CEO, Yuga Labs
The Future of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Gaming ft. Daniel Alegre | The Nifty Show #660
--
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Intro and Chit Chat
00:01:30 - Dwight Howard's NFTs
00:04:30 - BoDoggo of the Day
00:06:45 - Weather Report
00:10:22 - Stories from the Nifty Daily Digest
00:13:22 - Bryan Johnson gets into Crypto
00:17:22 - Crypto RALLYING
00:22:56 - Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs joins the show
--
📩 Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.thenifty.com/
🖼️ Buy our NFT: https://thenifty.com/nft
💬 Join our discord: http://www.thenifty.com/discord
#nftmarket #nft #nfts #ethereum #bitcoin
--
DISCLAIMER: You should never treat any opinion expressed by the hosts of this content as a r...
About Daniel Alegre
Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs, has described the current state of web3 technology as still being complicated and behind the opportunity, comparing it to the early days of the mobile revolution. He has stated that disruptive technologies always face entrenched interests and that user trust is hindered by the complexity of the space and fears of scams. Alegre has expressed optimism about infrastructure investment in the sector, drawing a parallel to the early internet era of AOL, and has said he believes the technology's potential will be realized over time. Alegre has emphasized Yuga Labs' focus on community-driven brand building, describing the model of granting NFT holders full commercial IP rights as a revolutionary approach to IP ownership. He has stated that the company is committed to the long term and is focused on creating gaming and metaverse experiences through its Otherside platform, with the goal of exposing web2 gamers to the value of web3. Alegre has also discussed the company's stance on creator royalties, expressing disappointment with OpenSea's policy change and highlighting a partnership with Magic Eden based on a contractual commitment to support royalties. He has noted that the company is expanding its presence in Asia Pacific, citing strong enthusiasm from both crypto enthusiasts and regulators in the region.
Transcript (95 segments)
H
Host0:11
Across the board on Ordinal, on Ethereum, on Solana, and what's going on there, it's getting crazy. I didn't know that. Hey Nick, you want a $400 keyboard? Anyways, and we're gonna try a $300 keyboard. I love that Nick doesn't get the reference at all. No, Nick is... and then halfway through the show we're going to be joined by the one and only Daniel Alegre, the CEO of Yuga Labs, ex-COO of Activision, to discuss all things gaming, community building, and 2024 plans for Yuga Labs. He's the star, the lead in Mission Impossible movies, I don't know if you're aware of that as well. I didn't get the reference. I'm just saying that.
These at like 1.5 AVAX. I found out yesterday that these did a 10x over the weekend when Dwight Howard launched a shitcoin that rugged. These got up to like 12 AVAX, and I have no idea, now they're sitting at literally $4. I got pump and dumped. Wait, so did you not exit yours? I had two listed, one at 2.5 and one at 3.2, and they both sold. I still have one, but the highest offer on it is like literally $3. So I might buy this dip, dude. I might buy the dip. Reveals coming. There's only 500 of these.
We will now reveal dollar sign ball. He added his R O M and then it dumped, pumped, and then it dumped, and then it pumped again, and then just completely... Was it an AVAX meme coin? Yeah. I mean, what initiated this thing and who's part of this team that's running this behind the scenes? So yeah, I think the story is he has someone that reached out to him. He's playing basketball in Taiwan, averaging 25 points a game, feeling good. Someone comes up to him like, 'Hey dude, you can drop these things called NFTs, you can easily make $150,000, you just sit there, it's a collectible and you're good to go.' He's like, 'Sure, I'll do it.' And he took the playbook, hired the guy.
Those look terrible, but anyways. Why can't you even see the NFT? You own one of these NFTs but you can't even see it. It's unsold. There's like literally 20% of the supply sold out. So you're saying there's no reveal yet? No, the reveal is supposedly coming. Wait, so this all pumped on an unrevealed NFT? Yeah. I mean, I guess you could buy into the pre-reveal dump. That's abnormal, that's not usually how it goes. This playbook was all over the map. I kind of like it. I think this is a good long shot trade.
