Arun and Jeni
In the first two parts of “Constructing the µniverse”, I had introduced Arun and Jeni. Arun is a consumer, and Jeni is a marketing manager. I had written about a day in their future lives. In the rest of this series, I will go deeper into how they both benefit from the Muniverse and how their lives change for the better as the Muniverse evolves from its startup phase to its Web2 and Web3 avatars. Let’s begin by revisiting what I had written to get a glimpse of tomorrow’s world as seen through the eyes of Arun and Jeni.
Arun:
Arun checks his Micronbox for brand messages. 20-odd messages that have come in overnight vie for his attention. There is no spam because every one of the messages is from brands he has opted in to. That is why he switched his brand interactions from Gmail to Micronbox. The Subject lines prefixed with µ tell him what brands are willing to pay for his attention. He opens the email from A1 Books – there are 5 recommendations for him. Micronbox has interactive emails, so he can click on a book and read more right inside the email. A1 Books offers him 5µ for reading more about each of the books. He checks out two of them, earns 10µ and adds one of the books to the shopping cart. He doesn’t need to leave his Micronbox at all.
… An email from the telco wants to know more about him – “zero-party data” as it is called. He answers two questions and is rewarded 30µ by the telco.
Arun then engages in “Word Play”, a Wordle-like game that gets delivered to his inbox daily. He guesses the word on his fourth try and earns 3µ. (A guess on the third attempt would have gotten him an extra µ.)
… Arun’s µCount has reached 4500. He goes to the µExchange and offers 4000 for sale. He sees that the price is a bit higher than it was a month ago when he had done the last trade. The sale is done, and he is happy to see the extra cash in his crypto wallet.
The Micronbox and wallet referred to above are part of the MuApp.
Jeni:
Jeni is the marketing manager at A1 Books. She handles the µProgram as part of her responsibilities. Besides overseeing the email program, she also has responsibility for ensuring an adequate supply of µ for rewarding customers. She uses the µExchange to make periodic purchases of µ, which are in turn then given to customers for their attention and engagement. She has seen a multi-fold increase in transactions after A1 Books joined the µniverse ecosystem.
… Jeni could buy µ from the µExchange and reward her customers for their time, attention and engagement. The price was set by the trades being done – much like the stock market. End customers earned µ and could either use it for vouchers and special discounts in the µShop or sell their earnings on the µExchange. Since the absolute µ in circulation was capped and there was no single centralised entity who could potentially debase the value of µ, it was up to brands and customers to determine the fair value in the marketplace.
… For Jeni, µniverse helped solve the biggest problem she faced – attention recession among her existing customers. She could now use variable rewards to incentivise the actions she wanted. Her customers also were happy that their time was valued. This win-win relationship helped Jeni get more from her existing customers, reduce her new customer acquisition spends, and put A1 Books on the path to sustained profitability.
How did this wonderful, win-win, almost magical, future happen for Arun and Jeni?
