Soon after the coin offering of BAYC, YGG SEA under Yield Guild Games (YGG), the leading GameFi guild in the digital asset industry, also announced that it would issue SEA tokens on May 9, and this news immediately attracted widespread public attention.
The sudden surge of YGG previously made its leading guild's status deep-rooted, and at that time many people attributed it to the online Korean exchange, but in fact, the strategic layout behind YGG SEA as the Southeast Asian branch of YGG is also slowly showing YGG's business map.
Exploring YGG's strategic map
After decentralization gradually began to penetrate into the public's mindset, DAO as a new form of organization also occupies an important position among the GameFi guilds. In the whole GameFi guild, YGG is the one with the most sub-DAO and subsidiaries. Because the game union needs to recruit and training is a high requirement for members to connect, and the culture and language of different regions are different, so the sub-DAO is set up for different games and regions.
YGG is the head of the guild industry regardless of the organizational structure, asset distribution, profitability, or marketing level. Although encryption has increased the accessibility to global users, guild management has not been able to fully span multiple regions due to language barriers, which has given rise to the SubDAO form of organization.
SubDAO is part of the YGG DAO and is a branch of it in some regions or large game projects. YGGSEA is a SubDAO that focuses on the P2E gaming community in Southeast Asia.
YGGSPL and YGGLOK are sub-DAOs for Splinterlands and Kingdom League respectively, YGGSEA and IndiGG are sub-DAOs for Southeast Asia and India respectively, and YGG also has a subsidiary in the Philippines.
YGG Operation Model
YGG's goal is to maximize the value of NFT assets applied in virtual worlds and blockchain-based games. Its protocol automates operations through smart contracts, and consensus is reached through DAO organizations based on governance proposals and distributed network voting by token holders. YGG's operating model includes
1. building a global community for gamers to play and earn (play-to-earn), where community members compete to collect in-game rewards (e.g., players in Axie Infinity earn tokens by winning battles).
2. earn revenue by renting or selling NFT assets owned by YGG (e.g., resold land in The Sandbox or renting Axies to players as part of a profit share, called a "scholarship").
3. allow community participation in the governance of the DAO through proposals and votes.
4. coordinating research and development for gamers in the DAO to generate revenue by maintaining competitiveness in metaverse-related games.
Historical Funding Review
On March 4, 2021, YGG announced the closing of a $1.3 million funding round led by Delphi Digital, with other investors including Scalar Capital, BlockTower Capital, gumi Cryptos Capital, Ascensive Assets, and Youbi Capital. YGG used the funding to improve its protocol for making distributed investments in the emerging NFT space.
In June 2021, YGG raised $4 million in a round led by BITKRAFT, with other investors participating in the round including A. Capital Ventures, Atelier Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Greenfield One, IDEO CoLab. Prior to IDO, YGG closed a $4.6 million financing round led by A16z, with participation from Kingsway Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Atelier Ventures and Game Entrepreneurs, Atelier Ventures and gaming entrepreneur Gabriel Leydon, among others.
On July 27, 2021, YGG officially opened the YGG token IDO, and with the support of the community, the IDO sold out of 25 million YGG tokens within 31 seconds of opening, raising a total of USD 12,496,000. YGG has since raised a total of USD 21,925,000 through the primary market.
Meet YGG SEA
YGG SEA is Yield Guild Games' first subDAO for acquiring and managing NFTs used in the Metaverse, and is a founding member of the Asian Blockchain Gaming Alliance. Its mission is to create the largest and most sustainable virtual economy for making money from games in Southeast Asia. Delivering targeted products to the regional gaming community to meet the needs of gamers in every Southeast Asian (SEA) country except the Philippines.
YGG SEA's mission is to invest locally in the region, focusing on supporting locally developed game-making games and acquiring gaming assets uniquely suited to the needs and interests of the SEA player base. YGG SEA has over 4,000 academics from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and works with over 30 games.
According to the 2021 Geography of Cryptocurrency report published by blockchain analyst firm Chainalysis, Central Asia, South Asia and Oceania (CSAO) is the fourth largest cryptocurrency market in the world, accounting for 14% of global transactions between July 2020 and June 2021. A sub-region of Asia, representing more than 700 million people from 11 countries.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia have seen particularly significant growth in cryptocurrency usage in Southeast Asia, with all of these countries ranking in the top 10 of Metamask users, according to a report by Cryptocurrency Wallet last August. Much of this activity has been driven by the rise of Axie Infinity, which now has more than 2.5 million daily active users, according to DappRadar data.
YGG SEA is the leading guild in Southeast Asia, having invested in 76 projects since November 2021. Ten games are already available to YGG SEA guild members, with more to come within the year. It currently has offices in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. After IDO, YGG SEA plans to expand to three more countries within six months and plans to complete SEA coverage by 2024.
YGG SEA's relationship with Yield Guild Games and its team of gaming industry veterans puts subDAO in a unique position to bring the most interesting and engaging games to the region, while helping local players benefit from the Play for Money game model.
YGG SEA has all of its operations under its own control and is currently building a presence in each country, focusing initially on Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and then expanding throughout the region. The local leadership team oversees the delivery of language-specific support services and the creation of customized educational content. They will also build strategic partnerships with locally regulated service providers.
As YGG rolls out globally, subDAOs like YGG SEA are central to YGG's expansion strategy because of their local knowledge and network, said Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games. In addition, the team launching YGG SEA has extensive experience in driving technology adoption in the region and there is strong demand for game money games throughout Asia.
With $15 million raised to date, YGG SEA has invested in regionally significant money-making games such as Sipher, Thetan Arena, and Aavegotchi, and is working to build more partnerships with high quality games.