MEET48: From Star-Making Factory to On-Chain Netflix - AIUGC and Web3 Reshaping the Entertainment Economy

Authors:

Jessica Feng, Investment Manager of Hash Global BNB Fund;

Henry Yang, Investment Partner, Head of Hash Global Secondary Market Funds.

1. The Bubble Bursts: The Reboot Moment of "Web3 Entertainment"

In the last cycle, the gaming and entertainment sector created a wave in the crypto world.

In 2021, GameFi and X-to-Earn innovatively combined financial incentives with entertainment scenarios, marking the explosive year of Web3 applications.

However, the wave quickly receded, and most projects collapsed rapidly after a brief frenzy: token crashes, user losses, and community disintegration. Once-popular narratives like GameFi, X-to-Earn, the metaverse, and NFTs have gradually faded from community view, and the market has begun to doubt whether entertainment ever truly needed Web3.

We do not agree with this viewpoint. The failures of early projects were not due to the model itself, but rather a lack of content, absence of real users, and excessive use of financial tools. "Entertainment" has become a shell for speculation, while the true potential of Web3 to create value in the entertainment industry has been overlooked.

We believe that Web3 technology can reshape the value distribution model in the cultural and entertainment sector, and we are very optimistic about the biochemical reaction that occurs when "Web3.0 finance" overlaps with "influence." Therefore, we clearly state in November 2024: "Mass Adoption of Web3 will begin with cultural entertainment."

The cultural and entertainment field inherently possesses high traffic and strong community attributes, as well as mature business models and monetization capabilities. When the intersection of Web3 and the entertainment industry is truly found, entertainment will become the key breakthrough for Web3 Mass Adoption, and Web3 will also drive the entertainment economy into a new era, which we define as "Web3 Entertainment."

In this system, the "assetization of everything" in Web3 will no longer aim for financial speculation but will become the foundation for underlying value distribution. We believe that the token economic system of Web3 will still be the core engine of Web3 entertainment, but its focus will shift from Fi (Finance) to Economy—moving from short-term financial incentives to a sustainable economic circulation system.

In the year we proposed and promoted Web3 entertainment, we are pleased to participate in and witness a number of Web3 entertainment projects represented by MEET48, which, under our guidance, are actively practicing the blueprint we envisioned using the token economic design of BNB as a template. The core elements include:

Based on real users and quality content, connecting and releasing ecological value through Web3 technology;
Building an economic circulation mechanism centered on a sustainable token system that combines value and functionality;
Gradually improving the token economic system, continuously enhancing the utility of tokens as the ecosystem develops;
The value created by the ecosystem returns to the token system, achieving a two-way circulation of assets and ecological value.

Based on over a decade of rich experience in social gaming and idol cultivation, MEET48 has taken the lead in forming a preliminary verifiable model.

2. Web3 + AI + UGC: Web3 Entertainment Will Open the Co-Creation Economy Era

The uniqueness of this cycle lies in the complete breaking of technological boundaries.

Generative AI is lowering the barriers to creation at an unprecedented speed, making mass creation possible. The new generation of models represented by Sora2 is reshaping the underlying logic of content production and social interaction. As the model of platforms monopolizing content (such as Youku and iQIYI) gradually declines, AI will further drive the content industry towards user co-creation (UGC/AIUGC).

In the AIUGC era, content assets will experience explosive growth, and the structural flaws of the Web2 model will be further exposed—the inherent conflict of interest between platforms and users makes fair value distribution a perpetual paradox.

Content production has long been decentralized, but profits are still firmly held by platforms: users create value, and platforms capture value.

The future of UGC must be built on a more open and fair value cycle. Web3 will become the foundation of this system, providing rights confirmation and circulation mechanisms to harness the productivity released by AI: the combination of the two will drive UGC to evolve from "User Generated Content" to "User Co-Creation Economy."

We believe that Web3 entertainment is entering a new growth cycle. As Web3 and AI technologies mature, the production and distribution paradigms of the content industry are becoming re-definable.

