Did you know that the famous boy with a clenched fist exuding the ‘did it’ vibe on social media sold the meme picture for a sum that helped him sponsor his dad’s surgery? Or that Zoë Roth, labelled ‘the disaster girl with an evil smirk’, sold the original photograph for $4,73,000? The good news is that meme art and posts could potentially earn millions if played well.
It’s official now. Memes are the new language that everybody understands. MemeChat, an app equipped with an AI meme generator that can make memes in seconds, is in fact betting on meme art as the new financial tool that meme-makers will cash in on.
Kyle Fernandes, CEO, and Co-founder of MemeChat, explains, “In a short span, memes have proven to be a tool that has not only been the marketers’ best friend but a commodity successfully sold through non-fungible tokens. A large number of famous memes, photos, and videos have been sold at lucrative prices by users during NFT auctions. MemeChat has a vast network of meme users and developers, and we have noted some viral memes that sell for around Rs 40 lakh in such auctions.”
People are looking at NFTs as a sort of new way to invest like gold, stocks, or funds. It indeed is a unique concept, but its introduction will definitely encourage a plethora of users to try their hand at trading moving forward.
Memes are the new collectibles that you can bet your money on, say app creators. That could be a reason why video memes are also catching up, perhaps to ride the NFT trend. Sana Afreen, CCO & Programme Manager at Rizzle app, adds, “At Rizzle, we enable body extraction, shrinking, and magnification for video memes that are catching up.”
Who is the ideal meme art buyer? Brands and companies say the meme art enthusiasts. “As early as 2022, a famous meme would be auctioned much like Picasso’s art based on the kind of popularity and hype it enjoys. In fact, MemeChat also helps brands to get viral organically on social media; some of the key brands they have worked with are Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Alt Balaji, etc,” adds Fernandes.
Naturally, this led to the genesis of meme coins—cryptocurrencies that have gained popularity in a short span. Some of you may remember Dogecoin, the original meme coin which went viral after global entrepreneur Elon Musk began tweeting about the cryptocurrency, and retail investors started buying in droves.
Simply put, a meme coin is a digital currency that has an INR value. It is the enumeration/evaluation given to content creators. Based on it, brands use the content and pay the meme makers. Considering the Indian meme creator is aged between 15-24 years, that’s the demographic that could mint millions if everything goes right. Not rags to riches, but memes to millions.