Here we go with our April recap! 

 

Korporatio aims to create a new generation of cutting edge, truly global businesses, led by entrepreneurs who are citizens of the world. A new era in which everyone is empowered to incorporate, innovate and realise their dreams.

 

GENERAL

Another month is getting to its end and nearly half of the world population is still in lockdown because of the COVID-19. Singapore has extended its semi-lockdown till the 3rd of June. Panama and Seychelles have blocked any international shipments that are non-essential goods. Majority of the Registrars in the countries where we operate in have currently closed to the public. Still, we have managed to deliver as many orders as possible and to make important steps to bring news to our community. 

 

APRIL IN DEVELOPMENT

Last month I highlighted how the gas price on Ethereum was getting a little too high for us to deploy new companies. Luckily, those limitations affected us only for a few days. 

Since then, the gas price has stabilized around 5-7 GWEI, making the deployment of new Smart Companies smooth as usual. I must point out that this new average price is eating a bit of our margins away. But it is an amount small enough to ensure the same prices as before.

Tests on Ethereum 2.0 are finally in execution and it seems we should be able to have first tests in Q2 of 2020. This timeline may change drastically as it is not dependent on us. But 2020 looks very promising for development of Ethereum.  

If you’re interested in using your ETH to generate some return, remember that the minimum amount of Ether required to be a validator is set to 32.

We’ve also made some small adjustments to the website as we are still waiting for the new version of the website to go live. As mentioned in the past, the last thing holding us back before releasing the new version is the ability to accept online credit/debit card payments. After some deeper conversations, it seems we will be able to remove the last block in June, when the semi-lockdown will be terminated in Singapore. 

 

APRIL IN MARKETING

Last month, we communicated how video-ads tests were being postponed. Obviously, that doesn’t mean we won’t run new experiments and still keep pushing our marketing resources. 

First, I got the pleasure of having a live video interview with Dennis Lewis, it was my first live stream on LinkedIn and I have to say it was a lot of fun!

We spoke about the situation and most importantly, tried to give suggestions and ideas to entrepreneurs on how to fight back during this difficult period. 

The Coronavirus situation is in the minds of many people, also in the Korporatio team. Lulu wrote a very interesting piece of content that got republished by Hackernoon. The article goes into details on presenting new business opportunities and sectors that may be relevant in life after the virus. If you are at home, thinking of a side gig, that is probably a good place to start for some brainstorming. 

Giving a blockchain-based search engine a run

We also managed to run a few experiments via Presearch, Data is still quite new but the results may already show if the experiment was good or not. If you are not familiar with Presearch, let’s give a bit of an introduction. Presearch is a search engine that runs on blockchain. For every query you search you receive 0.25 Pre token. The advertising system they have created is a bit different than other companies. Only one result per query is allowed. In order to target the specific keyword you will need to stake Pre tokens. The higher bit is the ad that is shown on the platform. No cost per click has been applied, at least for now. 

We targeted 7 different keywords and got 2,313 views so far, which to be honest, is not bad.

Unfortunately, those views have converted to only 10 clicks and 0 leads. A 0.4% conversion rate is quite weak for any type of business. Especially when on Google you can easily get a 4-5% CTR (Click-through-rate). It’s true, those 10 clicks are free. However the staking isn’t. The minimum bit for a keyword is 1,000 Pre tokens. This at today’s rate is equal to US$16.7. As you are staking, you are subject only to the fluctuation of the token. In one month, the token has lost 10.6% of its value. If we assume 10,000 tokens were staked to run an average experiment, that means a loss of US$29.48 in value. And therefore, on the 10 clicks a CPC (Cost-per-click) of US$2.94. 

Such a CPC is unfortunately way higher than anything we get from Google. I’m keen on giving this experiment another month, as maybe some adjustment may reduce the CPC. But at the moment, it doesn’t seem like we will be using such a system in the future. 

 

APRIL IN PARTNERSHIPS

With everybody stuck at home it was actually easier to communicate with a lot of our partners around the world. We thought it’d be a good idea to go a bit deeper into some of the existing partnerships we have available for our community.

Say hi to our new partner: HubSpot

As many startups are going through a rough patch during this period of time, we wanted to help our community as much as possible.

Therefore, we’ve partnered with HubSpot – to offer Korporatio’s members full suite access to their Growth Platform with 90% off their normal pricing for the first year.

For those of you not familiar with HubSpot, they’re essentially a CRM software designed to scale marketing, sales and customer management. You’ll also get access to all educational content, masterclasses and 24/7 support. Sign up here and select ‘Korporatio’ in the drop-down partner menu to get started. And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop us a note!

Blockpass launches Marketplace

Our friends at Blockpass have had multiple calls with our team during the past weeks and we have launched the Seychelles Smart Company as a permanent product to the Blockpass Marketplace. Blockpass has been  announcing some very sweet news these weeks; and we were super happy to be considered in the front-line to try all the new features.

You know very well by now how Seychelles has a sweet spot in our heart. It was the first jurisdiction we launched, and the first country to allow the Smart Company to be real. Users of the Blockpass community can now request a Smart Company in Seychelles directly from the Blockpass Marketplace without the need to visit our website. 

Probably this sounds familiar, as such an option is available also via the SelfKey wallet. Adding Blockpass to our support, KYC softwares marks another step in bringing in an effortless and truly paperless company incorporation. 

Just imagine this. You’re in a bar with one of your friends, taking out your phone, asking your friend to scan a QR code, and that’s all you need to send him/her a couple of shares of your new entity. Done in less than 60 seconds. Maybe not your ideal type of activity while having a beer, but the simple fact that now you can do it if you wish, is incredible I think. 

 

APRIL IN JURISDICTION

Hold your horses, we are not announcing a new jurisdiction, not yet.

However, we’ve made a few more steps have in order to launch the first Smart Company in Europe.

We are one step away from completing all requirements for the submission. So we’ll see what will be the final result. This however, doesn’t mean it will be a sure thing. We are confident that, thanks to the lockdowns, governments are understanding how important digital corporate governance truly is for the economy, and therefore we have a good chance to bring this home. However, we’ve had similar feelings in the past and ended up failing, i.e. BVI. So let’s cross our fingers and hope to be able to share good news the soonest with all of you.

 

For this month, this is everything we have to share, as usual, we would love your feedback, and please join our Discord at discord.gg/g3m33DZ . 

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