3. When Disruptive Technology Meets Quality Content: MEET48 is Reshaping the Industry Landscape, Moving Towards Becoming the Netflix of Web3

Technology is never the goal but a tool to release content value. The true disruptors are not platforms that "talk technology," but teams that understand how to use technology to create quality content and break through content barriers.

MEET48 is a standout in this regard. This giant from the traditional entertainment industry, which has created Asia's top idol IP: SNH48 and the phenomenon-level music and dance game "Audition," is leading the most emotionally connected and user-engaging "idol economy" in the entertainment industry towards a fusion transformation of AI + Web3.

MEET48: Project Development History

MEET48 has become a blockbuster application in the BSC ecosystem, with over 3.8 million active users and 500,000 on-chain wallets, surpassing 100 million on-chain interactions, and consistently ranking first among social applications on the BNB Chain. The project has been selected for the BNB Chain MVB program and has received strategic investment from YZi Labs. In June 2025, MEET48 completed the $IDOL token TGE, launching simultaneously on Binance Alpha, PancakeSwap, Bitget, Gate, and MEXC; as of November, the project's FDV market cap exceeded $164 million.

MEET48's Vision: From Application to Ecosystem, Building Industry Infrastructure

From a blockbuster application to ecosystem building, MEET48's vision is to become a benchmark project for Web3 entertainment and create the next generation of Web3 entertainment infrastructure. In the initial stage, the team adheres to the principle of content and users at its core, starting from its most advantageous idol economy, deeply integrating the idol cultivation system accumulated over the years with AI technology and Web3 mechanisms, injecting content ecology with real participation and user engagement into Web3 entertainment.

In the wave of digitalization, idol culture is also moving towards a new stage of virtualization and intelligence. AI technology breaks the boundaries of physical performances, enabling virtual idols to possess capabilities for all-time companionship, interaction, and personality extension that are difficult for real people to achieve. The commercial potential of virtual idols is also being rapidly validated: Japan's Hatsune Miku and China's Luo Tianyi have already become top cultural IPs; with breakthroughs in generative AI, traditional entertainment giants are also entering the field: South Korea's SM Entertainment was the first to launch the virtual idol Naevis; Netflix has also introduced the virtual groups HUNTR/X and Saja Boys through the animated film "K-Pop Demon Hunters," breaking multiple records of real artists on platforms like Spotify. As a16z pointed out, the cultivation of virtual idols is growing into a potentially huge billion-dollar track.

However, these still belong to the centralized "platform star-making" model. MEET48 is the first to break out of the Web2 framework among many entertainment giants. With keen industry insight and nearly twenty years of content operation and technology development experience, MEET48 is democratizing the "star-making power" by combining AIUGC tools with Web3 mechanisms.

Backed by a foundation of 30 million fans and over 40,000 music copyright resources, the MEET48 platform has created a complete system for creation and value circulation:

MEET48's Web3 Flywheel

AIDOL Producer: A one-stop AIUGC toolset that supports character creation, stage production, and performance content generation;
Mars Protocol: A content asset tokenization solution that provides monetization models;
Metaverse: An immersive social and creative space that achieves long-term retention of users and assets.

At the same time, based on a deep understanding of the industry and model experience, MEET48 has proposed a new Web3 model aimed at the creator economy:

Proof of Creativity (PoC): Replacing computing power or staking models with creative value, where community members and fans complete content value certification through governance token voting;
Virtual World Assets (VWA): Incorporating virtual characters, works, and content into the tokenized circulation system, providing a basis for assetization and commercialization for the creator community.

PoC provides a value consensus for content creation, while VWA endows content with an economic form, together forming the underlying support for the AIUGC era.

When platforms are no longer monopolizers of value but become empowering tools; when creativity is released, and content can be confirmed and incentivized, value can truly return to users, and the potential of the creator economy can be genuinely unleashed. This is the unique opportunity granted by AI + Web3 and will become the inevitable direction of the evolution of the content industry.

