Welcome aboard, and congratulations, TIKI investors!!!

A few housekeeping items:

1. If you ever have any questions or need to get in touch with our team, you can use our special investor support email: investors@mytiki.com

2. Once all of the checks clear, we will add everyone to an official investor email list to distribute communications going forward. 

3. As with any typical campaign close, we now have several back-office items to clean up. Expect things to be a bit quiet for a few weeks while we get everything ready for explosive growth!

4. Per item 3, we will be in touch in the next few weeks regarding fulfilling everyone's sweet investment incentives :). 

5. Follow us on social. It's definitely the easiest way to stay up to date on all things TIKI — links are at the bottom of mytiki.com.

Exciting times ahead. We're so proud to have you all with us on this journey.
- Mike and the TIKI team

Wow, we've come far. When I look at the long, inevitably tough road ahead. I remind myself, look what we achieved in just 11 months.

Thank you.

Put simply, this is our way of better understanding the use cases for the data and insights generated from our users. If the business side of things is going to be successful, we need to explore use cases and lean on experts from a diverse range of industries to get a sense of just how powerful this platform can become.

The main objective is to identify which data is most valuable and how to make it usable by businesses. It’s clearly evident that the data landscape is changing in response to users’ demands for more privacy. As we’ve already commented on, the repercussions of Apple’s privacy changes are already readily apparent, especially made public by Snapchat recently. 

Companies need data, and data is becoming scarce. With data demand continuing to increase, the value of data is only going to go through the roof. There needs to be a new way for businesses to utilize data while keeping in line with new privacy changes that allow for users to turn off tracking. Enter anonymous data. Enter this steering committee to see just what it is we have at our fingertips.

So, we have organized a committee of business representatives from various industries, from legal to privacy, from science to marketing, from start-ups to Fortune 500s to get a better sense of what data they use, want, and need and just as, if not more importantly, how they are going to use it.

How do we package the data for them and make it both useful and usable? Theoretically, through our integrations, we have access to any data. And it’s anonymous. It couldn’t be better timing for TIKI. With this endeavor, we have a fast track toward perfecting the new way of utilizing user data ethically and anonymously. 

Why. 

A strong why is everything. Or, as Nietzsche put it, "He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how." 

TIKI's Shane speaks from the heart. Here's a short clip, but if you're on the fence about investing, watch the whole thing.

See you on the other side.

Data industry leaders from SMBs to Fortune 500s spanning various markets such as Health, AI, Finance, Security, Social Media, Marketing, and more are joining forces with TIKI to focus on the ethical use and monetization of user data. 

With 8 leaders already signed up and more joining by the day, the Steering Committee represents a monumental step towards the commercialization of TIKI, a free market for data, and fair compensation for users. 

"The ethical use and monetization of data is something the market has needed for quite some time," said Steering Committee Chairperson Brian Gagnon. "By bringing together such a diverse group of industry leaders, we'll be able to understand how data-driven companies think about challenges related to data collection and usage in the market today."

According to a recent Forrester survey, 84% of businesses believe data is crucial to business decisions and strategy, and 64% planned to increase investment in data management technology over the next two years. Businesses that base decisions on data — not instincts or experience — are 19 times more likely to be profitable. 

"The Steering Committee represents a breakthrough for TIKI as both a lens on the data industry and an experienced peer group to review new ideas," said TIKI Data Market Leader Barry O'Connor. "The current and future members of this committee understand the need for a better solution to build trust with customers and more ethically use data to power their businesses. This is a huge milestone for TIKI and the data market overall."

Last week, TIKI unveiled the TIKI Knowledge Graph, which aggregates billions of anonymous user data points to produce valuable insights for businesses while users earn a portion of the profit. A right of ownership is the ability to earn income from it. Businesses need data; demand is at an all-time high, and the supply is becoming more and more scarce.

Data experts in their respective fields who are interested in joining the TIKI Steering Committee can reach out to Brian Gagnon for more information.

3 days to go. Are you in, or are you out?

We’ve got over 1,000 individuals following this campaign. That sure is a lot of interest, and for that we are incredibly grateful.

This message is for you.

Let me start with a basic question: Do you feel as if there is something off in the world?

We certainly do. It’s why we started this endeavor in the first place. Most of the friends I talk to share the same feeling. Something is off, but what are we going to do about it? You gonna vote in the next election? Eh, maybe, but I’m not sure it’s going to do anything. You think Facebook or Instagram or Twitter is good for your mental health? Eh, probably not, but it does serve an important function to me, so I can generally look past the bad parts. Plus, what am I able to do about it? 

Here’s the harsh truth: when there is a system of power or control in place, the powers that be depend on your complacency. So what’re ya gonna do about it?

If you feel that what we are doing can contribute to a solution, what are you going to do about it? We have lofty goals and an unwavering vision to restore control to the majority from the select few. But at this stage, much of what we want to do is dependent on help from you. 

We are at a pivotal juncture not only in terms of the future of the Internet, but in the future of humanity. The Internet is almost impossible to ignore. It is interwoven into nearly every aspect of our lives whether we like it or not. And it seems this interconnectedness is only going to become more thorough, for better or for worse.

What we need now is courage. The courage to draw a line in the sand and say, this is where we take a stand. This is where we fight back, this is where we bet on humanity coming together to solve an enormous problem. We have benefited from technological advances to become increasingly more individualistic over time. Humans in their essence, however, are collaborative “pack animals.” Our greatest achievements are when we combine our passions and resources together, from places all over the world thanks to the Internet, and brainstorm ways to solve pressing issues. 

That’s what we are doing here. This isn’t an all-encompassing solution to the current state of affairs, but it is definitely something that can cause a major shift in our behavior for the better. It is an opportunity to flip a power dynamic on its head and create a world where success isn’t reliant on exploitation of someone else.

