Whitepaper - Creating the World's Premier Entertainment Technology Blockchain - Glos
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Creating the
World’s Premier
Entertainment
Technology
Blockchain
Whitepaper
Version 1
July 2019
2019 © Copyright GLOS. All rights reserved.
GLOS is creating the
World’s Premier
Entertainment Technology
Blockchain.
GLOS’ vision is to incentivize all
entertainment-related apps to
utilize blockchain through its
Apps-2-DApps Business Model.
GLOS
www.glos.one
contact@glos.one
Disclaimers
PLEASE READ THE ENTIRETY OF THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. NOTHING IN THIS 6. any errors, flaws, defects or other issues in the source code of the GLOS Tokens;
WHITEPAPER CONSTITUTES INVESTMENT, LEGAL OR BUSINESS ADVICE AND YOU 7. any malfunction, breakdown, collapse, rollback or hard forking of the original public
SHOULD CONSULT YOUR OWN ADVISOR(S) BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY ACTIVITY IN chain that the GLOS Tokens rely on;
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DEVELOPMENT LIMITED (HEREINAFTER REFERRED AS THE COMPANY), ANY OF THE specific use;
MEMBERS NOR ANY SERVICE PROVIDERS WHO HAVE WORKED ON THE GLOS 9. utilization of the proceeds raised through the GLOS Token sale;
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INDIRECT DAMAGES OR LOSSES WHATSOEVER WHICH YOU MAY SUFFER IN development of GLOS Token;
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This Whitepaper is intended for general informational purposes only and does not interruption, fraud, mishandling, misconduct, malpractice, negligence, bankruptcy,
constitute a prospectus, an offer of securities nor a solicitation for investment. The insolvency, dissolution or winding-up of any third-party platform or exchange (if any)
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for any indirect, special, incidental, consequential or other losses of any kind, in tort, authority or public body as a type of currency, securities, commercial paper,
contract or otherwise (including, without limitation, any liability arising from default or negotiable instrument, investment instrument or otherwise that results in it being
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use or data) arising from the use of this Whitepaper or any other materials published, or its 17. any damage, loss, claim, liability, punishment, cost or other adverse impact that is
contents (including without limitation any errors or omissions) or otherwise arising in caused by, associated with, in connection with, incidental to or relevant to the GLOS
connection with the same. Nothing contained in this Whitepaper is or may be relied upon Tokens.
as a promise, representation or undertaking as to the future performance of GLOS Tokens.
Where this Whitepaper includes information that has been obtained from third party NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES
sources, the Company has not independently verified the accuracy or completion of such
information. Further, due to a change of circumstances this Whitepaper may become The offer and sale of the GLOS Token has not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act
amended or replaced from time to time and in that event, there are no obligations to update of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or under the laws of certain states as this token
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provided in this Whitepaper. Readers should monitor our Website closely for any updates. transferred, pledged or hypothecated except as permitted under the act and applicable state
laws pursuant to an effective registration statement or an exemption therefrom.
The information set out herein or any part of it or the fact of its presentation shall not be
relied upon for an investment decision or form the basis of a legally binding document. The NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF CHINA
agreement for the sale and purchase of the GLOS Tokens shall be governed solely by a
separate set of Terms and Conditions or Information Memorandum (as the case may be) The GLOS Tokens are not being offered or sold and may not be offered or sold, directly or
(the TOKEN SALE DOCUMENTS) setting out the terms of such purchase and/or continued indirectly, within the People’s Republic of China (for such purposes, not including the Hong
holding of the GLOS Tokens, which shall be made available to you separately on the Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions or Taiwan), except as permitted by the laws
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Sale Documents and this Whitepaper, the Token Sale Documents shall prevail. No
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this Whitepaper does not imply that the applicable laws, regulatory requirements or rules (i) investment professionals (within the meaning of article 19(5) of The Financial Services
have been complied with. and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 as amended (the ‘‘FPO’’)); (ii)
persons or entities of a kind described in article 49 of the FPO; (iii) certified sophisticated
References in this Whitepaper to specific companies and platforms are for illustrative investors (within the meaning of article 50(1) of the FPO); and (iv) other persons to whom it
purposes only. All statements contained in this Whitepaper, statements made in press may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as
releases or in any place accessible by the public and oral statements that may be made by ‘‘Relevant Persons’’).
the Company may constitute forward-looking statements (including statements regarding
intent, belief or current expectations with respect to market conditions, business strategy NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF INDIA
and plans, financial condition, specific provisions and risk management practices). You are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements given that these The GLOS Tokens are not being offered or sold and may not be offered or sold, directly or
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may indirectly, within India, except as permitted by the laws and regulations of India.
cause the actual future results to be materially different from that described by such
forward-looking statements, and no independent third party has reviewed the NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF COUNTRIES WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY SANCTIONED BY
reasonableness of any such statements or assumptions. These forward-looking statements THE UNITED NATIONS
are applicable only as of the date of this Whitepaper and the Company expressly disclaims
any responsibility (whether express or implied) to release any revisions to these forward- The GLOS Tokens are not being offered or sold and may not be offered or sold, directly or
looking statements to reflect events after such date. indirectly, to residents of countries who have previously been sanctioned by the United
Nations (up to the date of this White Paper), which includes Afghanistan, Central Africa
By accessing this Whitepaper or any part thereof, you represent and warrant to the Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea,
Company that: Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and
Yemen.
