[AI Revolution](90) Making Money with Content Even Without Being an Influencer... 'DotSlashDash'

Leading the Short-Form Marketing Market... Combining Short-Form SNS and Commerce
Reward Provision When Used by Video Companies

DotSlashDash is a startup recently gaining attention in the ‘short-form’ content market by capturing individuals' daily lives. Short-form content, referring to brief video clips, has become a lifestyle staple for the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), led by global tech companies like TikTok. While short videos tend to be provocative to grab attention, DotSlashDash records users' ordinary daily lives under the catchphrase ‘Human Memory Repository.’ These records are ordinary but sometimes become brand advertisements. The power to make personal daily life special comes from artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

DotSlashDash is the third startup founded in 2021 by CEO Changwoo Lee, who previously led 29CM and 10x10. It combines social networking services (SNS) and commerce using short-form videos. Individuals record short daily videos, and companies can find and use content needed for marketing. For this to work, users must share many diverse videos, and companies must easily find videos that perfectly match their desired concepts. To expand user participation, DotSlashDash offers rewards that can be monetized when companies use personal daily videos. As of last month, the strategy has shown results with 400,000 cumulative short-form videos, 370,000 downloads, 52,000 monthly users, and 170,000 total subscribers.

DotSlashDash app screen

With increasing corporate interest in the effectiveness and attention to short-form marketing, DotSlashDash is enhancing its service by adding AI technology to content containing people’s ‘real’ experiences, making it easier for companies to achieve desired outcomes. To this end, in October last year, they recruited CTO Minki Kim and formed a team of data experts with deep learning vision recognition technology. CTO Kim is an AI expert who has led platform development and online-offline integrated projects at US-based GenX, A-Land, and Homemaster, and oversaw machine learning system development at Alchera.

DotSlashDash is developing a search function where AI analyzes videos to read locations, atmospheres, and emotional states of people, categorizing them by keywords. They are also adding a feature that analyzes the meaning of sentences searched within the app. This allows companies and brands to conveniently find short-form content suitable for advertising campaigns. Users also gain easier access to personalized content matching their needs. CTO Kim explained, "We plan to automate data within the platform by analyzing user behavior and gather information with our own analysis tools to provide more accurate data to companies and brands." He added, "We will apply a conversational search engine, made more accessible by ChatGPT, to help users easily reach the results they want."

Kim Min-ki, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), is explaining the AI technology of DotSlashDash.

The market response has been positive. Beauty brand Innisfree recently ran a marketing campaign on the DotSlashDash app, generating about 2,300 short-form videos. Rewards totaling 40 million KRW were paid out, with one person receiving as much as 4 million KRW. This means that even non-influencers can generate income through content. From the brand’s perspective, they can utilize diverse and creative user-generated content (UGC) created by users at a low cost.

CTO Kim said, "Users connect and communicate with others through their memories. DotSlashDash learns what videos users like and respond to through the data they record and view." He added, "We will create a virtuous cycle by generating revenue from companies that want to use user data and providing fair compensation to users."