One for literally $4. The most recent sale was $4. I would just load up on a bunch of them just to see what happens. Take the $100 that you're willing to gamble, put it into these things, get 5% of the pre-reveal supply. I'm gonna become a Dwight Howard whale. He might send me a jersey, dude. He may fly you out to Hong Kong to play basketball with him. That's what I'm talking about. Before we get started today, ladies and gentlemen, today's shout out, today's Bored Ape of the day, is Logan 23. Logan 23 bought his very first Bored Ape yesterday. He said ever since I got into Solana, I've been... follow him at Fanboys 92, Fanboys with a Z 92. We got to work with the Bored Apes on optimizing their usernames a little bit, but overall shout out to Logan. Lastly guys, before we get started with the signals weather report, if you have any questions for Daniel Alegre, a lot of people have been DMing us asking questions. They're very excited for today's show. If you have anything you want to ask him, you can comment it in the space below and we will be asking him during the interview.
Nick, I've only been getting people DMing me nudes, dude. It's getting out of control, man. You guys got to stop sending that shit. It's inappropriate. But no one's sending me any Daniel Alegre questions. Actually, one person did. Not going to name names.
Listen, I'm like, dude, you're the expert on this space. Maybe he was just holding back. Maybe he was just like, 'I'm not about to be your mouthpiece.' Anyways, people are saying now that I'm dumping on the listeners and talking about shilling my bags. I'm learning from the best, learning from Nifty Nick, aka Mr. Honk. But signal please, when I'm out of Honk by the way, fully out. Signal please, weather report whenever you're ready.
It's Tuesday, it's January the 30th. ETH market volume is coming in at 18 million. We've got that Solana market volume coming in at 9 million. If we look at the market leaders, you got the little... four stories. Firstly, obviously crypto has entered its up-only mode. This is what Easy predicted. We've got multiple day rally ranges continuing. Yesterday, Bitcoin is up 3.2% to 43.4k, Ethereum is up 2.5%, and Solana is up 8.3%. We are back over $100. And SEI is the biggest gainer, up 11% to $73. The second story of the day: OMB and Ordinals' highly anticipated Quantum Cats mint that had various issues with its custom website. A large portion of people couldn't mint their allocation. Various people actually managed to mint multiple, with people extremely disappointed that this team which is considered highly technical had these problems. The mint has been pushed back to Thursday.
80 million market cap with the unclaimed supply burn yesterday turning into a sell-the-news event. This is just the appetizer though, people. We have the massive airdrop obviously just 24 hours away coming from Jupiter. And lastly, looking at AOF Verse, which was a gaming free mint from just a few months ago, it's making the headlines after the team announced that the upcoming AOFG token will feature only 1% of the total supply going to the NFT holders with zero unlocks at the launch and a 20-month schedule for all tokens to unlock. NFT holders dumped 143 of their AOF Verse NFTs for a six-figure loss, and the collection is down 70%.
Clemente's random obsessions show up in the newsletter all of a sudden. Quiries was like the thing the other day pumping, dude. They're moving. Why wouldn't he put them up there? They ran from like 24 to 2 ETH in a couple weeks. So that may have been relevant. Where is a kid called... he definitely has like 10 of them. I don't own any. I was just looking for top movers. Sometimes you literally can't find any, and there's random ass... you go to the Blur leaderboard, Nick. This is what I do in the mornings. I'll walk you guys through it. I'm going through, I'm like, 'Yo, what are the...' Don't worry, literally just don't worry about a Clemente. Just stop putting a kid called Beast in the newsletter over and over again. Fantastic weather report as usual, S. A little bit of a trial by fire.
Over and over again, even as recently as a podcast that I listened to yesterday, has the same energy towards NFTs, which is literally the quote, 'NFTs are dumb.' Anyway, first story: Lazy Lions announced that the project has officially been acquired, and the collection has rallied over 50% in the last 7 days. NFT statistics pointed out, 'Buy the insider info, sell the public facing info,' because it pumped 24 hours before the announcement. Would you look at that? Next story: Shrapnel announced their first STX event will be coming on February 8th, featuring $1,000 in prizes to the top leaderboard participants and is exclusive to Extraction Pack owners. Hope you bought an Extraction Pack. Big shout out to...