A. you have solely relied on your own judgment in any decision to purchase any GLOS
Tokens; NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF COUNTRIES FROM HIGH-RISKS AND OTHER MONITORED
JURISDICTIONS AS ISSUED BY THE FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE
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any GLOS Tokens if you are a citizen, national, resident (tax or otherwise), domiciliary indirectly, to residents of countries who have been listed as high-risk and being monitored
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prohibited by applicable law, decree, regulation, treaty and/or administrative act, Lanka, Syria, Trinidad, Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Yemen.
including, without limitation and subject to change, of such jurisdiction;
This White Paper has not been approved by an authorized person. Any information to which
C. there is no guarantee or representation of value or liquidity for the GLOS Tokens, and this document relates is available only to a relevant person. This White Paper is only for
the purchase of the GLOS Tokens is of speculative nature and none of the Company or relevant persons and non-relevant persons shall not take any action based on this
its affiliates shall be responsible for or liable for the value of the GLOS Tokens, the document nor should he/she/they rely on it. It is a condition of you receiving and retaining
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market for the GLOS Tokens through third parties or otherwise; and a relevant person.
D. In the event of any decision to purchase the GLOS Tokens, you are purchasing the For the avoidance of doubt, under no circumstances would a holder of GLOS Tokens be
GLOS Tokens on an “as is” basis. entitled to or receive (i) any form of interests whatsoever in whole or in part (including but
not limited to equity interest, proprietary interest and ownership interest) or share in or
The Company further expressly disclaims our liability and refuses to be liable for the claim against the Company and/or the GLOS Platform, (ii) any voting rights at the board
following: meetings or shareholders meetings of the Company and/or the GLOS Platform, (iii) any
management rights of the Company and/or the GLOS Platform, (iv) any economic right
1. any person’s purchase of the GLOS Tokens in violation of any anti-money laundering, (including any kind of right to payment, distribution, income, dividend, profit, or other
counter-terrorism financing or other regulatory requirements that are imposed in any return, or any sums to be paid, or likely to be paid, out of such return or profit) of or
jurisdiction; generated from the GLOS Platform (except those directly between participants of the
2. any person’s purchase of the GLOS Tokens in violation of any representation, ecosystem) and/or by the Company, and (v) any interest payments from the Company
warranty, obligation, covenant or other provision under this White Paper, which and/or the GLOS Platform.
results in the failure of paying and withdrawing the GLOS Tokens;
3. termination of the GLOS Tokens token sale for any reason; This Whitepaper may be translated into a language other than English and in the event of
4. failure or termination of the application development which results in the failure to conflict or ambiguity between the English language version and the translated versions of
deliver the GLOS Tokens; this Whitepaper, the English language version shall prevail. You acknowledge that you have
5. delay or rescheduling of the application development and resulting failure to meet any read and understood the English language version of this Whitepaper.
published schedules;
No part of this Whitepaper is to be copied, reproduced, distributed or disseminated in any
way without the prior written consent of the Company.
3
Contents
1 Contents 4 8 DApps 22
GLOS Star Incubation 23
Social App by GEIXI
GLOS Artist Alliance 24
2 Executive Summary 6
9 Benefits 25
3 App / DApp industry Overview 7 Lower User Acquisition Cost 26
App Market Overview 8 Lower User Retention Cost 26
DApps Market Overview 9 New Monetization Opportunities 27
4 App / DApp Industry Pain Points 10 10 Technical Overview 28
App Building is Expensive 11 Blockchain Architecture 29
User Acquisition is Difficult 11 Why Blockchain 30
Some Apps Have Been Misusing 11 Why Create the GLOS Blockchain 30
User Data
Technical / Blockchain Literacy 11
is Required to Use DApps
DApps are Increasing Technical 11 11 Roadmap 31
Overheads and Cost to Users
5 Entertainment Market Overview 13 12 Tokenomics 33
Booming Entertainment Industry 14 Token Value and Functionality 34
Token Allocation 34
Use of Proceeds 35
Platform Business Model 35
6 Entertainment Industry Pain Points16
Lack of General Public Participation 17
Opaque Decision-Making 17
Limited International Collaboration 17 13 Team, Advisors, & Partners 36
Other Poor Practices in 17 Team 37
the Entertainment Industry Advisors 38
Partners 40
Commercial User 40
7 Solution and framework modules 19
Payments 20
Voting 20
Campaign Management 20
Project Financing 21
IP Management 21
Token Issuance 21
4
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Overview
The GLOS blockchain aspires to be an entertainment industry-specific blockchain. It is creating the world’s premier
entertainment technology blockchain with the aim of improving the acquisition, retention, and monetization for entertainment
industry apps.
GLOS provides tools and protocols for free to apps built on its blockchain. It also helps app creators understand their data as
well as the aggregated on-chain data better. App creators on the GLOS blockchain get to monetize the data that they collect as
well as benefit from cross app selling and marketing recommendations.
GLOS will incubate its first app called the Star Incubation Social (SIS) app to be launched on the GLOS blockchain. This will
be followed by the launch of the GLOS Artiste Alliance (GAA) app followed by subsequent DApps that contribute to the
decentralization of the entertainment industry.
The Problem
Many entertainment apps have their own user base but are
unable to reach critical mass to sustain their costs.
Customer acquisition is a costly exercise for these apps and
most lack effective monetization strategies. Vision and Mission
On the other hand, Blockchain projects are trying to create
ecosystem-wide solutions overnight, aiming to produce one- GLOS’ vision is to incentivize all
size-fits-all solutions. In reality, this hasn’t quite entertainment-related apps to
materialized with blockchain adoption still at a very low
level. This is mainly attributed to poor user experience (UX) utilize blockchain through its
and high barrier to admission due to cumbersome App-2-DApp Business Model.
processes before they can use the apps.
