Author: Gunkan, Messari

Original link: https://messari.io/report/understanding-meet48-a-comprehensive-overview

Key Points

● MEET48 positions itself as an early leader in the AI User Generated Content (AIUGC) entertainment sector, attempting to integrate generative AI, virtual idol creation, and on-chain participation into a fan-driven unified ecosystem.

● MEET48 allows users to create and train AI-driven virtual idols through PARO AI. PARO AI is MEET48's self-developed intelligent agent framework based on LLM (Large Language Model), with training data sourced from real-world idol performances and fan interactions.

● The IDOL token is the core economic engine of the ecosystem, used to support voting, fan participation, virtual asset purchases, and value capture through a burning mechanism.

● In MEET48's 2025 annual idol grand finals, the number of tokens purchased by users for voting exceeded 1.6% of the total supply; approximately 0.45% of the total supply of IDOL tokens was burned.

● The MEET48 team has extensive experience in idol management and social gaming. The core management team previously oversaw the large-scale operation of the well-known Chinese idol group SNH48 and participated in the operation of one of China's most successful rhythm-based social games, Audition.

Introduction

Over the past decade, the creator economy has rapidly expanded, yet its underlying economic structure has changed little. Billions of users continuously produce videos, music, characters, and digital cultural content, but the value still primarily flows to centralized platforms. Creators provide content and traffic, yet platforms often retain ownership of the content, control distribution channels, and capture most of the economic benefits.

MEET48 emerges as a solution to this structural gap. The platform sits at the intersection of generative AI and Crypto, attempting to redefine the creation, distribution, and monetization of entertainment content. MEET48 no longer allows value to flow unidirectionally to centralized operators but introduces a multi-faceted system: users can create AI-generated virtual idols, influence their growth and development, and directly participate in a tokenized fan economy. In this model, creativity becomes collaborative, and ownership becomes programmable.

Background

The core team members of MEET48 include Kai Xu, Jason Liao, and Lin I-Ming, among others. Jason and Kai are seasoned professionals in the entertainment industry with operational experience in managing one of Asia's largest idol brands, SNH48. Lin has a rich background in the crypto industry and has collaborated with CRYPTOC. Through SNH48, the team has accumulated over a decade of experience in idol management, live performance operations, fan interaction, and digital content monetization. At its peak, SNH48 had over 10 million fans and operated five exclusive theaters in five cities, continuously producing a large number of offline performances over ten years.

This operational history has accumulated unique data assets that support MEET48's AI strategy: including recorded live performances, archived VR viewing content, thousands of licensed music tracks, and idol-fan interaction data collected through the Pocket48 app. This data is used to train MEET48's self-developed large language model (LLM) product, PARO AI.

In 2024, the team launched MEET48.ai, supporting character creation, performance choreography, and AIUGC workflows. During the same period, the MEET48 App was released on the BNB Chain, introducing tokenized voting activities and on-chain fan interaction mechanisms. On June 11, 2025, MEET48 launched the IDOL token across multiple platforms including Binance Alpha, Bitget, Gate.io, MEXC, Kucoin, and PancakeSwap.

Technology

MEET48's architecture combines an AI-generated content system, tokenized asset infrastructure, and a distribution layer for user participation. The platform supports the complete lifecycle of virtual idol creation, including: design, training, performance generation, fan interaction, and on-chain value capture. It can be divided into three core layers: Creation Layer, Experience Layer, and Economic Layer.

Creation Layer

The Creation Layer is the entry point into the MEET48 ecosystem, centered around MEET48.ai, which serves as a "central hub" for AI-driven content creation. MEET48.ai is also a platform for sharing, showcasing, and creating AI content. It features PARO AI as its core creative toolkit, enabling users to build virtual idols from scratch.

Users can define the idol's appearance, vocal characteristics, fashion style, performance attributes, and personality parameters; they can also generate various forms of content around the idol, including songs, dances, videos, comics, and podcasts.

The Creation Layer caters to both professional creators and fans. MEET48.ai lowers the barriers to creation, allowing users of varying skill levels to generate high-quality AIUGC content. These creations can then be distributed throughout the ecosystem and transformed into Virtual World Assets (VWAs), which can be bought and sold on the MEET48 Market on the BNB Chain.

