A Look Back on Ludos in 2018
By: Ludos Protocol
Tags: ICO, Blockchain, Ludos Protocol, Year In Review, Cryptocurrency

Dear Ludos Fans,

Time flies and already it’s 2019. To commemorate all that has been achieved over the last 12 months, the Ludos team wanted to share with you the story of Ludos, where it all started, and what some of our key milestones have been to date.

August 2017: Ludos Protocol formally established by a team of gaming industry veterans. Among them, all-stars such as Mr. Meng, who worked for Top3, a Japanese mobile game company that built one of the most popular mobile games of all time. Despite blockchain only being in its infancy, much like the Internet was in the 1990’s, we were unphased. Ludos launched with the goal of becoming part of this new tech wave, and establish itself as a first mover in the highly competitive gaming industry.

Already by the early stages of the project, Ludos caught the attention of Softbank, one of the most prominent VC firms in the world, having invested previously in companies such as Alibaba, XRP Ripple and Pai. For Softbank, Ludos was only their third ever blockchain start-up investment, something which has only motivated us further to stay ahead of the blockchain curb and keep up with the existing, dominant players in the gaming industry.

Not longer after Softbank announced their investment in Ludos did we begin to see a groundswell of additional VC investment. First Du Capital, the legendary investment fund headed by Peter Du, then CICC Capital, BA Capital, and many more. With these additional resources and support network, Ludos was able to even more fully develop itself platform and provide more opportunities in terms of technological development, game resources, and the pursuit of corporate/gaming partnerships.

The, in 2018, Ludos kicked things off with its first ever World Tour, visiting Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Dubai, and the United States to meet like-minded friends and investors from all over the world. Some highlights include the first meeting in Seoul in October 2018 at the JAM2GO event. Ludos co-founder Joe Meng was greatly welcomed by convention participants and was covered by Korean traditional and gaming media. Ludos was then invited to attend Japan’s largest FinTech & Blockchain business forum to talk to Japan’s top 500 business leaders. In this exchange we were able to secure the support of tens of thousands of stores in Japan and received the backing of many credit card issuers. Ultimately, this laid a solid foundation for what is now our payment solution in Japan, LUDPay.

Ludos was next up invited by IBM to cooperate with Yokohama Bank of Japan and conducted a strategic cooperation seminar in the early days of LUDPay’s formal establishment in Japan. The Yokohama Bank Planning Minister Kobayashi said it will study how to use Ludos’ technology agreement to find the right combination point with traditional financial enterprises to promote the development of the blockchain industry in Japan. After the birth of LUDPay, we also got a partnership invitation from the major e-commerce corporations, Lotte Group, ANEX Co., Ltd., and more, which enriched LUDPay’s payment utility.

In October 2018, following overwhelming community demand, we launched the Early Bird Program, which allowed fans who shared Ludos’ vision to participate in a limited token sale. The event was strongly supported by the community, which made Ludos even more determined at every step of the way.

Fast forward to the end of 2018 and Ludos’ partnership with some of the world’s top gaming companies is also growing rapidly. We have built a strategic partnership with Imperial Throne, which has helped us expand our product offering in blockchain games. Imperial Throne’s team, from Tencent Tenmei, has experience in creating blockbuster games such as King’s Glory. We believe that the strong combination of Ludos and Imperial Throne will create a strong incentive to improve the ecosystem of Ludos. Ludos, meanwhile, also founded the Japanese Blockchain Games Association in Tokyo, which combines top talent in Japanese gaming and leading players in the Japanese blockchain industry. We are confident through our association we can penetrate the Japanese blockchain market and become the forerunner of the blockchain industry nationally and internationally.

Another highlight of 2018 was the Ludos Dubai Meet Up which was widely covered by mainstream media, including Nasdaq, Bloomberg and Reuters. It also brought with it a new partner, this time the world-renowned Zabeel Group, becoming our exclusive partner to the Middle East. They will be working closely with Ludos to expand the UAE market and cooperate in all aspects of strategy, promotion and sustained portfolio management, which is a milestone for Ludos to expand into the Middle Eastern market; a market commonly associated with blockchain but not gaming.

Most recently, Ludos and DeNA’s Japan division have engaged in technical exchanges and have agreed to cooperate on overseas game production.

In retrospect, 2018 was the fastest growing and most significant year for Ludos. The Ludos team is happy to have friends and fans who have always supported us, and with your encouragement and support, Ludos will be able to march on longer, more steadily and farther. Thank you everyone for an amazing 2018, and we look forward to making 2019 even better!

-Team Ludos