The adoption rate of dApps built on top of blockchain has
been very slow. Rather than helping to save costs, at this
early stage of the adoption lifecycle, blockchain solutions
are increasing technical overheads for DApps and costs to
users.
Key Value Proposition
GLOS blockchain’s key value
The Solution proposition is that the blockchain
GLOS blockchain offers the solution to these problems by is specific to the entertainment
solving the problems around customer acquisition,
retention, and monetization. industry, this means that each
Firstly, the GLOS blockchain reduces the cost of quality app
module is tailored to the
development by providing framework modules that existing entertainment industry and the
apps or in-development apps can leverage and expedite
their time to production.
team supporting DApps using
GLOS blockchain understands
Secondly, the GLOS blockchain will be able to provide data
around app synergy for users, using GLOS wallets as proxy the entertainment industry to
for users. This will allow apps to maximize the conversion, create purposeful smart
retention and monetization of their user base. GLOS will not
host or share any app’s client data. Instead, GLOS will contracts and dashboards,
provide a service to push synergistic DApps, based on removing some of the technology
transactions on the GLOS blockchain, to promote growth in
the community. overheads that is burdensome for
GLOS is the connecting piece that provides the middle layer DApp projects.
to bridge existing apps with real users to a public
blockchain. GLOS will produce a series of easy-to-integrate
protocols that post seamlessly onto the blockchain. The
GLOS ecosystem will also include partners to provide apps
with quick and cost-efficient access to tools like a digital
wallet.
6
App/DApp Industry Overview
App/DApp Industry Overview
3.1 App Market Overview Mobile apps categories
Mobile apps can be categorized by their functions. The app
Definition categories that occupy more than 10% of app users’ time
are social networking, music, multimedia, and games. The
An application (app), also referred to as an application
detailed breakdown are as follows:
program or application software, is a computer software
package that performs a specific function directly for an end
user or, in some cases, for another application (Search Percentage of Total App Time
Software Quality, 2019). Examples include the gaming apps 25%
on smartphones, word processors on laptops, or web 23%
browsers.
20%
20%
There are many different types of applications. Depending 18%
on the platforms they run on, apps can generally be
categorized into website apps and mobile apps. Mobile 15%
applications are the more popular ones nowadays due to
the increasing popularity and functionality of smartphones.
10% 10%
Therefore, the following analysis will be centered around 10%
mobile apps.
Market size 5% 4%
3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
The mobile app market is a huge market with a revenue of
USD 69.7 billion in 2015. The market revenue is expected 0%
to grow to USD 188.9 billion in 2020, representing a CAGR
of 18.1% (Statista, 2019).
Mobile Apps Industry Revenue Figure 2: Percentage of total app time (Source: Mobile Action, 2019)
(in USD billion)
200 188.9 Trends
180
There are five key trends in the mobile app industry:
160
1. More new functions: With the increasing performance
140
of hardware, new functions such as augmented reality
120 or virtual reality will be more popular. More augmented
reality games like Pokemon Go will come to the market.
100
88.3
2. Increase in the use of AI/ machine learning: More
80 69.7 in-app chatbots will be available across all app
60 categories to improve user experience. Besides, AI
algorithm-based personalization will be more common
40 to provide app users with information or content they
20 are interested in.
0 3. Tightened privacy policy: Following the adoption of
2015 2016 2020 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the
European Union, tech giants who are usually the major
Figure 1: Mobile Apps Industry Revenue (in USD billion) (Source: app developers are facing tightened privacy
Statista, 2019) requirements.
4. Increase in the use of progressive web apps/ instant
Users usually download mobile apps via mobile app stores apps: To improve user experience, some app developers
with the top two dominating mobile app stores being Google allow users to perform certain functions directly on a
Play Store and Apple App Store. As of Q3 2018, there are web browser without the need to download the apps.
2.1 million apps on Google Play Store and 2 million apps on This lowers the decision cost of the users and allows
Apple App Store (Mobile Action, 2019). users to experience the app before purchase.
It is expected that the market size of mobile apps will keep 5. Wearables-specific apps: With the growing popularity
growing moderately, primarily driven by growing of wearables, there is an increasing demand for
smartphone user penetration. Smartphone users are wearable-specific apps as the wearables have their
expected to reach 4 billion by 2020 (Statista, 2019). At the limitations (such as dimension and storage) and unique
same time, the mobile app downloads are expected to grow opportunities (such as heart rate detection).
from 197 billion in 2017 to 258 billion by 2022 (Statista,
2019).
Categories of Dapps (as of 31 Dec 2018)
3.2 DApps Market Overview 40% 37%
35%
Definition
30%
According to Blockchain Hub (2019), decentralized apps
(DApps) are applications that run on a P2P network instead 25% 22%
of a single computer. Nowadays, people tend to call the 20% 17%
applications run on blockchain as DApps. It is designed to
15%
exist on the Internet in a way that is not controlled by any
single entity. To be classified as a DApp, it usually needs to 10% 7%
fulfil the following criteria: 5% 4% 4% 3% 4%
2%
0%
• Application must be completely open source
• Application’s data and records of operation must be
cryptographically stored
• Application must use a cryptographic token
• Application must generate tokens
Figure 4: Categories of DApps (As of Dec 31, 2018) (Source:
Market size dApp.com, 2019)
The more established DApp platforms include Ethereum,
EOS, AION, NEO, and TRON (Invest in Blockchain, 2019). Trends
Figure 3 below shows some of the DApps currently deployed
on those platforms. There are three key trends in the DApp market:
1. More blockchain-based IoT deployment: researchers
As the industry is still in an infancy stage, there is no predict that IoT DApps will be growing very fast in the
agreed approach to calculate the market size of DApps. If coming years as blockchain offers a high level of security
we use the volume of transaction of major DApp platforms and smart contracts allow large-scale automation for IoT
as a proxy to the market size, we can take USD 6.8 billion (i-scoop, 2019).
