There are many talented people, like chefs and musicians, in Southeast Asia who can make money through their online work, he said. TipsTips founder Albert Lucius. But many of them don’t have social media to attract advertisers. TipTip wants to help them build followers in their community using an offline/online strategy and make money selling content instead of relying on an advertising algorithm. The Indonesia-based startup announced today that it has raised $13 million in Series A funding, in just 8 months. after the $10 million Series A in March.
The latest round was led by East Ventures, with participation from former investors Vertex, SMDV and BIG Ventures.
TipTip was founded in October 2021 by Albert Lucius, who has The previous startup Kudo was acquired by Grab in 2017. It serves as a marketplace for creators to connect with fans and monetize content like videos and documentaries by selling them to their followers or hosting live video sessions.
The platform launched in July and says its revenue has grown 20-fold since October, with creators earning an average of more than $200 within 30 days of being active on TipTip.
TipTip currently has 2,500 content creators and over 30,000 users. Its goal is to recruit over 30,000 creators and 300,000 users by early next year. It is currently focusing on Indonesia, with a presence in 40 cities.
The people for whom TipTip was created, such as local chefs, musicians and painters, still have few followers and need to build their audiences. To enable them to scale and make money, TipTip employs a hyper-local strategy in Indonesian cities and towns, helping them organize events and activities that are relevant to their communities.
Lucius said TipTip’s team found that many people got used to the idea of making virtual money after COVID hit, as preference for consuming digital content also increased. Based on research they pulled from Research and Markets, Digital Journal and Statista, they found that the creative economy in Southeast Asia has an expected CAGR of around 10% to 30%.
But Lucius said many creators in Southeast Asia are unable to monetize with tools on social media platforms, like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Patreon, which are better suited for top creators already have a lot of followers and views, and can attract advertisers.
Lucius says TipTip differentiates itself from social media platforms with its end-to-end creator solution that includes digital content management and distribution, live streaming, live engagement and live tipping. next. Its platform also helps creators with governance issues, like audience management, know your customer (KYC), payment and scheduling systems.
“There are many players who have become industry leaders in these respective fields. We consider them necessary and complementary to our services. In fact, we rely on our creators/promoters to continue using external platforms to engage their audience, post updates, advertise their free services in there and provide a link back to TipTip to monetize their premium content,” said Lucius.
Instead of advertising, TipTip offers direct monetization channels through tips and direct purchases, and receives a commission from every sale on its platform.
An example of content shared on TipTip includes educational entertainment in categories like music. Musicians use the platform to share tips on how to compose better songs, and sometimes accompanied by a live performance. Another example is creators holding multi-segment courses on how to be a better public speaker, including face-to-face workshops.
TipTip also has a network of promoters to help creators sell their content. Lucius said promoters act as affiliates or resellers, often for their own small communities, and receive some form of commission for each sale. “The analogy is like how Uber Eats helps a restaurant sell more food,” says Lucius. “In our case, promoters help creators sell their digital content.”
To create a creator network, TipTip utilizes awareness programs by partnering with its top creators, using online marketing campaigns and executing a hyper-local strategy. method to find key opinion leaders (KOLs) or top influencers in each community.
A portion of the TipTip funding round will be used to recruit more creators, promoters, and supporters. It will also create more product offerings, like podcasts, branding deals, and personalized requests, giving creators more potential revenue channels and expanding offline presence/ online to 250 cities and towns across Indonesia by the middle of next year.
In a statement about the funding, Willson Cuaca, co-founder and managing partner of East Ventures, said: “We strongly believe in Albert’s leadership at TipTip. His prior experience in building and running Kudo prior to being acquired by Grab in 2017 continues to play a pivotal role in navigating the volatile economy as we move into 2023. I expect TipTip to continue its exponential growth trajectory thanks to its hyper-local strategy that adapts really well to changing creators and customer behavior in the post-COVID era.”
