k+ users from 18 countries via a referral scheme
- 500+ interns have directly worked with us from top B schools in India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the UK
- Tech team includes ex IITians and experts who previously worked at global social networks
- Apps are now on Google and Apple playstore.
-800+ 5* feedbacks, and our apps are still referral only
*We're launching๐ ChatWise Messenger*
on Product Hunt: "ChatWise Messenger" is like Whatsapp or Signal. But users will take equity stake in this business. This is to showcase our technical abilities.
*How many shares are available for you?*
70% of all current shares, 18 billion in total. It'll take us 2 years to give them. A founder led committee will look after it and a fair process that will only reward those who support ChatWise project. As founder, I own 84% of the company. Majority of these shares are now have been legally set aside for the community (see legal documents on our website)
*What can you ๐ซตdo?*
-Support the project, be an early adapter, play bigger role, get your shares early!
-Download the app - every hunter gets 100 free shares today and tomorrow. scheme closes 21st March midnight Pacific time!
-Join our committee that will oversee dispersal over the next 2 years
- Are you a creator? Join our team and give your views on how AI is helping content creation on ChatWise Social Network
- Be the early creator or ChatWise. Gain quick followers
- Invite 10 friends and get 200 more shares
Give your thoughts, suggestions. We're open for the next business today.
Wow! Great! ๐คฉ I hope it will rock! ๐ช๐โจ๐ Congrats on the launch! I'll be happy to join the crew of users and be a native there soon when it grows a lot! ๐๐โจ๐
Congratulations on the launch of ChatWise! It sounds like a great way to build an equitable and democratic platform. Can't wait to see what this new platform can do!
@dustin_durham much appreciated. We're stil working on it, and looking to improve things everyday.
Our teams work round the clock. We're supported by interns around the world.
@gloria_jean Gloria, in our calculation, a top quality platform like Instagram can costs anywhere around $10million, if you have the right team! We're led by Abhijit, our CTO, who has led technology teams of banks throughout his career - he gets security, scalability. So we were able to build a highly scalable platform for much less.
This sounds like a revolutionary concept! Giving creators and users an equity stake in the company is a game-changer. Can't wait to see how ChatWise develops and empowers its community.
Congrats on the launch of ChatWise! It's awesome to see a platform putting its users and creators first by offering equity shares. Very interested to see how this innovative model develops!
Love the concept of building a democratic organization within a social platform.
Would be great to see ChatWise integrate live interactive video features for further collaboration and engagement amongst creators and users.
Exciting potential for future growth and innovation ๐
@pixle Its a question many people have asked. Look, value of a share is determined when it is trading. Currently, like any early stage company, our shares are not trading. Price in 5 years will be dependent on number of people on our platform. The more the people, the better it is for share price.
@asagib1 Allen, our purpose is to remove greedy owners and make community make big decisions about algorithms and monetisation. I'm sure this will be better for the world!
@williamhilda We certainly hope so. Particularly creators - they will now get paid for the hard work they do. As company gives shares to creators, future profits will be divided between shareholders. It is as simple as that. Infact, that is the power of shares.
@ross_telar Yes absolutely. In the UK, each company has to share their shareholding structure to company's house and that information is for public. We will be sending our shareholding structure to the company's house and anyone can see it. More importantly, we have taken a legally binding commitment to share equity. As far as we know, It is the first time any company has done anything like that.
ChatWise Messenger