as the market size in 2018 (dapp.com, 2019). It is expected 2. Ethereum is still the dominating DApp platform, but
that the DApp market will experience very rapid growth in other platforms will catch up: As the Ethereum
the coming years. community participants are the key drivers behind DApp
adoption, Ethereum has the most deployed DApps
nowadays. However, scalability issues with Ethereum
DApp Categories has opened up room for other DApp platforms to catch
up.
By the end of 2018, there are more than 1,400 DApps on 3. Improving user experience and usability: DApps will
major DApp platforms. Games and betting DApps soon no longer be a technologist play as developer teams
contribute to more than 50% of the DApps market size. The are working towards better user experience and user
detailed breakdown of DApp categories can be found in interface. Some blockchains allow programmers to use
Figure 4. programming languages already familiar to them and
provide them with easy-to-deploy solutions, thereby
fostering better development of DApps.
Figure 3: Major DApp Platforms and their DApps (Source: Cardano, 2019)
App/DApp Industry Pain Points
App/DApp Industry Overview
have been handing over to apps in exchange for their
4.1 App Building is Expensive services. As users become more aware of this, GLOS and its
community of app builders will provide an alternative
Apps are expensive for SMEs to design, build, test, and
service where users can choose whether or not to monetize
maintain. There is often a danger of over-spending to
their data and have their choices and information respected.
provide users with better UI / UX and more functionality -
the list is endless. Even after users have been onboarded,
the infrastructure needs to be stress-tested for heavy usage.
There are more light-weight and scalable cloud solutions
available, making App building cheaper and more dynamic 4.4 Technical / Blockchain Literacy is
than ever before.
Required to Use DApps
GLOS blockchain would like to add to the ecosystem of
infrastructure providers and out-of-the-box tools that App The adoption of DApps built on top of blockchain has been
builders can use without overpaying. The objective is to very slow. There are two key pain points from the users’
make building great apps available to more people. By perspective:
providing a blockchain infrastructure that can host certain
tools that Apps can use, GLOS will be providing cheap,
1. Poor user experience (UX)
secure, and scalable infrastructure for App builders to
spend less time on what their users should see or feel when 2. Barrier to admission
using an App.
The first pain point is on the poor UX and user interface (UI)
design. DApps have had the unenviable task of trying to not
only build a killer app, but also use relatively nascent and
4.2 User Acquisition is Difficult sometimes in-house built blockchain infrastructure. While
the benefits of DApps are undeniable, app builders far too
User acquisition has long been the holy grail of app often find themselves distracted by issues of security,
adoption. According to Statisia, as at August 2018, the cost
scalability, and decentralization while neglecting or
per install for an iOS app was USD 4.44 and the cost per
in-app purchase was USD 132.23 (Statista, 2018). After the minimizing the importance of UI / UX in their end user
cost of user acquisition, app builders need to cover the cost product design. Unfortunately, early iterations of DApps
of user acquisition, operations, development, and have provided such a poor user experience that users don’t
infrastructure to build a profitable app. For many, this is an come back and avoid DApps altogether, but this doesn’t
insurmountable task and is likely to prevent many great need to be the case.
apps from being developed because of the prohibitive costs
that accompany it. Secondly, many early DApps have issued their own native
token. This has created an additional barrier to admission
GLOS will leverage the power of data, cryptography, and for would-be users who find that they need to do much
programmatic advertising to cross-sell Apps using the
more than open a webpage or download an app and register
GLOS blockchain and respective framework modules. GLOS
will use the transaction data associated with wallets to before they can actually use the application. Instead, they
market DApp services and products cross-platform. One of are met with lengthy instructions and a cumbersome
GLOS’ key priorities is to build a community of developers process for purchasing tokens, exchanging tokens, and
and users who value the benefits that blockchain brings to downloading wallets, all slowly eroding the users’
Apps such as native payment processing, data ownership, determination to use the DApp.
cross-platform credentials, transparency, audited code on
mission critical functions, etc.
4.3 Some Apps Have Been Misusing 4.5 DApps are Increasing Technical
User Data Overheads and Cost to Users
2018 saw the Cambridge Analytica data leak happening Developing DApps require blockchain expertise and
where it was revealed that Data Analytica harvested the developers with the relevant experience and skills. However,
personal data of millions of Facebook profiles without the there is a huge talent gap in the blockchain industry,
users’ consent and used the information for political blockchain developer freelancing grew at a year-over-year
advertising purposes. Following this, Facebook announced rate of 6,000% in 2018 (Forbes, 2018). The competition for
that it had suspended 200 apps for possible data misuse blockchain developers increases the costs to companies to
(Futurism, 2018). All these while, apps have been taking develop DApps. Additionally, suitable platforms and tools to
more user data than needed and profiting from these users’
create DApps to encourage widespread adoption are few and
information.
far between (Jaxenter, 2018). In other words,
With the recent spotlight on this issue, users are
increasingly conscious of the value of the data that they
11developers do not have existing resources required to caused during the Crypto Kitties craze which raised the
shorten the learning curve and have enough talent available ethereum gas price by a factor of 16 (Hackernoon, 2018),
to fill this talent gap in the market. users are hesitant to use a service when they don’t know
how much it will cost and if the pricing is too dynamic, let
From the users’ perspective, congestion at times of high
alone outright volatile. GLOS blockchain aims to provide its
usage can bring the entire network and the DApps built on
services at a nominal fee that won’t impact the user
top of it to a halt. Exemplified by the network loading
experience and will always be within reasonable bounds.