Product delivery which cost more than $400 to holders. A Doodle ask moment: 'What's the next thing on the roadmap? Give us $500.' But anyway, we will have to see. It's a good-looking keyboard, I'll tell you that. It's definitely a good-looking keyboard, Nick. I mean, next story. I did miss this. I did see someone mention keyboard, but I didn't know why that was coming out. That's incredible. It's a good looking keyboard. I'll keep it 100, it reminds me of something like that Tesla dude. I have a really nice keyboard, ain't cost $500. I mean, I don't like the color, I think it could be more custom, but I love the tactile nature of the keyboard. It just feels good. It's probably the best layout. It's better than even E's.
Venusaur, so close. Ah damn. So same thing, dude. I'm right. That falls into the correct category as far as I'm concerned. In terms of keyboard though, mine is still better as it applies to a layout because I have the numeric keys and arrows to the side. It is a key element when you're operating. I know I bumped it, it wasn't intentional. But it also has heavy weight to it. The one that E's working with is one that would be more portable, a more portable option. There's a lot of keyboard fans. $500 though is pretty expensive and it's not a good place to start. And I also wonder, so the keyboard that's in production right now is $1,000, but holders pay $1,200. So I like the structure that we have a lot better. Anyway, moving on from the $500 keyboard. I love that that actually happened. Last story, this is without question my favorite story from the daily digest, without question. Bryan Johnson, Mr. Zero himself, the one and only Bryan Johnson, the guy that's going to literally live forever, has announced a collaboration with Drip House featuring his Blueprint Survival Guide as a collectible. Well, well, well, Bryan Johnson getting into the crypto and NFT space. When you gonna come on this show, buddy? We want to have you, Nick.
Access to the crypto community. I don't know if anybody else has different thoughts. E, do you have any thoughts on this? No, I think it's just a way to get new exposure. I think it's a good marketing play by him. I don't think there's anything much beyond that. It's free, it's easy to... he sold some... sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. He sold something like $5 million worth of his products, the Blueprints products that came out via invite only. I got on that list and then I was like, 'I don't want to spend $500 right now.' You want to just give Bryan Johnson's new business after he sold PayPal? What do you get for the $500 though? So there's a bunch of different... there's like vitamins, there's his new olive oil that's coming out which looks good, and honestly it's the first...
Mediterranean vibe is what you're aiming for associated with it. There's different forms of colorful versions of it, but you're definitely looking for branches and olive trees, bushes, some sort of tree-like or bush experience that you're going for on it. And the form that PO has with his favorite olive oil, which is like the red, I would consider it more like a rug, like a rug pattern sort of thing that you're going for with that, which may be like a Persian rug. So you get the... it's $500 for his different assets, and then you have the separate... sorry, for his products, and then you have a separate...
And then you need to take another test afterwards once it's complete to see if consuming this had the impact. And really what I mean, honestly I think it is, is he's charging you for his marketing data that's going to come in to be like, '50% of people, their average age decreased by 35% after 30 days of taking this.' And I'm just like, 'Yeah, I'm interested in that.' Well, he's on to something because he's selling powders and people in 2024, especially in the United States, love to consume products that come in a bag or a box. What I will say real quick is that the listeners of this show have actually allowed me to expand the way that I...
Olive oil for $50, single source origin from the island of Crete in Greece. Let go. You got some Cretan oil, dude. I do this one right here, baby. That's what I'm messing with right now. Did you taste it? I have not. It literally just arrived, or I guess it's already been a week. I haven't consumed it yet. You didn't even take a spoon to it? Just take a little shot of the olive oil. I'll take a shot of it on this show tomorrow when Daniel's gone, how about that? During the show. But I'm also going to throw it on some pizza that I'm gonna make. But anyway, real quick before we have Daniel on, look, I mean crypto is rallying once again, up-only mode as it's referred to by Easy. I had somebody pull some research for us that in the previous...