Seizing the wave is just the beginning; the ability to implement is the key to success or failure. Unlike most Web3 entertainment projects that remain at the conceptual stage, MEET48 possesses the most scarce systematic implementation capability in the Web3 field:

On the technical level, MEET48 has unique data and algorithmic barriers. The twenty years of accumulated music and dance data provide a natural advantage for model training; a research and development team of over 500 people covers areas such as 3D virtual humans, large models for music and dance, AI entertainment agents, and metaverse social interactions, forming a systematic technical framework that allows the "idol cultivation" model to be fully upgraded in the intelligent era.
On the operational level, the team has created phenomenon-level games such as "Audition" and built the SNH48 ecosystem, which covers five major sub-groups, over 300 artists, and 30 million fans, possessing landing experience and startup advantages that are difficult for other teams to replicate.
On the traffic level, MEET48 will leverage the voting mechanism of SNH48 on-chain during the cold start phase to inject early traffic into the AIUGC platform; it will launch the Web3 virtual idol game "AuditionsGO" and collaborate with Tencent Video to create the world's first AI Idol competition program, helping the product break into mainstream visibility.

The entertainment and content industry has always been the area with the strongest penetration of the internet, and the virtual idol track, integrated with AI technology, has the greatest opportunity to achieve Mass Adoption first. MEET48 has accurately grasped the opportunity of the times and is taking the lead towards the center of transformation with four major advantages: model experience, technical system, operational capability, and traffic foundation.

Just as Netflix seized the internet wave and reshaped the rules of content distribution, MEET48 is rewriting the logic of content creation and value circulation with AIUGC and Web3, reconstructing the global entertainment system and driving the "Netflix legend" to reappear on-chain.

MEET48's AIUGC Idol Group

4. From Application to Infrastructure: Building a Web3 Entertainment Ecological Empire

MEET48's goals extend far beyond a single application.

In the initial stage, MEET48 is the "star-making dream factory" of the Web3 world, breaking down centralized production barriers with AIUGC, allowing creative rights to truly return to users; in the further future, it is moving towards a grander end goal—to become the Web3 entertainment infrastructure that reshapes the underlying rules.

Around this vision, MEET Labs has incubated a lightweight gaming platform, GamingFi, initially forming a cross-content ecological matrix. And this is just the beginning. MEET48 plans to develop an EVM-compatible Layer2 PoC sidechain within the BSC ecosystem, forming a closed loop of users, assets, technology, and applications:

MEET48's Fourfold Advantages: Comprehensive Coverage of Technology, Applications, Users, and Assets

Technically, EVM-compatible Layer2 is no longer a technical barrier;
On the application and user level, MEET48 has a large fan base and mature product landing capabilities;
On the asset level, AIUGC addresses the supply side of content assets (VWA), while the PoC mechanism establishes a value consensus and rights confirmation system.

Relying on a complete technical system and the ecological support of BNB Chain, MEET48 is committed to creating a benchmark for Web3 entertainment, integrating and attracting more entertainment IPs, content, and applications transitioning to Web3, jointly building the EVM and BSC ecosystem, and promoting the ecological and long-term sustainable development of the Web3 entertainment industry.

Just as Binance started from an exchange, built BNB Chain, and became the financial infrastructure of Web3, the "on-chain NASDAQ"; MEET48 is also moving along a similar path—using AIUGC as the engine and Web3 as the foundation, reshaping the full-link logic of content production and value distribution, creating an on-chain "Netflix."

As the ecosystem expands, the value created within the system will continuously flow back to the bottom layer, opening up a growth space of tens of billions of dollars for MEET48 in the first phase.