12Entertainment Market Overview
Entertainment Market Overview
• Young people will become the mainstream customers
5.1 Booming Entertainment Industry in China: It is anticipated that the youth will account for
more than one third of the total number of customers by
The movie and entertainment market in the Asia Pacific 2020. These consumers have the following distinctive
region has been growing rapidly, leveraging the increasing features:
appetite for local content and the rising disposable income • Attracted to new products and technologies
of middle-class consumers (Research and Markets, 2018). • Strong brand loyalty
In addition to these socio-economic factors, technological • Heavy users of and highly dependent on mobile
advancements such as enhanced graphical effects and phones
augmented image quality has beckoned the entertainment • Optimistic about their future earnings
industry into a new age of growth (Matthau, 2015). Digital • Passive access to information (i.e. information
production and distribution is now an economically feasible being pushed to them, such as movies, TV and
reality, reaching a much wider audience than before. The video programs)
ever-decreasing cost of media device ownership (Statista, • Affinity with social media
2018) as well as improving telecommunication
infrastructure have resulted in the growth of entertainment • Content will be the main differentiator when it comes
production and consumption. to competitive edge: Customization and localization
seem to be the winning ingredients, especially for foreign
programs which have been bought and adapted, such as
Running Man and the Voice of China. However, locally
produced movies are still dominating the local movie
market. In 2015, more than half of the movies in China
Rising Enhanced were locally made, while 70% of the top 10 movies in the
Increasing disposable graphical same year were locally produced. This was still the case
appetite for income of effects and as of November 2018 (CBO, 2018).
local middle-class augmented
content consumers image • Bundling and ecosystems will be the key: Vertical
quality
integration and end-to-end services are of utmost
Improving
Growing telecom- importance to create a better user experience and
penetration of munication increase user retention. The “Fans’ economy” is one that
media devices infrastructure provides a cultural entertainment ecosystem that
provides all kinds of entertainment for users to maximize
value for them.
Figure 5: Drivers for the booming Asia Pacific movie and • Growing role of China’s entertainment media market
entertainment market (Source: Research and Markets) around the globe: In 2014, China surpassed Japan to
become the biggest entertainment media market in Asia,
yet is still expected to grow at two times the global rate.
China, in particular, has seen tremendous growth in its Although China is relatively new in this market, this
entertainment and media industry in recent years. The growth rate will inevitably make the Chinese
industry is forecasted to grow at a compounded annual entertainment and media a force to be reckoned with in
growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%, almost double the forecasted the coming years.
global rate of 4.4%, from 2017 to 2020 (PwC, 2016). This
growth is expected to reach US$264 billion in 2020, an • Technology is causing transformation in traditional
increase of 91.3% from US$138 billion in 2013. business models: Digitization, live content, and new
media distribution are all new driving forces for the
entertainment media industry. These new forces are
challenging the offline model, as evidenced by the
unprecedented popularity attracted by the online
264
streaming of Jacky Cheung’s concert (PwC, 2016).
24
22 7
21 8
19 0
17 1 15,239
15 3 13,827
13 6 12,222
8 10,413
8,486
6,39
4,31 8
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020 3,18 3
1
Figure 6: Entertainment and Media Market in China (US$ billion)
(Source: PwC)
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
There are five key shifts in trends that underpin the growth
2020
of the Chinese entertainment and media market in the
medium term (PwC, 2016): Figure 7: Cinema Market in China (US$ million) (Source: PwC)
14The cinema market is one of the fastest-growing segments conglomerate of commercial management, culture, real
under China’s entertainment media market, which achieved estate and finance, owns 16,000 screens and 1,551
a staggering CAGR of 34.5% from 2013 to 2017 (three times cinemas around the world, covering the entire industry
the overall growth) and is expected to maintain a CAGR of chain from production to distribution to screening, and
13.5% from 2017 to 2020, reaching a scale of US$15 billion
holds subsidiaries such as AMC Entertainment, Odeon,
in 2020.
UCI Cinemas Group, and Wanda Cinema line (Wanda
There are four main contributing factors for this growth Group, 2018).
(PwC, 2016):
• Increasing number of new screens in China: In 2015
• Penetration of 3D and online channels: China was the
largest 3D box office market in the world with US$2 alone, the number of screens increased at a rate of at
billion. In addition, 6 in 10 tickets are sold via online least 15 screens per day, but the number of screens as
channels in China. With almost 90% of all the screens in compared to the population is still relatively low, with
China being 3D-compatible, it is no wonder that China is around 50,000 screens in 2017. This number is expected
IMAX 3D’s second-largest and fastest growing market. to reach 80,000 by 2021 (PwC, 2016).
• Restrictions against Hollywood films: Despite the
global dominance of Hollywood movies, the influence of
Hollywood on the Chinese movie market has been
decreasing, as evidenced by its shrinking share from 80,000
45% in 2014 to 38% in 2015. This is mainly because
there is a maximum number of Hollywood films that can
be allowed into the Chinese market. Also, US studios 50,776
reportedly receive only a quarter of the box office revenue 41,179
in China, reducing their incentive to release their titles.
