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Messari Research: Comprehensive Overview of Web3 Entertainment AIUGC Platform MEET48

2025-12-31 04:23

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The MEET48 platform is at the intersection of Generative AI and Crypto

Original Source: Messari

Original Author: Gunkan, Messari

Key Points

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

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

The IDOL token serves as the core economic engine of the ecosystem, supporting voting, fan participation, virtual asset purchases, and value capture through a burning mechanism.

During MEET48's 2025 Annual Idol Grand Finals, the amount of tokens purchased by users to vote for idols exceeded 1.6% of the total token supply; of which approximately 0.45% of the IDOL total supply was burned.

The MEET48 team has deep experience in idol operations and social gaming. The core management previously led the scaled operations of the well-known Chinese idol group SNH48 and were involved in operating one of China's most successful rhythm social games, Audition.

Introduction

Over the past decade, the creator economy has expanded rapidly, yet its underlying economic structure has remained largely unchanged. Billions of users continue to produce video, music, avatars, and digital cultural content, but the value primarily flows to centralized platforms. Creators provide content and traffic, yet platforms often retain ownership of the content, control distribution channels, and capture the majority of economic benefits.

MEET48 emerges as a solution in this structural gap. Positioned at the intersection of generative AI and crypto, the platform seeks to redefine the creation, distribution, and monetization of entertainment content. MEET48 no longer allows value to unilaterally aggregate to centralized operators but introduces a multilateral 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 of MEET48 includes Kai Xu, Jason Liao, and Lin I-Ming. Jason and Kai are seasoned professionals in the entertainment industry, with experience in operating one of Asia's largest idol groups, SNH48. Lin has a strong 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 show operations, fan engagement, and digital content monetization. At its peak, SNH48 had over 10 million fans and operated 5 exclusive theaters in five cities, consistently delivering numerous offline performances over the span of a decade.

This operational history has laid the foundation for MEET48's unique data assets to support its AI strategy: including recorded live shows, archived VR content, a library of thousands of licensed music tracks, and idol-fan interaction data collected through the Pocket48 app. This data has been used to train MEET48's in-house large language model (LLM) product, PARO AI.

In 2024, the team launched MEET48.ai, supporting character creation, performance choreography, and an AIUGC workflow. Simultaneously, the MEET48 App was released on the BNB Chain, introducing token-based voting events and on-chain fan interaction mechanisms. On June 11, 2025, MEET48 listed the IDOL token on multiple platforms, including Binance Alpha, Bitget, Gate.io, MEXC, Kucoin, and PancakeSwap.

Technology

The architecture of MEET48 combines an AI-generated content system, a tokenized asset infrastructure, and a distribution layer for user engagement. The platform supports the full 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: the Creation Layer, the Experience Layer, and the Economic Layer.

Creation Layer

The Creation Layer serves as the entry point into the MEET48 ecosystem, with MEET48.ai at its core, aiming to act as the "central hub" for AI-driven content creation. MEET48.ai also serves as a platform for sharing, showcasing, and creating AI content. MEET48.ai integrates PARO AI as a core creation toolkit, supporting users in building virtual idols from scratch.

Users can define their idol's appearance, voice characteristics, fashion style, performance attributes, and personality parameters, as well as create various forms of content around the idol, including songs, dances, videos, comics, and podcasts.

The Creation Layer targets both professional creators and fans. By lowering the barrier to creation, MEET48.ai enables users of different skill levels to generate high-quality AIUGC content. This content can then be distributed and showcased throughout the ecosystem, converted into Virtual World Assets (VWAs), and traded on the MEET48 Market on the BNB Chain.

Experience Layer - Experience Layer

The Experience Layer corresponds to the environment where AI-generated idols engage in social and economic activities. This layer is centered around the MEET48 App, which serves as the primary interaction hub for fans and creators, including social features, chat rooms, idol profiles, live events, auditions, competitions, and collaboration spaces, enabling users to share content and track idol growth progress.

One of the core components of this layer is the On-Chain Voting and Ranking System. Fans use IDOL tokens to influence an idol's exposure, event ranking, and competition results. Higher-ranked idols receive more visibility on the platform and qualify for participation in ecosystem-wide showcase events.

Proof of Creativity (PoC) is MEET48's community-driven content validation mechanism. As AI tools significantly reduce content production costs, PoC provides a signal to identify culturally relevant and valuable output. Fans and creators vote on platform content and performances to enhance the visibility of high-scoring works. Content with strong PoC signals may receive featured recommendations, enter competition events, or follow a more advanced tokenization path through the Mars Protocol.

The Experience Layer also expands into interactive entertainment scenarios through applications like Auditions GO and third-party games incubated by MEETLabs, including DeFishing. These games create engagement loops and token consumption scenarios, further strengthening user involvement.

