Why are you participating for Based SEA?

Fanster was built with Indonesian and SEA audiences in mind, recognizing that many fan platforms in the region don’t fully appreciate or engage their fans. We’ve already onboarded both Bigetron and BTR7, Bigetron’s affiliated girl band, bringing a combined fanbase of over 22 million Instagram followers, predominantly in Indonesia. This early traction is possible because one of our co-founders, Edwin Chia, also founded Bigetron, providing us with a strong foundation and access to Bigetron’s vast audience following.

With Fanster, we’re changing that by prioritizing fan engagement through rewarding experiences. We’ve designed a platform that lets fans complete gamified missions and daily tasks, creating a community where their support is genuinely valued. In addition to making it easy for creators to deliver diverse content, Fanster also provides monetization opportunities, enabling creators to connect with and benefit from their audience in meaningful ways. This approach builds more personal, interactive connections and rewards both creators and fans.

What challenges are you focusing on?

For creators, a significant challenge is the inability to effectively monetize their audience, especially when it comes to reaching supporters in foreign markets due to current border payment system. Additionally, current platforms provide limited tools for tracking fan engagement levels, making it difficult for creators to understand and nurture their fanbase fully.

Fans, on the other hand, face a lack of recognition and appreciation for their support, often feeling undervalued by the platforms they use. Cross-border payment processes add another layer of frustration, making it complicated and costly to support creators globally. Moreover, the negative stigma surrounding fan identity often discourages open support, leaving fans hesitant to express their dedication.

How does your submission address this challenge?

For creators, we tackle the monetization barrier by supporting a wide range of cross-border and crypto payment options, making it easier for creators to reach supporters worldwide without the limitations of traditional borders. We also introduce loyalty-based tools, such as fan engagement tracking and leaderboard, which give creators detailed insights into their fanbase, allowing them to recognize and reward top supporters.

For fans, Fanster provides a gamified loyalty system, recognizing and rewarding fan engagement through missions and daily tasks. Global payments are simplified with crypto support, aided by Base Smart Wallets and Paymaster for a smoother experience. Finally, fans can enjoy anonymity with customizable usernames tailored to each community, enabling open support without the stigma often associated with fan identity.

Challenges we ran into

• Smart Wallet access: In Indonesia, access to the Coinbase.com domain is restricted, causing disruptions with the Smart Wallet experience. To work around this, we had to advise users to use VPNs or custom DNS resolvers, which complicates onboarding and detracts from a smooth user experience.
• Onboarding: Ensuring a seamless onboarding experience is challenging. We’re addressing this by using Privy, which simplifies user entry without requiring extensive setup.
• Mission design: Creating an engaging and seamless mission system—where users can participate without intrusive prompts—is essential for a fun experience. We’ve been refining this feature through alpha testing and multiple iterations.
• Payment solutions: We’re exploring partnerships with local and international payment gateways to enable easier transactions. However, we’re still working on a bulletproof solution to handle these payments reliably.
• Fair economic system: Maintaining fairness in the Fanster economy, particularly with experience points (XP) and creator points (CP), requires careful balancing. We’re tackling this through alpha testing and iterative improvements.
• User experience (UX): Crafting a UX that allows Web2 users to enjoy a Web3 platform remains a significant challenge, as we want to bridge the gap effectively without compromising ease of use.

Additional Features

• Fully on-chain and transparent items: Gifts and premium memberships on Fanster are represented as NFTs (ERC-721) on the Base blockchain, while the loyalty system, including Creator Points and Fanster Experience, is tokenized with fungible tokens (ERC-20).
• Digital goods marketplace: A dedicated marketplace where users can buy and sell exclusive digital merchandise from creators.
• Diverse entertainment content: Creators can share various content types, such as long videos (YouTube-style), short videos (Instagram Story-style), short text posts (X-style), and image content, allowing for dynamic engagement.
• Mobile-first PWA design: Fanster is optimized as a Progressive Web App, offering seamless, app-like experiences directly on mobile browsers.