31,627
Thirdly, most Hollywood movies are released in the same
23,592
period (e.g. the year end) when they must compete 18,19
against one another, leaving other periods dominated by 5
locally produced films.
• China’s increasing investment in the US: Chinese
companies have been actively investing outside of China 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
in the media sector. For example, through mergers and 2020
acquisitions in the recent years, Wanda Film Group, a
Figure 8: Number of Cinema Screens in China (Source: Statista,
subsidiary of Wanda Group, a Fortune 500 PwC)
15Entertainment Industry Pain Points
Entertainment Industry Pain
Points
movies only accounted for 6% of all the movies screened in
6.1 Lack of General Public Participation China (Deloitte, 2015). Nevertheless, in Q1 2015, 43% of
box office sales for movies that were co-produced, were co-
The public is generally not involved in the scouting or
produced with Hong Kong producers. This implies that if
casting of an amateur. This is solely at the discretion of the
such Hong Kong-made movies were to be ignored, the extent
producers, directors, investors, or sponsors. For talent
quests, the major decisions usually only rest with the few of internationalization would diminish further.
judges. For social media, it is up to these decision makers
whether to offer the opportunity to popular amateurs, as Also, instead of international collaboration, the trend in
can be seen by the large number of amateurs who may be China is localizing foreign shows and copying domestically
well-liked, but still remain an amateur. produced programs that are popularly among viewers (Yan,
2016), without any true international collaboration.
The lack of public participation is an unfortunate Examples include “The Voice of China”, which is based on
shortcoming of the acclaimed artiste discovery process as the original Dutch reality television ,quest “The Voice of
the ultimate success of an acclaimed artiste actually hinges
Holland”, and “Dad, Where Are We Going”, which is based
on being accepted and loved by a large subsection of the
on an original show from South Korea. Within just the
public. Movie stars only become franchise stars when they
can sell-out at box office, recording artistes are only singing quest category, there are already more than five
successful if they can sell out the largest stadiums or their similar shows like “Super Boy”, “Super Girl”, “Duet”, “Sound
records go platinum. Even models are valued for their of My Dream”, “Son of Tomorrow” etc., all with different
ability to make products fly off the racks. twists to the format and the formation of the judge panel.
This can potentially be attributed to the fact that celebrity
The lack of public participation also poses a challenge for judges have been the key factor in appealing to the
talent management companies as they have to bear all the audience, thus generating more advertising revenue (Ni,
risks of nurturing young, upcoming artistes without any 2015). Therefore, the industry has not seen major
initial certainty on how their professional artistes will be
international collaboration given it is currently not the
perceived by the public.
priority. However, to really take the industry to the next
level, international collaboration and globalization are
essential (Deloitte, 2015).
6.2 Opaque Decision-Making
As previously mentioned, even if there is some form of 6.4 Other Poor Practices in the
public participation, due to the non-transparent decision
making process, the results may not reflect public opinion. Entertainment Industry
For example, Jules O’Dwyer, winner of Britain’s Got Talent
in the 2015 series, was found to have swapped her partner In addition to the above issues, the entertainment industry
dog with another that looked identical in the middle of the is also known to have adopted poor practices that are
performance for a tightrope stunt (Low, 2015). It was
detrimental to the growth of the industry.
investigated by The Office of Communications (Ofcom) at
that time ruling that the show breached rule 2.14, which
provides that broadcasters must ensure viewers aren’t One notable example is the recent rise of multi-channel
‘materially misled’ about voting, but this did not reverse the networks. Multi-channel networks (MCN), according to
O’Dwyer’s victory. Google, are “third-party service providers that are affiliated
with multiple YouTube channels to offer services that may
The popular talent quest, The Voice of China/ Sing! China, include audience development, content programming,
has also been fraught with numerous scandals since its creator collaborations, digital rights management,
launch, including singer judges being ordered to vote for a monetization, and/or sales” (Google, 2018). In other words,
particular candidate even when the judges did not want to they help content creators on social media by providing
(TVBS News, 2017), and putting judges’ commentaries from
resources such as personal consultation, monetization on
a previous episode into the current episode as if the judges
gave the comments in the current episode (Soho, 2015). various social media platforms, brand opportunities, creator
platforms, live events, merchandising, rights management,
musician services, casting and development, etc.
6.3 Limited International Collaboration (Fullscreen, 2018).
Another problem plaguing the entertainment industry is the Despite the apparent gains these would-be key opinion
lack of international collaboration. The Chinese leaders may get from joining an MCN, there are also a lot of
entertainment and media market is thriving with
disadvantages. One obvious drawback is the sharing of ad
supporting policies, strong internet penetration, and
revenue with the networks. Nonetheless, this presents a
funding. However, there is still a lot of room when it comes
to collaboration with other countries/regions, such as co- potential area for abuse as large MCNs tend to have a much
production of movies. For example, in 2014, co-produced higher bargaining power against the content creator who is
still in his or her early stages of development, thereby not
getting what he or she ought to have fairly obtained.
Another more commonly raised doubt over the work of
MCNs is the empty promises they make (Anderson, 2016).