Expect a large turnout. I don't, because I'm just seeing that the Bitcoin show just doesn't get the same turnout. But I'm going to tell you, if there's one that you should listen to, it's this one. This guy Fred Krueger was a Wall Street guy in the 80s and 90s, then he left Wall Street to be an entrepreneur. He literally sold 10 companies, no joke, 10 companies from the 90s until the late 2010s, 10 exits. And now he's obsessed with Bitcoin and is basically just talking about not only the significance of the Bitcoin ETF but the significance of ETFs in general. I'm also seeing people point out that every time there's even a whiff of a pump in crypto, Solana seems to be the asset that kind of harnesses the most energy. Easy, what do you make of what we're seeing right now in the price action?
It was kind of what I thought. Those started hitting headlines, I was like, 'Okay, so that's probably done.' And now it's starting to play out exactly like that. It seems like that has slowed, if not completely stopped, and now we are resuming up-only mode, which is great. You really can't complain. The technicals are looking pretty good here right now. $105 is crazy, dude. That's a 30% rally off the lows, 25% rally off the lows like nothing. It just pumped back, dude. You could have just bought in. I mean, I bought some at the $85 level, which felt really good. It's pretty crazy the opportunities that exist in this space to just crank out 25% in a week, conservative. You're not buying Honk.
Mad Lads by the way, Mad Lads are strong. Yeah. And so right now if I look, yeah, I got nothing happening right now because the loan amount went so high that now I have to deposit more Solana into this DeFi wallet to be able to do another Mad Lad loan. What's the Mad Lad floor like? Near 200? Oh, I thought it was 175. Yesterday it was 175. I don't know what it is today. The floor right now on Mad Lads is 185. The thing is strong, dude. And by the way, the listings are under 400. It is aggressively strong. The floor Mad after I think that price is after royalties, so when you go to the lending level, it's going to actually give you a quote prior to royalties. So I think 175...
Single time one of these is swapped. That's a crazy situation to be in. Pretty incredible. But yeah, I'm in the loan shark phase, just making a nice $300 a week. Yeah, exactly. And on just one loan. Easy smiling. He likes that play. Look, ladies and gentlemen, in just 3 minutes we're going to be joined by the CEO of Yuga Labs, Daniel Alegre. Very, very excited to have him on the show. One more quick hitter before we have Daniel on. The Quantum Cats mint, disruption I guess is definitely significant on the Bitcoin Ordinal side. I do think that they will recover. Easy, do you think that this is the most highly anticipated new collection on Ordinals right now?
Friction and issues are not a bad thing. We've seen it on every chain, so this is kind of just like what happens. And I think that it's not the end of the world. A lot of people were obviously upset they did not get to mint their Quantum Cat, but that's largely because they wanted the free money, you know what I mean? That is where people were looking at it from, and they didn't get that chance to make that free cash. But all in all, it's got to be the most hyped Bitcoin mint right now by far. I love it when a hyped mint website breaks. There's nothing more bullish, dude. It just makes the FOMO last a little bit longer, gets everybody excited. Well, there you go. And look, we're not gonna wait, we're just going to invite the CEO of Yuga Labs onto the show. Daniel Alegre, Daniel, how's it going?
D
Daniel Alegre23:11
I'm an avid consumer of Made by Ape businesses. So my clothing, my little fan, my watch, my neon, I'm all about Made by Apes, all the licensing merch.
H
Host23:30
Well, obviously Daniel, you're a busy guy, we have limited time with you, so we're just going to dive right in. We really appreciate you joining us on the show. Back in October, in your effectively a blog post but a Twitter post, you mentioned three areas of the business: community, other side, and partnerships. We want to do our best to hit on all three. But obviously in the NFT space, community is near and dear. So I'm wondering, how does... sorry, I was gonna say, before the...
About your background prior to Yuga Labs, but you've had some pretty notable positions at some pretty notable companies, including Google for over a decade. You've been at Yuga Labs for 10 months. I'm wondering what that trial by fire has been like compared to your previous positions.