Experience Layer

The Experience Layer corresponds to the environment where AI-generated idols begin to engage in social and economic activities. This layer is centered around the MEET48 App, which serves as the main interaction hub for fans and creators, containing modules for social interaction, chat rooms, idol homepages, live events, auditions, competitions, and collaborative spaces, helping users share content and track the growth progress of idols.

One of the core components of this layer is the on-chain voting and ranking system. Fans use IDOL tokens to influence the exposure, activity rankings, and competition results of idols. Higher-ranked idols receive more display opportunities within the platform and qualify for participation in ecosystem-wide showcase events.

Proof of Concept (PoC) is MEET48's community-driven content validation mechanism. As AI tools significantly reduce content production costs, PoC provides a signal to identify which outputs have cultural relevance and dissemination value. Fans and creators vote on content and performances within the platform, thereby enhancing the visibility of high-scoring works. Content with strong PoC signals can receive featured recommendations, enter competition events, or access higher-level tokenization paths through Mars Protocol.

The Experience Layer also extends into interactive entertainment scenarios through applications like Auditions GO and third-party games incubated by MEETLabs (including DeFishing). These games create a closed loop of participation and token consumption, further strengthening user engagement.

Economic Layer

The Economic Layer provides the foundation for MEET48's value creation and circulation system. The core of this layer is the IDOL token. IDOL is used for on-chain voting, purchasing virtual goods, unlocking advanced interactions, and activating various fan participation features.

The second pillar of the Economic Layer is the Mars Protocol. Mars Protocol serves as MEET48's "idol Meme platform," designed to support a growth-driven token economy around real and virtual idols. The protocol facilitates the creation of community-driven tokens, with its Bonding Curve tied to fan growth and interaction intensity, rather than relying solely on isolated speculative demand.

Tokens issued by Mars do not represent ownership of individual content assets. Instead, they are homogeneous community tokens used to reflect collective attention, engagement, and cultural momentum surrounding a particular idol. By anchoring token expansion to fan-driven growth signals and ongoing content activities, Mars Protocol aims to extend the token lifecycle, avoiding rapid decay caused by short-term speculation and aligning token dynamics with the sustainable development of the community.

The Economic Layer also includes Virtual World Assets (VWAs), which represent tokenized forms of performance clips, scenes, game props, and other user-generated content. VWAs originate from the Creation Layer and gain economic activity once they enter the market, allowing creators and fans to establish ownership over digital content and participate in secondary market circulation.

Tokenomics

MEET48's governance token IDOL is the core fuel driving the operation of the MEET48 ecosystem. Most functions within the ecosystem require the use of IDOL to participate, whether it's creating your idol, producing content around the idol, or voting for your favorite idol at award ceremonies. The total supply of IDOL is 4.8 billion, distributed as follows:

● Community (36.2%): 1.74 billion IDOL, with a 6-month lock-up period, followed by a linear release over 48 months.

● Ecosystem (20.0%): 960 million IDOL unlocked in phases, with 96 million unlocked at TGE, and the remainder starting to unlock after the 6th month, released linearly over 48 months.

● Airdrop (9.0%): 432 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.

● Marketing (5.8%): 278.4 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.

● Strategic Financing (4.0%): 192 million IDOL, with a 12-month lock-up period, followed by a linear release over 24 months.

● Private Placement (3.0%): 144 million IDOL, with a 12-month lock-up period, followed by a linear release over 24 months.

● Liquidity (3.0%): 144 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.

● IDO (2.00%): 96 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.

● Advisors (2.00%): 96 million IDOL, with a 12-month lock-up period, followed by a linear release over 48 months.

Users consume IDOL to access key platform features, including creating avatars or idols, as well as unlocking participation rights in various MEET48 products. After onboarding, users primarily engage with the ecosystem through the MEET48 App and extended experiences like Auditions GO.

Additionally, users can choose to participate in annual auditions and ceremony events: using IDOL to vote and determine the winners of the annual auditions. The prize pool comes from the community token pool. Once a winner is determined, a portion of the pool is allocated as rewards to the winner; another portion will be burned; and the remaining portion will flow back into the community pool for use in the next round of competitions.

Ecosystem

The MEET48 ecosystem consists of an ever-expanding matrix of applications, creator tools, and token-driven interactive environments, collectively building a unified entertainment universe. The MEET48 App serves as the central hub for social participation, voting, and community interaction; interactive content like Auditions GO extends idol participation into gamified scenarios; while Mars Protocol supports the formation and operation of token-driven communities.

