How Did Dogs on TON Achieve 1 Million Users within 24 Hours?
In less than 24 hours, the meme token Dogs on TON reached one million users, showcasing an impressive rate of spread. The mechanism is straightforward: users simply follow the Dogs bot, which airdrops Dogs tokens based on their Telegram account activity. Currently, these tokens are just numbers within the Dogs bot, and the timeline for actual distribution to users’ wallets remains unknown.
Projects on TON and Telegram are increasingly achieving milestones of millions of users in shorter timespans. This analysis explores why Dogs reached 1 million users so quickly, the current stage of Telegram and TON’s integration, and the future direction of projects on TON.
Simple Gameplay + Referral Rewards = Viral Spread
According to official sources, the inspiration for Dogs, a meme coin, came from a dog named Spotty drawn by Telegram founder Pavel Durov at a charity auction. Spotty is the unofficial mascot of VK, another social platform founded by Durov.
The project team believes this image is the perfect fit for a Telegram meme coin, reminiscent of Elon Musk’s dog Floki, which inspired a successful meme coin. Associating with a founder’s pet might be the first step towards success.
Why did Dogs surpass 1 million users in less than 24 hours? Its simplicity and the referral rewards system ensured viral spread. On July 10, links to Dogs’ bot were seen in various Telegram groups and personal conversations.
Users just needed to follow the Dogs bot, which calculates their Dogs rewards based on their Telegram activity. For instance, a newly registered TG account could receive around 800 Dogs, with the median being around 3000.
The Dogs bot interface is very straightforward, primarily displaying the number of airdropped Dogs tokens. The interface has three buttons: “Home” to return to the main page, “Leaderboard” to see user rankings, and “Friends” for referral invites.
The simplicity, even without linking a TON wallet yet, makes participation easy, especially for Web2 users unfamiliar with digital currencies. This phase feels more like a Web2 mini-program experience.
Referral Rewards
Referral rewards and seeing the token rankings of all users are traditional and effective Web2 marketing strategies. It’s expected that once a substantial user base is built, Dogs will gradually integrate crypto-related features, with wallet integration likely being the first step.
With traffic, a meme itself can become a significant brand in the crypto industry, making it easier to venture into more areas, as seen with Shiba Inu’s development into decentralized exchanges and Layer 2 solutions.
Web2 Traffic Monetization No Longer Fits Web3
Currently, the integration between TON and Telegram is deep, whether through TON-based Telegram bots or simple Web2 mini-programs. These projects, having amassed significant traffic, still follow the traffic monetization path, primarily through selling ad space.
Dogs’ rapid user accumulation in less than 24 hours indicates that the TON-Telegram ecosystem is booming. Both bots and mini Dapps are easy to implement technically, leading to numerous repetitive projects. For TON projects aiming to stand out, having a great idea is more crucial than the technology itself.
Dogs’ short-term success reaffirms that Telegram is a massive traffic pool. Projects on Telegram don’t need to worry about traffic. The main issue is that if Web3 projects continue with traditional Web2 thinking—using TG for traffic and then monetizing it through ads—there’s little difference from Web2, and certainly no innovation.
The real challenge is to develop a true Web3 product after gaining substantial traffic from TON and Telegram. This involves leveraging Web3 principles like protecting private property and securing personal data rights, which could lead to transformative crypto products.
This is a consideration not only for Dogs but also for other projects within the TON ecosystem and TON itself, ultimately shaping the future development direction of TON.