D
Daniel Alegre24:24
First, you're right. I was at Google for 16, 17 years. I actually joined it when it was a relatively small company, actually almost the size of Yuga Labs. Then Activision was already a large company, 12,000 employees, and some of the most iconic games. I'd say at Activision, for instance, when we launched Call of Duty or World of Warcraft, we would...
Games would usually take about two to three years to make, launch it, market it, and you engage with the community, but for all intents and purposes it was a one-way street: launch it, sell it, and you're done. Here, the importance of listening to the community and getting real-time feedback is, Twitter being as important as it is, something that's taken some getting used to. The sentiment changes from week to week, day to day, and sometimes from minute to minute. And then the other part is developing in real time, actually being much more open and transparent with the community as to what it is that we're doing.
Ready for prime time, and the developer community would immediately give us feedback, and we would launch early and iterate fast. That's been one of the biggest lessons for me at Yuga Labs.
H
Host26:24
One quick question on that: how do you explain this to your former business partners, your current job? Like, what literally how do you describe it to them?
D
Daniel Alegre26:33
They think I'm crazy. So they want me to go to some institution to check my mental state. And crazy not necessarily because they think the business is not real or anything of the sort. It's my entire career... first, my family's in radio.
At the core of what the business is all about, and they think it's hard for people who've been in the media business and the IP and brand building business to get their arms around: 'Wait, you don't own the brand, the community owns the brand, and the community is actually building the brand together with you.' That's really hard to get your head around. And that's usually the longest conversation. I said, 'No, no, let me explain to you. If you look at a brand like Mickey Mouse or McDonald's, the amount of time it actually takes to be able to build it and the investment that's required, versus, hey, why don't...
I go to meetings, and whoever gives me a sticker, I always put it on my phone. So I put this, one of our Apes gave this to me, and that's my calling card. When they go, 'What do you do?' I go like this, and they go, 'Oh wait, I've seen that before.' And you think, wait, that was created in a matter of months. Think about the number of years it takes to create other brands, and people just go, 'Oh yeah, I think I've seen that somewhere. I've seen the ad for it.' No, no, the community helped build it.
H
Host28:46
So we want to break the interview into three separate areas: we got community, gaming, and partnerships, which is what you outlined in your blog post from I guess...
Thousands of tokens have been issued. There's 10K TF, there's CryptoPunks, there's Bored Ape Kennel Club, there's Otherside, Otherdeed, there's Kodas, and then there's also a number of other... there's Vessels, there's all sorts of different assets in it. How do you think about community and specifically tokenized communities after having joined?
D
Daniel Alegre29:35
Yeah, when you go through the list of everything that this company has created in a matter of a few months, it's a lot. The output has been tremendous. And I've actually...
Place. It was a 'You don't do enough for us, but please don't touch us.' It was kind of that dichotomy of what they wanted. And we looked at it and said, 'Let's understand this community well. What is it that is really important to them?' For the CryptoPunks community, it's about art. At the core, it's about art. They're passionate about high-end art and how iconic CryptoPunks is, not only in the crypto space but also in the overall art world. So we spent a lot of time actually getting CryptoPunks in museums.
A very, very different community. It's much more entrepreneurial. The fact that you have the Made by Apes, we have over 800 Made by Apes businesses that are created or being created. The affinity to gaming and other digital experiences, so we've been really leaning into that with the Bored Ape and Mutant Ape communities, helping them build businesses with the MBA licenses, keeping them very connected, and also working through the evolution of gaming and Otherside.
Realize if we stay absolutely focused on what makes this special, what makes the CryptoPunks community special in their own way, what makes the MBAs community special in their own way, and the Bored Ape and Mutant Ape communities in their own way, focus on delivering great experiences and connections, the rest will follow.
H
Host32:39
One of the things that's difficult, I would say, and this comes from people who have our own community and our own holders, is back to the tokenized side of things. Community can be very vocal. They tend to universally be focused on... well, not universally, as there's obviously people building brands.