MEET48 App

The core hub of the MEET48 ecosystem is the MEET48 social application. This app provides social streams, chat rooms, idol homepages, live events, and collaborative spaces where users can share UGC and continuously follow the growth progress of AI-driven idols. The app also includes an on-chain voting system, seasonal ranking activities, and various community events to continuously drive cultural heat and discussion within the platform. It is designed as the "social layer" of the MEET48 universe.

Auditions GO

The ecosystem extends into interactive entertainment through Auditions GO. Auditions GO is a rhythm game where virtual idols perform dances created by users and participate in competition events. The game has not yet officially launched but will utilize PARO AI: performances and personality settings generated by PARO AI will enable idols to engage in rhythm challenges, scoring mechanisms, and social leaderboards. Auditions GO is currently expected to launch in 2026.

Mars Protocol

Mars Protocol serves as a platform to drive community experiences and develop them into a token economy. Fans and creators can directly participate in an idol-centered Meme token ecosystem. Through Mars, users can issue Idol-Meme tokens, participate in Bonding Curve-based markets, and collaborate and organize around tokens associated with emerging idols and culturally resonant moments.

Unlike completely permissionless Meme launch platforms, Mars Protocol introduces a structured discovery and support mechanism aimed at aligning token activities with the long-term growth of idols. Token issuers can choose to integrate into MEET48's incubation framework, which includes supply lock-up, platform endorsement promotion, and access to AIUGC tools. Community voting plays a central role in determining exposure and popularity; annual events and rankings will elevate outstanding idols and tokens to higher display positions, gaining additional exposure, buyback programs, and liquidity support.

Mars Protocol is also integrated with MEET48's broader ecosystem entry points, including social apps and metaverse environments, allowing Idol-Meme tokens to gain richer use cases through continuous content production, events, and fan interactions.

Annual Idol Grand Finals

The MEET48 ecosystem includes the Annual Idol Grand Finals, a repeatable mechanism designed to drive fan participation, content discovery, and token usage. This event allows fans to use IDOL tokens to vote for participating idols (both real and virtual). The voting results will affect rankings, visibility within the platform, and eligibility for future content releases and ecosystem plans. Therefore, this competition serves more as a structured signal of fan participation rather than just a promotional activity.

The first Grand Finals WIPA will be held in August 2025, representing MEET48's first large-scale implementation of a token-based voting mechanism. During the voting period, fans contributed approximately 78 million IDOL, which is about 1.63% of the total token supply, to support the participating idols.

This Grand Finals framework accommodates both traditional idols and AI-generated virtual idols under the same voting system, placing real and virtual performers in the same competitive environment, allowing fan preferences to be expressed and quantified in a consistent manner.

The tokens used for voting will exit circulation through a burn mechanism; the remaining portion will flow back into the community fund pool for future incentives and ecosystem projects.

MEETLabs

MEETLabs is MEET48's initiative for building the experience layer through products and related plans, expanding the MEET48 ecosystem by incubating projects. The first project incubated by MEETLabs is DeFishing, a P2E fishing game. The token system of this project involves three tokens: IDOL, GFT, and GSC, one of whose core functions is to serve as a token consumption scenario (token sink) for IDOL.

Future Roadmap

MEET48 Annual Grand Finals 2026

MEET48 plans to hold the Annual Grand Finals, where users will vote for top idols and determine the final crowned winner. This is a crucial component of the MEET48 ecosystem and is vital for the operation of the protocol.

The competition is scheduled for 2026, and users will have the opportunity to showcase their created AI idols, with fans voting for their favorite idols.

Conclusion

MEET48 proposes a differentiated AI entertainment path by integrating virtual idol creation, fan participation, and on-chain economics within the same ecosystem. The platform does not view AIUGC, social interaction, and tokenization as isolated vertical businesses; instead, it integrates the three through a layered architecture, aligning creative output, user interaction, and value capture within the same system.

At the ecosystem level, MEET48 uses the IDOL token as a collaborative tool: voting, access rights, and participation behaviors all require IDOL, while the burn mechanism and structured unlocking arrangements create a certain deflationary pressure on IDOL. Additionally, products like Mars Protocol further expand the economic functions within the ecosystem, allowing community attention, gaming behavior, and cultural momentum to be transformed into measurable activities and value flows within the MEET48 ecosystem.

As the MEET48 platform continues to expand, its ability to truly build a new AI creator economy will likely determine whether it can maintain long-term, stable engagement after the initial novelty wears off.

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