Case Study

BytePlus Recommend:

Helping FunCorp
Deliver Success One
Smile at a Time1

Putting the ‘Fun’
Back in ‘Funny’
FunCorp is a mobile app development
company that owns several User-Generated
Content (UGC) platforms, including iFunnyand FunXD. The organization sought toimprove user interactions, as well as timespent on each platform and content asset.
By partnering with BytePlus and utilizing
its advanced Artificial Intelligence/Machine
Learning (AI/ML) technology, FunCorp
increased ‘Smiles’ per user — the equivalentof “Likes” on the platforms — by up to 20%
and total time spent by up to 33%.

20%
increased of likes on platforms

33%
increased in total time spent2

Building a Community for Memes
and All Things Funny
In the bustling digital hub of Limassol, Cyprus, you will find the dynamo that is
FunCorp. As a trailblazer in mobile app development, FunCorp’s inception in 2004
marked the start of a game-changing journey into the digital realm. The company
has since unfolded a myriad of UGC platforms, a veritable playground of uproarious
images, engaging videos, spirited GIFs, and, the star of the show, ubiquitousinternet memes.

1mil
active users every day

FunCorp, with strategic precision, segmented its market, positioning iFunny to engage
the U.S. audience, while FunXD captivates users in India and Mexico. Together, theseplatforms have about one million active users every day.
Far from just being digital curiosities, memes have morphed into a distinctive medium
for social expression. They subtly articulate individual perspectives, highlight trending
topics, and raise awareness of various societal nuances. As they gain traction, memes
have begun to carve out a unique space within mainstream media, advertising, andentertainment. Recognizing their reach and appeal, particularly among younger
demographics, businesses and organizations are tuning into this ‘meme frequency’.
This trend underlines FunCorp’s foresight and its resonant success within this vibrantdigital sphere.

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In the Business of Fun:

Meme Industry and Finding
Opportunities in a Good Laugh
The meme industry has grown significantly in recent years. In fact, it has now cometo dominate a prominent part of internet culture. Even the most popular social mediaapps right now are populated with streams of memes, from funny images and videos
to animated GIFs. Not only that, they are being widely shared and consumed, andgoing viral is almost an everyday occurrence. In short, if it is funny, it is likely to travel
far on the internet.
Although it may be challenging to assign an exact monetary value to the meme
industry, its profound impact on digital content consumption underscores its
formidable presence. Memes have become an integral part of our digital content
ecosystem. It steers trends, influences behaviors, and shapes conversations acrossa number of platforms and audiences. Their true power lies beyond the laughter thatthey generate. Instead, it is the cultural capital that compels people to share andamplify their reach and influence.

Some of the economic opportunities in the meme industry include:
Influencer Marketing
Memes have given rise to meme creators or “meme influencers” whohave large followings on social media platforms. These influencers
collaborate with brands to create sponsored content or promote
products in meme formats.

Advertising and Brand Partnerships
Companies partner with meme creators or platforms to create
branded memes or sponsor meme-related content. This
collaboration helps brands reach a wider audience and tap into theengagement and viral potential of memes.

Merchandise and Product Sales
Memes often inspire the creation of merchandise such as t-shirts,
mugs, stickers, and other products featuring popular memecharacters or catchphrases. Meme creators can capitalize on thepopularity of their content by selling branded merchandise.

Content Aggregation and Curation
Some websites or social media accounts curate and aggregate
memes from various sources to create platforms dedicated to meme
content. These platforms can generate revenue through advertisingor sponsored content.

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The Hurdle:

Even Laughter Has Its Limits
FunCorp’s business model is relatively
straightforward. Users are encouraged
to create and upload funny memes withthe community. The idea is to build aworldwide community of users that share,reshare, and engage with all the content
the platforms have to offer.
Meanwhile, both iFunny and FunXD
operated on an advertising-based
revenue model. This means that the moreusers there are and the longer they stayon both platforms, the more revenue thatis generated. In short, the funnier thecontent, the better.

Then there was the fact that there
were a dozen different other websites
with communities that generated
similar content of their own, filledwith funny memes, cat videos, andother internet pop culture references.
For FunCorp’s platforms to stand out
from the increasingly crowded andequally hilarious crowd, the company
needed to bank on personalizationand optimization. After all, without
an effective recommendation engine,
FunCorp risked losing user engagement,
content consumption, and a decline inadvertising revenue.