Recently, some of that community we've seen vocal frustrations, including from co-founder Gordon Goner, as well as other strong voices within the community. How would you rate Yuga's current communication and what areas do you think there are for improvement? And how much do you actually think about vocal crypto Twitter when it applies to community, and where does that fit in for the community for you?
And Daniel, I see you typing that you might have a bad connection. We can see you, it's a little bit fuzzy, but we can see you. Can you hear?
D
Daniel Alegre34:12
The importance of Twitter, I just mentioned it relative to Activision Blizzard. When we launch games, the vibe and what makes particularly the Bored Ape community unique and different is how you have really different kinds of holders everywhere around the world. Whether it's people who are just absolute crypto passionate, that tends to be more the case here in the United States, whereas if you go to the Middle East or you go to Europe, you have people...
Listen to all of them. Gordon has his own brand of special secret sauce that can get the entire industry really just all revved up and enraged and excited. I love that about him. And you have a more measured Garga, who is just so passionate about the success of Yuga Labs and its various communities, and he's a little bit more reserved in the way he speaks on Twitter. But when he speaks, you really have to listen because his insights are absolutely tremendous.
Their insights are incredible, and they can really get things going. I'll tell you the biggest challenge that I've had as CEO of Yuga Labs has been that we have... and you're starting to see it with the announcements that we had with the Apes Come Home on Otherside, with Dookey Dash coming out. We've pre-announced a game that we're going to be launching later in the year, and then we have a number of also really interesting things that we have planned for Otherside for the rest of the year, for the MBA community, and also for CryptoPunks.
This is not happening, what's going on? I need to hear right now. And the temptation is to answer those things with immediacy. This was actually the case three, four weeks ago where there was like, 'We want to know, we want to know, we want to know.' We said, 'It's coming, don't worry, we've got this.' And we've got a regular plan of launches that we want to do. And that tension between the immediacy of what people want to know with staying true to the overall development plan of what we have, that's actually been trickier for me to manage as CEO.
And in particular, I've been thinking about this a lot. If you look, I had a... such a thing as a blue chip in the space, it's us. The artistry, the dedication to storytelling, and just a hyperfocus on the highest level of creativity is what attracted them to invest in Yuga Labs. Things go up and down, and certain NFTs may be the flavor of the week or the flavor of the day or the flavor of the hour, or certain games may get launched that you say, 'Oh well, that got turned around really quickly.'
We don't cut corners in terms of the level of artistry of what we do. And as a result, whereas things may shoot up and then come crashing down, you look at the stability of the Bored Ape Yacht Club or CryptoPunks. We're in it for the long haul, and we're building for the long haul. The community members that stay with us with that mentality, there may be some blips here and there, but know that Yuga is committed to building a sustainable and long-term connected community. The noise that you may hear of things going up and down, come and...
H
Host40:10
I've seen that before. It's only been three, it hasn't even been three years total. We're coming up on three years here. So very fascinating stuff. One question, Daniel, about ApeCoin. We've seen some integrations with ApeCoin primarily through the games that Yuga's developed. Obviously you mentioned you have Dookey Dash 2 coming out. Is the game integration going to be the primary approach moving forward with ApeCoin, or are we going to see integrations with Magic Eden? People are speculating on that. What is the ApeCoin game plan moving forward?
D
Daniel Alegre40:43
Yeah, look, ApeCoin is an important component of the entire transaction ecosystem that we are...
Component of the way we do the rewards and the settlements in our experiences. We really want to make sure that the experience is cohesive and clear and that it all flows very well. Dookey Dash, I'm so excited about it. Dookey Dash V1 came out before I was CEO, and I was still at Activision, and I was looking at the stats of Dookey Dash V1, and they were just astounding.
At Activision, I was comparing one with the other, I said, 'This can't be right.' And it was right. It was really because the game experience was good, the community was super jazzed and connected, and we had a lot of learnings from that. So when we did Dookey Dash V2 and have been working on it for quite some time, we started pivoting towards something that is very important to me as CEO, and that is to ensure that not only that our community can participate and benefit from ownership of our NFTs in playing the game, but that we also make it free to...