These MCNs are motivated to recruit as many people as
17possible under their control so as to be in a better position globally.
to negotiate with brands or marketing partners for more
favorable terms and deals. This gives rise to the problem of In fact, casting couch abuse is by no means a recent
people being ignored or not receiving enough attention after phenomenon. Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood sex symbol,
being signed on to an MCN. Last but not least, the member has once described her career in the book The Secret Life of
may be further exploited when it comes to contractual Marilyn Monroe by saying she “spent a great deal of time on
terms because they have no expertise or relevant experience my knees” (Garrido, 2017). It is also not restricted to
in contract drafting. Ben Vacas, a professional gamer, Hollywood. Bajirao Mastani actor Ranveer Singh revealed
better known as Braindeadly, signed a perpetual contract that he had been a victim of the casting couch abuse and
with Machinima that granted Machinima rights to videos said it was a common situation for people who wish to
created by Vacas throughout his lifetime, which is to his advance their career (Hindustantimes, 2017). In China, Yu
extreme detriment (Marsden, 2013). Zhang, an aspiring actress, posted clips of herself having
sex with famous directors on the internet and held press
Scandals also abound when it comes to casting. In South conferences to expose such malpractices (Spencer, 2006).
Korea, couch casting has long plagued the industry, where Michael Caine, the 85-year-old veteran actor, openly
actresses are forced to provide sexual favors in exchange for admitted that everyone in Hollywood was aware of the
career advancement opportunities. The widely reported casting couch abuse, and that it would be “terribly unfair”
suicide of actress Jang Ja Yeon in 2009 is a gaunt reminder to a talented actress who failed to get the role because she
of the severity of the issue in South Korea (The Straits would not engage in sexual favors with the producer (Indian
Times, 2017). Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood film producer Express, 2018). However, he also believed “there was
and Academy Award winner for producing the film nothing I could do about it”, suggesting the deep-rooted
Shakespeare in Love, was embroiled in several sexual abuse nature of the problem. This is in line with what Robert W.
allegations linked with more than 80 women (BBC, 2018). It Sweet, US District Judge, said in his ruling against
led to the “#MeToo” social media campaign Weinstein – the casting couch “has been in the American
lexicon for nearly a century. (Neumeister, 2018)”
18Solution & Framework Modules
Solution & Framework Modules
Blockchain has too frequently been touted as the solution
for all industry woes. At GLOS, we believe that blockchain 7.2 Voting
can enable transparency, the circulation of value, greater
security, reliable up-time and ultimately, a better app Voting has played an integral role in entertainment for as
experience. GLOS will achieve this by creating key modules long as the industry’s existence. Audience participation has
and tools that app developers can tap into so that they can always captured the audience’s attention throughout any
build their applications more efficiently and integrate tools competition or narrative. Voting invites the audience to
that would genuinely benefit from blockchain. really have a say in the narrative of a show or what an
artiste does. We’ve seen voting take a critical role in talent
The GLOS blockchain is focused on supporting quests, live streaming, game shows, and much more.
entertainment apps and will provide the following modules Audience interaction will become more and more
for apps to expedite their time to market and to share commonplace and blockchain can ensure its authenticity.
useful data to acquire, retain, and monetize users effectively
and compliantly. Blockchain provides a trustless environment which removes
inefficient intermediaries and corrupt organizations acting
as governance bodies. In the entertainment industry, voting
7.1 Payments is typically introduced to competitions organized by TV
channels, producers, or streaming platforms. These
Blockchain enables the instant settlement of payments organizations are also the governance bodies overseeing the
across different wallets. This will expedite the process of voting mechanism which is a blackbox to outsiders. It is not
payments on any platform for B2B, B2C, and C2C. With the uncommon for these organizations to make up voting
help of blockchains, cross-border transactions of value can results favorable to their interests. The results are often not
now be cheaper and faster than ever before. Using verifiable. With GLOS blockchain, results will be
blockchain-based solutions for payments will curb the transparent and immutable as every vote cast will be
lengthy transaction times and expensive overheads recorded on the blockchain. There is no need for trust on a
currently offered by financial institutions. single organization to perform voting and ratify the votes.
GLOS blockchain will remove the need for intermediaries
The nature of these transactions can be exceptionally well- while improving the accuracy of the voting results.
documented, with a thorough audit trail of each transaction
being posted onto the decentralized ledger. Additionally, With GLOS blockchain, voting can be introduced to
where payments are tied to smart contracts, the terms of entertainment-related settings far beyond single events or
the smart contract can be public, providing another virtual campaigns. While voting is often introduced in popular
paper trail for source of funds or any industry standard campaigns such as countrywide beauty contests, large-scale
around transaction and data handling. voting is not commonly seen in our daily life. Part of it can
be ascribed to the huge cost associated with large-scale
Payments on the blockchain are a common use case. The voting. With the gradual development of GLOS blockchain,
GLOS blockchain will be scalable and built to offer voting cost can be brought down. Thus, blockchain-based
exceptional transaction per second (TPS). However, voting can be introduced to different entertainment settings
payment-as-a-service is basically native to any blockchain and applications at a much lower cost. An example might be
solution. The solution that is required for all parties to a large-scale voting of a million audience to decide elements
actually use blockchain for payments is a seamless user of a gaming contest including the map, rules, or other
experience with payments via the blockchain. Therefore, opportunities of the game. Therefore, GLOS blockchain
rather than investing heavily in the blockchain protocol to creates better audience engagement.
support payments, GLOS will instead invest heavily into
integrating the right wallet solution for the best user
experience. 7.3 Campaign Management
We also believe that entertainment is not only online. The The GLOS blockchain will offer a decentralized solution for
first things that come to mind when we talk about campaign management that will serve the brand partners,
entertainment includes video streaming services, live artiste managers and KOLs/artists. Advertising campaigns
streaming, and gaming. However, so much of entertainment are plagued with informational asymmetry where some
still remain offline, such as cinemas, concerts, and in- participants never see the real-world value that they are
person gaming experiences. At GLOS, we don’t see the need generating.
