Original post on GeekWire by Todd Bishop
Getting dropped by Weibo couldn’t have worked out better for Markable.AI.
The social media platform had been testing a beta integration of Markable’s AI technology to automatically recognize items in images and videos and recommend similar products for users to purchase.
It was a hit with users on Weibo and the video platform iQIYI, recalled serial entrepreneur Joy Tang, Markable’s founder and CEO. But content creators complained that it was diverting their followers to buy knock-offs of the products they featured. Weibo decided to drop the integration as a result.
However, the experience provided a key insight for Tang — leading her to pivot the company to its current incarnation as an AI-powered workflow automation platform and performance advertising firm for social creators.
“The real top of the food chain in the social commerce scene is actually content creators,” Tang explained in a recent interview. “They’re the real boss. The platform has to make sure they’re happy.”
Markable, which has offices in Bellevue and Spokane, Wash., and Asia, raised more than $6.1 million in June, according to an SEC filing. Tang said the round included a prior note that converted into equity, plus new funding from the parent company of Wavvup, a digital marketing company that helps brands reach audiences on social platforms.
Working with Wavvup, the company is now launching a $100 million ad fund for top social creators, expanding further into advertising and growth services. Through the fund, Tang said, Markable will facilitate ad placement and optimization for creators using its AI capabilities, boosting their commissions and sharing in the resulting profits. Wavvup’s parent company is funding the advertising campaigns.
The company has raised $15 million in funding to date, Tang said. Investors include global advertising and tech platforms such as Dentsu in Japan and Cheetah Mobile, the Chinese mobile internet company; global investment platform Partech; VC firms such as FoundersX and Plug and Play Ventures; and individual angel investors.
Tang said the company is generating about $2 million in annual revenue, close to financial break-even, with the potential to be profitable by the end of this year.
In its new incarnation as a social commerce platform for creators, Markable is offering a suite of AI-powered technologies to help influencers and content creators streamline their workflows and monetize their content.
Offerings include product recommendation technology that uses AI to identify viral items; website management tools that automatically update creators’ websites with their latest content; and AI-generated captions and videos, among other features.
One example is a direct messaging system to automatically respond to customer inquiries on social media platforms starting with Meta’s Instagram and Facebook. This addresses the original problem that attracted Tang to social commerce in the first place, when she would comment on Instagram asking where she could get a product that was featured in an image or video — only to find that no one responded to her question.
A math standout from China who earned her Bachelor’s degree from MIT in economics and math, Tang was working at the time as a high-frequency trading strategist for a firm in Chicago. She was developing technology to make high-stakes trades in nanoseconds, and couldn’t even get a response to buy an item that she saw online.
“It’s a blue sea market — a huge opportunity,” she recalled thinking.
The trend has only gotten bigger since then. A recent KPMG report focusing on Asia-Pacific markets found that a majority of Gen Z shoppers said social commerce (63%) and livestreaming (57%) influenced their buying habits.
“Executives we spoke with noted that the fast-paced nature of social commerce platforms such as TikTok, where not just regional, but international trends rapidly come and go, is having a downstream effect on Gen Z’s purchasing behavior and forcing brands to reassess their supply chain strategy,” the KPMG report explained.
Tang moved to Spokane, Wash., three years ago from the Bay Area, due to her husband’s work. She’s part of a trend of people relocating to the Inland Northwest. Two of her neighbors in Spokane are top social creators, and they’ve helped to inform and inspire elements of Markable’s strategy and direction in its new incarnation.
Tang said Markable now has around 750 creators using its platform, describing them as in the “top 1%” with total gross merchandise value (GMV) of $500 million a year. The company has developed its customer base via word-of-mouth.
Markable has about 20 full-time employees, in addition to part-timers. Its operations team is located primarily in Washington state, and its engineering workforce is in Asia.
In addition to its platform for identifying products, creating content, and connecting with followers, Markable has also launched a marketplace that connects creators with brands for additional commissions beyond those that they get from affiliate marketing fees on sites such as Amazon, Walmart, and Target.
Because creators are immersed in its platform every day, Tang said, Markable has found that the engagement rate for brands seeking to connect with creators in its marketplace is as high as 80%. She said that compares with a more typical 1% on other platforms requiring cold email outreach once brands identify potential creators to work with.
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