However, FunCorp faced a major hurdle.
Even though the team of 20 had spent
more than two-and-a-half years to build
and train its very-own AI-based models,
FunCorp couldn’t quite increase the size of
its user base nor its engagement rate. The
content was still funny, but the users were
not necessarily growing as a result.

“Despite the effort of 20 capable individuals
and a handful of promising tests, we still weren’t
experiencing the uptrend we had hoped to see
in our metrics. Our market analysis eventually
led to BytePlus Recommend.”“Since it is the same recommendation engine thatpowered TikTok, one of the world’s biggest social
media apps right now, we decided to give it a shot.”
Max Kraynov, CEO of FunCorp

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The Solution:

Keeping the Laughter Goingfor More People
This is when BytePlus and its team of developer, data scientist, and dedicatedsalesperson came into the picture in February 2022.
The first order of business was to test and implement a series of advanced AI/ML models
to power BytePlus Recommend. Specifically, these highly advanced models analyzed
users’ behaviors and interests over time, then fed the information back to the team in
real time. This methodical approach allowed test metrics to be fine-tuned, issues tobe rectified, and feedback to be gathered within weekly iterations. BytePlus’ team wasalso able to rapidly make adjustments and optimizations on the fly, allowing BytePlus
Recommend to populate users’ feed only with the funniest content that they desire.

Within six months, FunCorp began to see tangible results.
Firstly, FunCorp noticed that users were spending way more time on both its platforms andeach content assets. These improvements indicated that the recommendation engine wasrecommending content that were more engaging—and more fun—for users as a whole.

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Next, FunCorp’s users were “smiling” more. Specifically, FunCorp looked at its “Smiles”
function, which was the equivalent of “Likes” on its platforms. Beyond just looking andconsuming all the funny content, FunCorp wanted users to also interact with them. On thatfront, there was a significant uptick in the number of “Smiles” recorded across the board.
BytePlus also offered different pricing models for each of FunCorp’s platforms. For iFunny,BytePlus offered a tiered pricing model, whereby the pricing scaled along with the growthin its user base. Meanwhile, for FunXD, BytePlus offered a more cost-effective flat monthly
fee. These flexible pricing models allowed FunCorp to grow its user base, achieve its key
performance indicators (KPIs), and expand its business in a cost-effective manner.
Perhaps the greatest value that BytePlus added was the expertise on hand.

“We overestimated our abilities. The hard truth is thattrue data scientists and expert product managers in
the recommendation field are scarce. Unfortunately,
they were not in our ranks at the time. BytePlus availed
a compact and agile team to us, and the crux of theworkload was expertly managed by them.”
Max Kraynov, CEO of FunCorp

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Results
After using BytePlus Recommend, FunCorp managed to increase the Total Play Duration
on iFunny and FunXD by 33% and 15% respectively. This means that, as a whole, users
were spending more time viewing and interacting with the content on the platforms.
The results were also encouraging on the individual user level. After using BytePlus
Recommend, FunCorp managed to increase Play Duration Per User by more than 22% foriFunny and more than 10% for FunXD.
Not only were users viewing the content, but they were also actively engaging with it. A‘Smile’ is the equivalent of a ‘Like’ button on iFunny and FunXD. After the implementationof BytePlus Recommend, FunCorp saw a 5% uplift in ‘Smiles’ per user on iFunny and a20% uplift for ‘Smiles’ per user on FunXD. Greater interactions with the platforms havealso led to higher retention rates among FunCorp’s user base. Specifically, iFunny saw a
2% uplift and FunXD saw a 2.5% uplift.

“There were two key factors that propelled the success.
A robust testing strategy with a focus on enhancing the‘time spent’ metric, as well as a comprehensive graspof other pivotal metrics. Our team took a methodical
approach to systematically test and rectify issues during
weekly iterations. This is a far cry from before, when weused to have an extended cycle of at least 12 weeks.”
Max Kraynov, CEO of FunCorp

8Total Play Duration

iFunny

33%

FunXD

15%

Play Duration Per UseriFunny

22%

FunXD

10%

‘Smile’ Per UseriFunny

5%

FunXD

20%

“The hard truth is that true data scientists andexpert product managers in the recommendation
field are scarce. Unfortunately, they were not in ourranks at the time. BytePlus availed a compact andagile team to us, and the crux of the workload wasexpertly managed by them.”
Max Kraynov, CEO of FunCorp

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