Realize that they're in Web3. There's a big hurdle to go from Web2 to Web3 when you have to start setting up your wallet and understand how it all works. But if you have a great experience like what we're building in Dookey Dash Unclogged, and provide an avenue for people to be able to play free-to-play, we are committed to growing that funnel and bringing more Web2 into Web3. And ongoing throughout the rest of 2024, as we start having more activations with Otherside and bringing more digital experiences with Otherside, the whole plan is that we're bringing the communities...
H
Host44:10
Gaming but also in Otherside. So we wanted to give Bunny an opportunity to ask a question. But real quick, I just wanted to say we're going to move on from community to gaming in a moment since that's your area of expertise. But yeah, Bunny had another question on the community.
B
Bunny44:25
Hey D, it's me Bunny, very rare and famous Bored Ape on Twitter. What are your metrics of success when it comes to the community? Like, how do you measure that, both short and long term?
D
Daniel Alegre44:43
The big key for me is to ensure that if you look at the metrics that you use in gaming...
Being able to provide an offering that attracts as many people as possible, and then you figure out the monetization thereafter. I've been internalizing a lot about those two different models: one is go for eyeballs, and the other is go for monetizable eyeballs in a traditional way that you make money on games. For me, the most important piece here is to ensure that we've got really strong engagement. Engagement is what really matters.
Bring people from all over the place and invite them. That level of engagement is absolutely critical. If you don't have that strong engagement, then a number of things start falling apart. The value of the brand, the investment that some of our holders have in building MBA businesses. So engagement one. And then what I want Yuga to become, and I really look at us as being the front door to Web3, in particular because we have the most recognizable brands in the space and also outside the space. As I said, when you just...
Sell them a little trinket here or a little trinket there, it really is about connection and engagement. We talked about community, talked about obviously Otherside and gaming. And the third leg to this is our overall partnerships. Partnerships is not only the collabs like I see some of you wearing with Bathing Ape, the great collabs that we've done with Gucci or with BMW to date, but also working with exchanges like Magic Eden that fundamentally are believers in creator royalties, working with gaming companies who can actually create and innovate on...
Days of YouTube. When we acquired YouTube, we being Google, YouTube used to be baby videos and cat videos. What we thought was that YouTube was eventually going to be what Netflix became, that we would get licensed content from the majors and turn it into a subscription business. But what happened is if you create a platform where people can create content, find ways to monetize that content, a whole creator economy evolved. The amount of content that is now put on...
Be the equivalent of what YouTube was to the internet. Otherside can be to Web3. What I mean by that is you don't have that 30, 40, or sometimes even 60 and 70% toll that the Googles and the Apples take when they distribute the content. So there's much more available for the creators, and you create an environment where creators and communities can connect and build. Honestly, we're just in the early, early innings of what's going to be a spectacular platform creation that is anchored on decentralization.
H
Host50:11
To it in the gaming context. And I remember in your October post you wrote that you don't want Yuga to be a gaming company per se. How would you refer to Yuga now? Like, when people talk about it, how do you want people to refer to it in which category?
D
Daniel Alegre50:29
Yeah, the reason why I said that is gaming is really tough. It's very hard to make successful games one after the other. What I really care about is to provide a platform or a way for creators to create unique content and to be able to connect it to our...
Do is create a platform where creators can actually bring their innovative content and not only expose it to our communities but potentially bring new communities on board. That's what we are. We are essentially creating a community-based platform where innovators, entrepreneurs, and creators can create unique experiences, and the communities get stronger, the creators get stronger, and the whole flywheel continues to go. So why we're doing gaming is we are seeding the idea and the kernels of how gaming can really transform a Web2 experience into a...
Help innovate and evangelize what Web3 can do. And as the communities rise and more people enter Web3, everyone will benefit.
H
Host52:23
So we're going to jump into the rapid fire. We can just run down. I'm assuming the other speakers are here in the document because I know you only got a couple minutes left. Bunny, you want to kick off the first one? I know you'd written this down before.