I’ll ask again: Do you feel as if something is off? If so, here is an opportunity to do something about it.

We are determined to change things on a grand scale all while keeping the user at the crux of decision-making. To paraphrase a famous Tom Cruise movie quote, help us help you.

Three days left.

Are you content with the status quo? Status quo is what got us into this situation and has enabled Big Tech to become as dangerous as it is today. If you think that is okay, we understand. 

But don't say we didn't warn you.

Will you join us?

SMBs are data-driven whether they understand it or not. According to an analysis of big data carried out by IDG, the amount of data small and medium-size businesses manage is 47.81 Terabytes. And the data is expected to grow by more than 50% in 12 to 18 months’ time.

If we combine that with a survey by Onepath that says 67% of small businesses are spending more than $10k per year on analytics. With 34 million small businesses in the US, this presents a $227bn data insights marketplace, that is growing rapidly.

The IDC survey also shows that  75% of companies are spending at least 132 hours on systems. This is not within the expertise of a small business and presents a very strong opportunity for outsourcing insights and analysis.

It looks like the data aggregators and bigger analytics firms are seeing this key growth opportunity and this has led to a spate of acquisitions in the last three quarters. Listed below are 10 of the key acquisitions in 2021.

What can get done in eleven months?

December 2020. That’s when we started this. Eleven months ago. Eleven months of meeting behind screens. Eleven months of getting to actually know each other behind screens. Eleven months of trial and error, “back to the drawing board.” a little more of this, a little less of that, “what do you think about this?”, “is this going to get us in trouble?” 

Eleven months and 128,000 users. Eleven months and 30,000 active users on the beta app. Eleven months and a revolutionary new blockchain technology, our game-changing knowledge graph. Eleven months of “are people going to get this?” 

Eleven months and nearly $370,000 raised from 268 different investors from all over the USA and the world. 

It’s been a wild eleven months, to say the least. And they have been eleven unique months at that. Can you build a company without ever meeting your co-workers? Apparently you can, because we did just that. What has been the primary driving force behind what we’ve done so far?

You.

People often talk about wanting to do a job that actually means something. Well, this means everything to us. While we certainly see business opportunities in the expanding data market, what we really see is a people opportunity. This is about you, or should I say, this is about us. We’re not joking when we say we want to change the world. Don’t believe we can? Look what we’ve already done in eleven months. And we’re not slowing down.

We are at a pivotal point in the history of humanity. This is not embellishment. You genuinely have to believe this to understand the magnitude of the endeavor we are undertaking. We are metaphorically mere steps away from corporations and governments capitalizing on everything from our search history to our biometric data permanently. 

But it does not have to be that way. It can’t be that way, because if we continue forward down this path we sacrifice the very freedoms that have allowed for humans to thrive. If we continue down this path, we sacrifice what makes us human in the first place.

We do this by acting together, by removing the fear and the doubt that there is nothing that can be done about the obvious issues we are facing when it comes to technology and the methods of control cast down upon the population. We want to give you a choice, a say in what happens to your data...your data, which in many ways, is essentially a digital you. 

One more week in this campaign, but the work does not end. Can you change the world in eleven months? Maybe not. But we’ve got an eleven month head start. We hope you’ll join us. Just wait ‘til you see what we do in the next eleven months.

One last week to invest in TIKI, one last push! Please share on social media and remind friends; it truly helps. Together we will accomplish amazing things.  

Snapchat’s parent company. Snap Inc. netted over $1bn in quarterly revenue for the first time. It also had its stocks plummet upward of 25% after the release of the company’s earnings report on Thursday.

The company claims the hit to their stock is directly related to the new privacy policy instituted on iOS by Apple with their v14.5 update which allows for users to opt out of apps tracking them and selling their data to advertisers. Thus, advertisers are having a tougher time targeting users, and Snapchat is having a tougher time selling advertisement space, as metrics for successful campaigns are out of whack.

This is just another reason why the TIKI model is so game-changing. As more and more companies are negatively impacted (on their bottom line) by privacy changes such as the ones spearheaded by Apple, new, less invasive methods of targeted advertising will have to be developed. 

Luckily for us, we’ve got a head start. As I’ve mentioned before, with insights generated from our knowledge graph, companies don’t need to know “who” they need to advertise to, but would benefit the same if not better by knowing the “what, when, where, why & how.” This anonymized data makes it so users do not have to worry about being tracked. They willingly share their anonymized data which is grouped with other user data to ultimately form actionable insights for businesses to utilize. 

Lack of accurate attribution is a major topic for these platforms like Snapchat. Privacy changes have made it increasingly difficult to measure ad performance. If Snap can’t accurately measure ad success, they can’t charge advertisers as much. With poor ad performance, advertisers look elsewhere, spending less money with Snap. It’s a compounding problem for the industry. We believe anonymous user-contributed data to be the solution. TIKI’s knowledge graph can deliver accurate attribution while preserving user privacy. 

Apple does not seem to be budging. Due to the massive global usage of iOS, third-party apps such as Snapchat will continue to be impacted by privacy changes. Additionally, Google has hinted at similar upcoming privacy changes geared toward Android users, making advertising common practices even more murky in the near future. However, it remains to be seen what the long term effects of decreased user tracking will have on Snapchat. In terms of users, Snapchat still has undergone massive growth in recent years. It certainly has not negatively affected the amount of users or time spent on the platform.

Will the predominantly Gen Z audience start using Snapchat more with decreased advertisements populating their screens? Or, with less targeting, will Snapchat charge less per ad slot but sell more ads to compensate for lost revenue? We shall see. For marketers and advertisers however, a new angle needs to be explored, and fast. Anonymous data is a route that solves major problems for both businesses and users.