ICO Review: Mobiuz

Mobiuz is a blockchain-based platform for advertising in Ubers, Taxis, and Buses. Calling themselves the “Airbnb of Advertising,” they plan to offer Zero-Fraud HD Video ads that are Chrono-Hyper Localized.

While a somewhat niche market to attack with blockchain, it’s an interesting choice by Mobiuz to go after. As they’re looking to raise $236 million from their token sale, here’s what we think about their whitepaper:

The Basics

Mobiuz aims to deliver a market-priced, targeted, location, and time-based interactive video advertising platform for Taxi and Uber vehicles. Essentially, every time that a driver of an Uber, Taxi, or other vehicles successfully displays an advertisement, they’ll be rewarded. Advertising success will be defined by Facial and Eyeball tracking via AI, and Marketers and Advertisers will be the deciders of a fair price for the AdSlot via bidding.

The primary goal of Mobiuz is to help those that drive taxi or Uber earn more while they drive. Although it will require them to make an upfront investment of an iPad or tablet, the hope is that selling AdSpots will make up that cost in no time.

How It Works

Here’s the basic rundown Mobiuz relays as how their blockchain technology will work:

1. Mobiuz continuously scans for human faces, which includes seeking genuine hits, protecting against flags like if a car is moving or it’s the same face over and over again.
2. Fortuna (campaign AI) relays Ad to be played for specific Time and Location, which uses a blockchain-powered Queue and Records. Additionally, smart-contracts guarantee everything is acting appropriately.
3. Kubera (file management) determines if Video is available and is authentic, which involves a process of pre-caching/pre-downloading, as well as deciding genuine/authentic video files as well as smart contracts.
4. Finally, the ad is delivered to the customer.

Mobiuz reasoning for blockchain includes:

1. Authentic records and transactions versus ad fraud
2. Security over traditional sources.
3. High availability from each node versus a central server.
4. History of records to audit timestamps.

The Problems Mobiuz Aims To Solve

There are a couple of pain points that Mobiuz points out in the industry, which includes:

Fraudulent Ad Buys

Mobiuz notes in their whitepaper that digital advertising fraud has become a significant issue over the years, with my advertisers paying essentially for fake views or traffic.

Lack Of Revenue For Drivers

As services like Uber and Lyft have become much more popular over the years, that’s also meant more people are driving, and therefore, the competition is more fierce. To help supplement income, Mobiuz hopes to enable drivers to sell advertising in their cars.

The Features of Mobiuz

Mobiuz hopes to include a few different features into their platform, such as:

Chrono-Hyperlocalization

Mobiuz hopes to offer advertisers slots anywhere in the world within timeframes of their choosing by winning the bid of the AdSlot. They will also benefit from being able to see the price of the highest bid in real time, ensuring they’re not overpaying for their slot.

Facial Recognition

Advertisers will not be charged if there is no human face trigger for the ad.

Bidding

The bidding process for Mobiuz will rely on AdSlots for advertisers globally, determining on-the-fly bids by the buyers themselves. This strategy ensures that the highest amount of revenue while still offering slots at a fair, open-market rate.

Benefits To Advertisers

Mobiuz aims to offer advertisers a 24-hour market, authentic impressions, high-quality consumption, and to bypass ad blockers.

Accessibility

The global reach of Mobiuz hopes to be seamless and fair in regards to global, open marketplace.

The DRIP Program

The Decentralized Referral Incentive Program (DRIP) is a blockchain-enabled automated referral program which enables users to earn passive income by recruiting others to the network. Mobiuz currently boasts over 16,000 sign-ups within three months.

The Tech

Mobiuz will use Biometrics, AI, Blockchain, and Crypto to provide a platform for advertisers, publishers, and consumers. Ads only get triggered when Biometrics detect a human-like face, then after checking the time and location, will ping the Campaign AI to ask what ad should be playing.

While some of Mobiuz’s tech features are blurred out due to copyright law, their stack as it stands looks sound like something they have a good grasp on building out.

Our Thoughts

Mobiuz could potentially have a pretty exciting blockchain project on their hands. Although a somewhat unconventional application compared to the rest of the industry, they may have found an early use-case that could be successful. What makes their platform fascinating isn’t necessarily what they’re after, but how they plan to do it. Quite simply, if Mobiuz is successful with mobile advertising, that potentially opens the door to utilizing their tech other places as well.

With a pretty sound whitepaper that relays all the critical components of their business, this is an interesting project to look into. Depending on how quickly they can get their tech up and running, we might be seeing these ads in our next Uber ride much sooner than we think. Granted, I’ll note that the price tag of over $236 million is a somewhat steep one, which we have some concerns about. However, if AdTech and blockchain is something you want to explore, then this is a great project to buy into.