Crowdsourcing cinema company Demand Film, which operates across the globe in six different currencies, is adding cryptocurrency into the mix, announcing its intention to launch the digital currency Popcoin.
Demand Film permits customers to select a film and cinema location, to promote to friends and family. If enough tickets are sold the film will be screened, and should the customer not attract enough interest the screening cancels and no one is charged.
The company is launching Popcoin to more efficiently forward on payments to filmmakers and rights holders.
According to David Doepel, CEO and Managing Director of Demand Film, the decision to implement a blockchain and cryptocurrency solution was formed after assessing scalability issues, operating across multiple regions with different physical currencies.
There are two key differences between our token offering and others. First, we are releasing the token to transform the relationship between customers and an actual operating business, not as a speculation of an imagined market yet to be created,” Mr Doepel said.
“Second, we are tying the token utilisation to our analytics engine and in real time will be able to adjust offers based on what we are seeing about customer interactions with our content and ticketing platform.
“Customers will be able to acquire coins for doing things that they do for free already elsewhere – watching trailers, commenting on films, sharing content – and can utilise them to get tickets, actual popcorn and “unobtainium” e.g., VIP tickets, red carpet experiences, memorabilia,” he said.
Demand Film has teamed up with one of Australia’s leading cryptocurrency exchange groups, the National Currency Exchange (NCX), to implement the currency launch.
Commenting on the partnership, NCX CEO Tommy Shin said: “We are excited about the vision of Demand Film for using cryptocurrency to solve real business challenges.
“We have been focusing as a company ourselves on building the NCX with non-technical users in mind. So the fit is a natural one. Many of the exchanges cater to cryptocurrency traders and speculators and are not designed for the average non-technical person,” he said.
Demand Film was founded in 2013 and has since grown to a global network of close to 2,500 cinemas in 7 countries.
