Original Innovation Group

digital collectiblesentertainmentidolskpopmarketplace

Pickit is a digital collectibles marketplace platform focusing on K-pop Idol Photo Cards/goods.

Company Intro Video
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Highlights
Company Overview
Problem Overview
Solution Overview
Business Model
Competitive Landscape
Founders' Bio
Investors

Company Intro Video

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Highlights

Organically growing an average 50% each month
Signed K-Pop idol’s digital collectible license : CJ ENM(IZ*ONE), Woollim Entertainment(Golden Child, Lovelyz), Yuehua Entertainment(Everglow, Woodz), Swing Entertainment(Kim Jaehwan), Jellyfish Entertainment (Verivery, Kim Minkyu)

Company Overview

Pickit is a digital collectibles marketplace platform initially focusing on digital K-pop Idol Photo Cards. As media content lovers, our team is all collectors of figures and anything of our interest. We believe that this is not only us. Every human is a collector and we all collect things from t-shirts, coins, movie tickets, to animation figures, posters, DVDs, and many more. Pickit plans to bring this experience digitally, and become the most fun digital collecting space for everyone to satisfy their passion as collectors. We are officially partnering with CJ ENM, WOOLLIM Ent., YUEHUA Ent., JELLYFISH Ent., and SWING Ent., and talking with other entertainments who will be joining us soon. Pickit service is simple: the most fun way to collect, trade, and show-off your collection digitally to worldwide collectors of similar interests. We get contents from idols, re-create them into digital cards, and release them exclusively, and only, at Pickit. Then, users will collect their favorite idols’ digital card pack and display them at Pickit; and they will also get ranked based on the number of digital cards they hold. Indeed, Pickit will create the best paid digital collectibles marketplace where millions of digital goods/collectibles become the assets in our era.

Problem Overview

K-pop is becoming a global phenomenon and the core player of the scene is international fans. They have a stronger fandom culture than any other fields so there are a plenty of collectible business opportunities. But few have solved the global market demand properly. There are over 100 million overseas fans showing strong demand towards K-pop and idol collectibles. Yet every entertainment companies experience difficulty in forecasting overseas demand data resulting from language and geographic barriers. As a proof, currently about 85% of idol goods consumption is happening only among Korean fans and most international fans usually never get a chance to spend or find the idol merchandises. However, the majority of entertainment companies do not have a dedicated goods/IT team to perform appropriate fan care/research; and even big companies, they are just starting to find solutions to their current problem in reaching out to overseas fans and generating further profit.

Solution Overview

Our solution to the needs of overseas K-pop fans was digital collectibles. As we learned through the Pokemon Go wave, 13 billion dollars size of the physical trading card market has been moving towards digital collectibles field, and this growing market is 2 billion dollars in size with 20% annual growth rate. More importantly, unlike the other generations who are more used to physical collectibles, most K-pop fans are Generation Z, Digital Natives, who starts their first collecting experience digitally. Thus, to the K-pop idol market that has not yet captured the majority of 100 million overseas fans, Pickit's digital collectibles can provide many business opportunities and grow into a new profit outlet. Pickit is the world first-ever digital collectibles marketplace for all K-pop idols. Starting with digital photo cards, we will bring diverse digital goods for global fans to fulfill their idol collection without any limitation in time and location.

Go-to-Market Strategy and Business Model

Our business model is clear: we sell K-pop idol digital photo cards and other related digital collectibles. We sign exclusive contracts with entertainments, receive ‘Pickit-only’ contents from idols, re-create them into digital collectibles, and release them as limited edition packs that users can only see at Pickit. The app is free to download and there are daily free coins but in order to collect everything on time or faster, then users need to purchase in-app coins and spend money. Our main marketing and distribution outlet is through official social media channels of idols and entertainments, which creates the most optimal impact in comparison to any other marketing outlets. In connecting with K-pop fans, it become very crucial to help them understand that we are officially working with entertainments and their beloved idols.

Competitive Landscape

Everyone collects things from t-shirts, movie tickets, animation figures, to coins and many more. The global collectibles market is 350 billion dollars in size and of those, the physical trading card market size marks 13 billion dollar. And the most successful physical trading cards companies like Japan’s Pokemon or America’s sport cards have rapidly been moving towards the digital collectibles market that marks 2 billion dollars in size with 20% annual growth rate. This growth and change will only increase especially after the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 situation, encouraging the whole world to change our physical-oriented lifestyles.

Our competitors are fragmented by sector like entertainment, technology, and digital collectibles. For instance, the America’s most successful physical trading card company Topps has been servicing digital collectibles using IP of Marvel, Disney, and others. However, our current major competitors will be any companies trying to do K-pop related business. From the COVID-19 outbreak along with the great K-wave that BTS has been creating, many firms are trying to bring in K-pop contents to the digital world. Although we are the first ones to create digital collectibles, there are companies trying to build a K-pop online channel, platform, games, and many other applications. And the winner of this competition will depend on how quickly we can get the trust and attention from the international fans.

Founders' Bio

Steve Choi

CEO

Glincon Inc. / CEO, Co-founder Satirical animated 3D news animation ‘Daily Bake’ / Co-founder, Executive Producer TMA Consulting Group / Co-founder, Consultant Columbia University / Operation Research, Computer Engineering Through managing my startup team and strategically solving problems through consulting and carrying out various projects, I have the experience and ability to persuade and pro-actively exploit the core by focusing on facts and data, and competence to significantly propel the business. The focus is on expanding business by linking Pickit with a wide range of human networks including domestic and foreign media, professional industries, government/academia, and other fields. We envision to make Pickit a digital collectible brand that can be trusted by the public and influencing their thinking and behavior in this rapidly changing era.

Julie Choi

COO

Glincon Inc. / COO, Co-founder G&M Inc. / Project Manager New York University / Media Culture and Communication I have built up a strategy to make the thinking of managers and organizations real, have implemented them, and built a career. I serve as an important axis to guide the actual project management based on the experiences of team building and execution that leads to Glincon's own animated news contents and mobile game development including Daily Bake, Daily Bake News, and Popcorn Planet. I envision to make more meaningful changes in the collection and consumption market of digital contents through Pickit.