5. The Sole Carrier of a $10 Billion Ecological Value: IDOL is Reenacting the Value Leap of BNB

IDOL is the core value carrier of the MEET48 ecosystem, comparable to BNB in the Binance ecosystem, and its value capture mechanism design is also highly similar to BNB, which can be analyzed from two aspects:

Functional Attributes: IDOL, as a functional token, undertakes multiple core functions in the ecosystem, including voting, purchasing virtual goods and services, forming stable usage scenarios and holding demand;
Asset Attributes: Achieving a direct link to ecological growth through a burning mechanism.

BNB relies on quarterly automatic burns and transaction fee burns to create a deflationary effect, while IDOL also adopts a "dual burning mechanism":

Voting Pool Burn: A fixed proportion of IDOL tokens will be periodically burned from the voting pool generated by the voting activities of SNH48 (and future virtual idols);
Transaction Fee Burn: Daily trading interactions within the ecosystem will continuously reduce the circulating supply of IDOL.

With supply-side deflation and demand-side growth, a healthy token circulation mechanism is constructed, allowing the value of IDOL to rise in sync with ecological growth.

We believe that the current IDOL is like BNB in 2019—its ecosystem is on the brink of explosion, and the market has not yet fully priced its potential space. In the future, as the Web3 entertainment ecosystem expands comprehensively, IDOL will become the core carrier of a $10 billion value.

6. Conclusion: MEET48 Leads the On-Chain "Netflix Moment," Driving a New Wave of Web3 Entertainment

Just as Netflix reshaped the global content distribution landscape with its streaming model, MEET48 is reconstructing the production and value distribution paradigm of the content industry, leveraging its deep accumulation in content and product operations, as well as systematic breakthroughs in AI and Web3 technology, initiating a Web3 Entertainment centered on empowering the co-creation economy with value-functional token design.

As a pioneer of this wave, MEET48 has already validated the feasibility of integrating Web3 with entertainment. Based on a vast fan economy, a mature business model, and monetization system, MEET48 has achieved value consensus and revenue sharing between IP and fans through Web3.

In the future, MEET48 will continue to explore and build, using its successful practices as a guide, with PoC Chain as the incubation base, driving more projects to accelerate along the path of Web3 entertainment, jointly shaping a new pattern of decentralized entertainment economy, and opening the "Netflix moment" belonging to Web3 entertainment.

7. Announcement: MEET48 and Hash Global and Other Partners Jointly Initiate the Establishment of the "Web3 Entertainment Alliance"

On November 4, 2025, Hash Global organized a closed-door working meeting on "Web3 Entertainment" in Hong Kong, inviting teams such as MEET48, OFFGRID (Web3 ticketing and Fanvestment IP incubator), Innow (Japanese influencer and idol platform), IPDex (Hong Kong Cultural Copyright Trading Center), JCube (Cultural and Entertainment Copyright Holdings and Ecological Operations), ENT (end-to-end music entertainment content assetization and distribution platform), BitX (the first UGC social prediction platform), Sortes (on-chain welfare lottery and raffle platform), etc., aiming to exchange experiences, share traffic, consolidate power, and form a consensus on Web3 entertainment.

The participating parties announced the joint initiation of the "Web3 Entertainment Alliance" on the occasion of the release of this report, hoping to attract and connect more Web2 and Web3 entertainment projects and resource parties to jointly promote the co-construction of a decentralized entertainment economy ecosystem and the Mass Adoption of Web3 entertainment.

The Web3 Entertainment Alliance will provide a platform to jointly explore the following issues (examples):

How to connect and release ecological value based on real users and quality content using Web3 technology;
How to build an economic circulation mechanism centered on a sustainable token economy that combines value and functionality;
How to achieve the introduction and conversion of real Web2 users while attracting Web3 native users, bridging the connection between traditional entertainment users and on-chain users;
How to build a globally unified user system with Web3 and achieve precise traffic flow across different industries.

The alliance will hold online and offline activities from time to time to promote communication and cooperation among members, driving the integration and joint development of the Web2 and Web3 entertainment industries.

If you are interested in joining or learning more information, please feel free to contact us through the following methods:

Hash Global: X @HashGlobal
MEET48: X @meet_48

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