Animoca Brands, a venture capital company dedicated to developing Web3 and blockchain games, announced its investment in the decentralized blockchain network Ton on November 28th. The focus of this collaboration is how they can assist third-party game projects in building an ecosystem, making it the center of attention. This article, originally written by Kasou Kazoku and published on Medium, titled “TON and Animoca Brands collaborate: Is it a substantive partnership or a joint speculation in the industry?” has been compiled, translated, and written by PANews.
Summary:
Animoca Brands announced its investment in TON Play, the largest validator of the TON blockchain, and a game infrastructure project.
Background:
Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu: Approval of Bitcoin ETF will drive the Web3 gaming boom.
Table of Contents:
Animoca Brands and TON collaborate to expand the large-scale game market.
Telegram and TON aim to emulate Tencent, but the success remains uncertain.
Yuga Labs founder
TON Play, designed to boost the user base for the chain game industry, aims to leverage Telegram’s user resources.
A strong alliance between giants is key to the future of the chain game industry, which desperately needs more robust infrastructure.
Recently, the collaboration between Animoca Brands and TON has become a hot topic in the industry. The partnership is expected to reshape the game market, bringing new opportunities for players and developers, and has garnered attention from both the industry and the public.
As a pioneer in Web3 and blockchain games, Animoca Brands has made significant achievements in promoting the blockchainization of the digital culture and entertainment industry. TON, as an efficient and decentralized blockchain network, has a huge user base and social media influence through its close integration with Telegram.
This collaboration combines Animoca Brands’ rich game resources with TON’s technical advantages and large user base, with the aim of driving innovation and popularization of blockchain games, providing users with a more diverse gaming experience. Additionally, this collaboration may also facilitate the generation of new business models and revenue opportunities, bringing positive impacts to the entire blockchain game ecosystem.
Firstly, Animoca’s investment in TON, although the amount has not been disclosed, includes investments in Toncoin, which is closely related to its role as a validator. This move highlights Animoca’s confidence in TON’s vision and the potential of the Web3 field. The collaboration goes beyond financial investment and includes comprehensive market research on the TON ecosystem, with a focus on its ability to promote the adoption of cryptocurrencies and GameFi.
A key aspect of the collaboration is strategic support for TON Play, a game infrastructure project based on the TON blockchain. This infrastructure will enable developers to develop and launch game applications on Telegram, potentially reaching its 800 million users. Through integration with Telegram’s PlayDeck bot, users can browse the mobile game catalog, opening up unprecedented channels for blockchain game experiences.
Additionally, Animoca plans to explore the porting of some of its more than 400 Web3 projects to Telegram, further enriching the game offerings on the platform. This move is an important step in combining traditional games with the emerging field of blockchain games.
The collaboration between Animoca and TON is not only a testament to their trust in TON’s vision but also aligns with their broader goal of transitioning from Web2 to Web3.
This collaboration, following Animoca’s role as a validator in other blockchain protocols, demonstrates their commitment to promoting decentralized game ecosystems. This collaboration is expected to significantly boost the TON ecosystem, particularly in the gaming sector, in the coming years.
Yuga Labs, closely associated with Animoca Brands, is also one of the top projects in the market. The founder of Yuga has previously compared the company to Tencent, but in terms of actual development models and strategic layouts, Telegram and TON may be more similar to Tencent’s development path.
Telegram has 800 million monthly active users, providing a massive user base that can promote products similar to WeChat mini-games or other small to medium-sized games. Additionally, TON has launched its own wallet application called Ton Space, which has unique advantages in the payment field.
The launch of Ton Space means that Telegram users can use cryptocurrencies for payments and interactions in a familiar environment, significantly lowering the barrier to entry into the crypto industry. Compared to traditional wallet applications like TP and Trustwallet, Ton Space is more like WeChat Pay, providing a richer and more diverse range of applications, not limited to financial products.
