{"id":37507,"date":"2023-10-20T14:50:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/we-dont-know-anything-about-marketing-ray-chan-on-the-rise-of-9gag-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:50:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:50:31","slug":"we-dont-know-anything-about-marketing-ray-chan-on-the-rise-of-9gag-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/we-dont-know-anything-about-marketing-ray-chan-on-the-rise-of-9gag-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe don\u2019t know anything about marketing\u201d: Ray Chan on the rise of 9gag – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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9gag CEO Ray Chan doesn\u2019t really believe in marketing.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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The online content aggregator\u2019s huge following is built on intimate connections with the audience, he says, rather than traditional marketing methods.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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Speaking at the SydStart conference last week, Chan said that at its core, 9gag\u2019s aim is pretty simple.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cOur mission is to make people happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe give people the platform to make people happy. That\u2019s what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Love it or hate it, 9gag has a dominating online presence, with 26 million Facebook likes, 20 million Instagram followers and 5 million on Twitter. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

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But none of this was thanks to marketing, Chan says, but rather from targeting a specific audience and creating value for them.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don\u2019t know anything about marketing,\u201d he told SydStart.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don\u2019t have a marketer on the team and we don\u2019t have anyone who has a marketing background. All of our social media is run by one person.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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He says it all boils down to one \u201cbillion dollar question\u201d: how can you cut through the noise and get the attention of the target audience?<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to hear what you\u2019re saying, they don\u2019t want to listen to you,\u201d Chan says.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople think if they can shout loud enough they\u2019ll get through to people, but they don\u2019t care what you say even if you spend lots of money and shout really loudly. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you can spend big money and get people\u2019s attention then there\u2019s no way 9gag, a small team in Hong Kong, can get 26 million followers on Facebook.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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9gag launched in 2008 and has since passed through 500 Startups and Y Combinator. Chan says the enormous user base it has amassed was all through the same process of offering value well before asking for anything in return.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou have to talk to the people that care about you, this is the most important thing in the internet world,\u201d Chan says.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou have to create value before the users trust you. It takes time and effort to get their trust and attention. If you get them to pay attention then you can get what you want.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can ask them and motivate them to do anything – you jump, they jump.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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This is also something that can be extended to monetising an online platform and Chan says it\u2019s a big error to assume advertising is no longer effective.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of investors come to talk to me about the 9gag business model, and I say it\u2019s advertising,\u201d he says.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cThey always say, \u2018ads don\u2019t work, ads are shit, people hate them\u2019. I think that is a big mistake and misconception. People don\u2019t really hate ads, they just hate annoying, irrelevant messages.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not rocket science – you just tell people something they want to know. For 9gag it\u2019s about humour. You just have to create relatable content.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9gag CEO Ray Chan doesn\u2019t really believe in marketing. \u00a0 The online content aggregator\u2019s huge following is built on intimate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}