B
Bunny52:35
Nope, I put it down. What's that? Hold on.
H
Host52:40
All right, buddy. You can for you. What's your favorite Bored Ape trait? You were the one that sent us the question, buddy.
D
Daniel Alegre52:50
That's a good question. It used to be...
Just become addicted to that trait. So you're likely going to be seeing me dabble in some of those traits that I don't currently hold in my portfolio.
H
Host53:22
Well, there we go. I'll ask the next one. Favorite non-Yuga Labs NFT and why is it Bored Apes?
D
Daniel Alegre53:30
Wow, that's good. I was first exposed to Doodles even before I knew what Bored Ape was and CryptoPunks. But it's hard now for me to really be thinking about anything else because there's so much exploration...
Exactly what we're up to. I'd have to cause bodily harm to you, rather not tell you. But look, we've gotten a lot of feedback from the community about what it is that they're looking for, and there actually some very different points of views from an in-real-life club to do we have a rotating club. We got some really interesting plans for that, and you'll hear about it later. We got the Bored Ape party bus coming along. Bunny, you want to ask the next one? Do you own any meme coins?
I do not.
H
Host54:55
Do you have any non-meme...
D
Daniel Alegre55:10
If I do, then it tips my hand towards something, and invariably I'm going to deal with a Twitter sphere that is going to drain my entire day. I'm gonna plead the fifth on that one.
H
Host55:23
How about top five? So then you can be a little more all-encompassing.
D
Daniel Alegre55:28
Yeah, five is... I'm gonna plead the fifth.
H
Host55:33
All right, there you go. Is it true that one year working in Web3 ages you five years?
D
Daniel Alegre55:38
When you said to me that I've been now CEO for nine months or 10 months, I think dang. I was listening to an interview the other day about dogs and how happy dogs are. You know...
You spend here, multiply it by seven to eight is the equivalent of any other job anywhere else. That's why we're big fans of dog NFTs.
H
Host56:21
What's been your favorite moment so far in Web3?
D
Daniel Alegre56:30
Nothing has come as close to the experience of ApeFest in Hong Kong, honestly. Just the love, the connection. The number of pats I got on my back, and I kept thinking, 'Oh, people like what I'm doing,' and then realize that they're actually putting stickers on my back. And then at the end of the day looking like...
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, all these communities that came together and created ways for people to connect in and around ApeFest was absolutely extraordinary and unique.
H
Host57:25
Damn, better dancer, you or Garga?
D
Daniel Alegre57:28
I have only seen Garga's little clips of videos of... that's all I've seen. And I blow him out of the water. Let's go.
H
Host57:41
Really? That's how he dances?
D
Daniel Alegre57:44
Yeah, no, you know what? I may dance better, but he's cooler in the way he dances. There's such a thing. Very diplomatic.
H
Host57:53
Last question. So Activision, your former employer, has made...
D
Daniel Alegre58:12
I was so excited to be able to run a company that had such an iconic brand. But I'll tell you, a very, very close second, and maybe even first, is what you're all going to experience with Dookey Dash Unclogged. It's awesome.
H
Host58:34
I know PO said it was the last question, but I have a question about that. Do you just compare that? Is the goal of this to become sort of the next prolific runner game on mobile?
D
Daniel Alegre58:46
It is going to be cross-platform. And it's a...
Behind it is we want to evangelize what Web3 can really do to Web2 experiences and get people really jazzed and understand not only about what Dookey Dash is but what our communities are all about, and bring more people into Web3. As I said, I want Yuga Labs to be the front door to Web3, and this is a core strategy of that.
H
Host59:33
Well, that's awesome. Is there anything else you want to share before we wrap up?
D
Daniel Alegre59:38
Well, first I would say thank you for inviting me. I listen to you all the time, and it's an honor to be here. But the other part I'd say is to all our listeners and community members, know that every single person at Yuga Labs...
H
Host59:55
Thank you so much, Daniel. We really appreciate your time.