to distinguish between assets you use online and offline, as
long as the experience is optimal for the consumer. This The campaign management infrastructure that we are
means that GLOS will ensure that not only are online building at GLOS pushes all the transactions associated
payments using blockchain and digital assets enabled but with a campaign downstream to our blockchain. Brand
so are offline experiences that our DApp partners offer. A partners, artist managers, and KOLs will be able to see KPIs
blockchain that validates online and offline transactions, all such as sales conversion, click-through rate etc., all on the
on-chain, with processing-ready online and offline partners, GLOS blockchain dashboard as long as the appropriate
provides a powerful piece of infrastructure for these DApp metrics are unlocked using an authorized decryption key.
projects. To tap into those benefits would otherwise have This streamlines information across all participants and
taken them years to build alone. provides a benefit to anyone using a DApp built on the
GLOS blockchain.
20Ultimately, this will eventually provide large amounts of management. Tools will also be included to allow users to
data granularity and better price discovery. Currently, create and market their IP profitably. There will be two key
social influencers are paid to participate in campaigns components – registration and licensing. Content creators
according to the number of followers they have or an can register their IP on the platform while parties interested
engagement level. These are merely vanity metrics for a in the IP can license the IP and create IP-based products
brand looking to engage them. The next time the same such as games or merchandise. The goal of the IP Platform
influencer is engaged, it may be through the same agency, is:
whose interests are misaligned from their brand partners 1. to assist users in ascertaining concrete evidence that can
who want as many social influencers working on a show the ownership of the copyright of the content and
campaign as possible. Otherwise, the social influencer is for the protection of such copyright. This may extend to
engaged through a new agency who has no historical record trademarks if the users have registered trademarks and
of the social influencers’ sales conversion rate in any wish to register them with the platform as well;
geographical region or industry vertical. 2. to facilitate parties in negotiating and entering into
licensing agreements for the use of those copyright
GLOS blockchain will enable all participants to say how one contents. The precise scope of the functions of the IP
KOL compares to the next based on important KPIs because Platform may vary subject to development.
of historical campaigns that have been posted to the GLOS
blockchain through any DApp that utilizes this module. GLOS envisions the IP management chain will become a
one-stop platform for IP owners to register their IPs, and for
Tools like this will enable KOLs and smaller brands or IP licensees to secure the rights of using the IPs. IP can be
smaller artiste agencies to reap the benefits of a blockchain managed at a company, production or individual level
ledger without paying to build the infrastructure or having allowing the seamless registration and management of IP
their own in-house expertise. Future iterations will be able and bypassing expensive and manual processes that require
to pre-emptively identify promising KOLs based on the KPIs engagement. This will gradually evolve to become an
historically captured on the blockchain, ensuring that entertainment industry-centric IP management platform
brands who engage KOLs for marketing really get value and and marketplace.
create a more transparent and wholesome market.
7.6 Token Issuance
7.4 Project Financing
The greatest asset in entertainment is talent. Ever since
Music, TV shows, movies, and ad campaigns all require agencies have existed, there have always been some artistes
production costs. Whilst not a concern for consumers, who have insisted on independence. Independence allows
creators would benefit from being able to crowdsource artistes to express themselves in the most authentic way,
financing for promising projects. Blockchain-based project without pressure from backers to behave in a certain way
financing can integrate a light governance layer and escrow and discuss or avoid certain topics. For some, this is very
service through smart contracts, thereby protecting good PR and integral to their success but more and more,
investors and the creators. fans just want the artistes whom they support to be
approachable and authentic.
Project financing allows fans and investors to contribute to
entertainment projects that they believe are of high While agencies serve an important function in training and
potential. Currently, entertainment project financing is protecting their artistes, agencies are still just an
limited to institutional and sophisticated investors. With intermediary who participate to profit from the success of
GLOS blockchain, the procedure for contributing to project the artistes. The act of tokenization allows artistes (groups
financing can be streamlined, thereby encouraging mass or individuals) to be “owned” by the public. By maintaining
participation of individual contributors. independence, artistes are also able to keep their cost of
production lower for their fans or even participate in fan
Project financing and management will be largely productions without fans having to pay a middleman for
automated with the help of GLOS blockchain. A production that luxury.
typically involves a number of participants, numerous
agreements, detailed budgeting, complicated funding The GLOS blockchain will allow select artistes to go public,
processes, and cumbersome distribution of proceeds to by issuing their own tokens. The ownership of a token is not
different participants such as producers, actors, lawyers, only a hallmark of a true fan. Artistes are free to assign
sales, agents, cinemas, and many more. GLOS blockchain benefits and utilities to these tokens on their own apps or
will support smart contracts which automate the financing, affiliated apps, creating a new dimension for fans to engage
sales, budgeting, and distribution. This will significantly more intimately with their favorite artistes. It allows artistes
increase the efficiency and transparency of entertainment the freedom to tailor the fan experience and grow their own
project financing. fan-base.
This module will allow artistes to build their own token and
7.5 IP Management hold a token issuance event. Once available, the GLOS
token will act as an on-ramp and liquidity token for all of
GLOS is introducing an IP management chain and platform these artiste tokens. The possibilities with this are endless,
with an open API to lower the barrier of IP registration and as it is up to the artistes and their fans to express
themselves in a way that suits them best.
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