Telegram is building a platform that allows third-party developers to create various mini-programs that can interact with users within Telegram, similar to the super app model of WeChat. However, Telegram’s ecosystem will adopt a decentralized approach in certain aspects, thanks to the support of the TON Foundation and Tencent.
Previously, the TON Foundation announced a partnership with Tencent Cloud, which will further support TON’s high computational intensity and network bandwidth requirements. Tencent Cloud’s involvement not only provides technical support to TON but also potentially brings enormous potential benefits to Telegram’s mini-program market, similar to Tencent’s success in China.
WeChat pioneered the mini-program model in China and now supports millions of mini-programs, covering various services from payments, food delivery, e-commerce, and more. Telegram’s mini-program ecosystem, with the help of a decentralized payment network, has the potential to reach a broader global user base.
Learning from WeChat’s success, Telegram and TON may gain insights from their collaboration with Tencent Cloud, especially in terms of utilizing messaging applications for various daily transactions. WeChat attracts users for daily transactions through its built-in payment system, while Telegram integrates 20 payment solutions and does not charge any commission through its Bot Payments API. In addition to mature payment solutions like Google Pay or Apple Pay, Telegram recently introduced a self-hosted wallet developed on the TON blockchain.
Telegram and TON’s experience drawn from WeChat’s model and how to develop a decentralized mini-program platform will be a process worth paying attention to. This not only has the potential to change the user experience of Telegram but also to promote the popularization and development of decentralized applications globally.
To make a breakthrough in the chain game circle, TON launched Ton Play, providing game developers with a unique platform that integrates Telegram’s massive user base and the high-performance of the TON blockchain. This platform not only simplifies the release of games and user acquisition processes but also significantly expands the possibilities of game development through its support for various game engines and diverse monetization channels. The emergence of Ton Play could become a key driving force for the development of the TON game ecosystem.
The main highlights of Ton Play include:
1. Direct access to Telegram’s 800 million users: Games can be launched within a few clicks through Telegram Web Apps, eliminating the need for users to download applications from the App Store or Google Play or deal with .apk or .exe files.
2. Compatibility with various game engines: Telegram Web Apps supports HTML5 or WebGL and is compatible with multiple game engines such as Unity, Phaser, PixiJS, BabylonJS, and Cocos2d.
3. User acquisition and retention: TON and Telegram provide traditional and innovative user acquisition and retention tools, such as the TON Games Bot (a bot that indexes all TON games), Telegram Ads (advertising on channels with over 1 million subscribers), and push notifications sent directly on Messenger.
4. Fast and cost-effective blockchain: TON blockchain focuses on providing fast, seamless scalability, cost-effectiveness, and ensuring a smooth user experience. It performs well in scalability, decentralization, transaction speed, and cost efficiency.
5. Easy registration and authorization: Wallets are a key component of blockchain infrastructure. In the TON ecosystem, the main wallet is the wallet within Telegram, providing all necessary functionalities, including account creation, purchases, on-chain operations, and asset management.
6. Community building tools: Telegram channels and groups are powerful tools for building communities and delivering public messages directly to a large number of users.
7. Traffic and asset monetization: Telegram and TON provide developers with tools to create and launch high-quality games, attract and retain users, and monetize. Common sources of revenue within the TON ecosystem include NFT sales, in-game tokens (Jettons), and in-app advertising.
In the current public chain market, the combination of TON and Telegram brings new changes to the Web3 world. The strategic collaboration between Animoca Brands and TON, especially the launch of TON Play, signals new developments in the blockchain gaming field.
This collaboration combines Animoca’s game resources with TON’s technical advantages and is expected to drive innovation and popularization of blockchain games. In particular, TON Play provides game developers with the opportunity to access Telegram’s massive user base, while supporting various game engines and diverse monetization channels.
Additionally, Telegram and TON draw insights from WeChat’s model and aim to develop a decentralized mini-program platform. This has the potential to change the user experience of Telegram and promote the global popularization and development of decentralized applications. Overall, this collaboration signifies a new wave in the blockchain gaming field and is expected to significantly drive the growth of the TON ecosystem in the coming years.