Economic Layer

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

The second key pillar of the Economic Layer is the Mars Protocol. The Mars Protocol is MEET48's "Idol Meme Platform," designed around real and virtual idols to support a growth-driven token economy. This protocol facilitates the creation of community-driven tokens, where the Bonding Curve is 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 fungible community tokens that reflect the collective attention, participation, and cultural momentum around a particular idol. By anchoring token expansion to fan-driven growth signals and ongoing content activities, the Mars Protocol aims to extend the token lifecycle, avoid rapid decay from short-term speculation, and align token dynamics with sustainable community development.

The Economic Layer also includes Virtual World Assets (VWAs), representing tokenized forms of performance segments, scenes, game items, and other user-generated content. VWAs originate from the Creation Layer, gaining economic activity upon entering the market, enabling creators and fans to establish ownership of 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 for participation, whether it's creating your idol, producing content around the idol, or voting for your favorite idol in awards ceremonies. The total token supply of IDOL is 4.8 billion, distributed as follows:

Community (36.2%): 1.74 billion IDOL, with a 6-month lockup period, followed by a 48-month linear release.

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, with a 48-month linear release.

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

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

Strategic Funding (4.0%): 192 million IDOL, with a 12-month lockup period, followed by a 24-month linear release.

Private Funding (3.0%): 144 million IDOL, with a 12-month lockup period, followed by a 24-month linear release.

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 lockup period, followed by a 48-month linear release.

Users engage with the platform's key features by consuming IDOL, including creating avatars or idols and unlocking participation permissions in various MEET48 products. After onboarding, users primarily engage with the ecosystem through the MEET48 App and extensions like Auditions GO.

Additionally, users can participate in annual auditions and ceremonies by using IDOL for voting to decide the winners. The prize pool comes from the community token pool. Once a winner is determined, a portion of the pool is allocated as a reward to the winner, another portion is burned, and the remaining portion flows back to the community pool for future rounds of competition.

Ecosystem

MEET48 The ecosystem consists of an ever-expanding app matrix, creator tools, and a token-driven interactive environment, collectively building a unified entertainment metaverse. The MEET48 App is the central hub for social engagement, voting, and community interaction; Auditions GO and other interactive content extend idol participation into gamified scenarios; while the Mars Protocol supports token-driven community formation and operation.

MEET48 App

The core hub of the MEET48 ecosystem is the MEET48 social application. The app offers social feeds, chat rooms, idol profiles, live events, and collaboration spaces, where users can share user-generated content and continuously follow the AI-driven idols' growth journey. The app also features an on-chain voting system, seasonal ranking events, and various community activities to sustainably drive cultural popularity and engagement on the platform. It is designed as the "social layer" of the MEET48 universe.

Auditions GO

The ecosystem extends into the interactive entertainment space through Auditions GO. Auditions GO is a rhythm game where virtual idols perform dances created by users and participate in competitive events. The game is not yet officially launched but will use PARO AI: PARO AI generates performances and personality settings, allowing idols to engage in rhythm challenges, scoring mechanisms, and social leaderboards. Auditions GO is currently scheduled for release in 2026.

Mars Protocol

Mars Protocol serves as a platform to drive community engagement and develop it into a token economy. Fans and creators can directly participate in an idol-centric Meme token ecosystem. Through Mars, users can mint Idol-Meme tokens, engage in a Bonding Curve-based market, and coordinate around tokens associated with emerging idols and culturally resonant moments.

Unlike fully permissionless Meme launch platforms, Mars Protocol introduces a structured discovery and support mechanism designed to align token activities with longer-term idol growth. Token issuers can choose to plug into the MEET48 incubation framework, which includes supply locking, platform-endorsed promotion, and AIUGC tool access. Community voting plays a vital role in determining exposure and popularity; annual events and rankings will elevate standout idols and tokens to receive increased visibility, additional exposure, buyback programs, and liquidity support.

The Mars Protocol is also connected to the broader MEET48 ecosystem, including social apps and the metaverse, enabling the Idol-Meme token to have a richer use case through ongoing content production, events, and fan interaction.

Annual Idol General Election

The MEET48 ecosystem includes the Annual Idol General Election, as a mechanism for repeatable operation to drive fan engagement, content discovery, and token utility. This event allows fans to use IDOL tokens to vote for participating idols (real and virtual). The voting results impact rankings, platform visibility, and eligibility for subsequent content releases and ecosystem initiatives. Thus, this competition is more like a structured fan engagement signal rather than just a promotional event.

The inaugural final WIPA was 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 tokens, roughly equivalent to 1.63% of the total token supply, to support participating idols.

The Grand Final Framework accommodates both traditional idols and AI-generated virtual idols within the same voting system, placing real and virtual performers in the same competitive environment, allowing fan preferences to be expressed consistently and quantified.

The tokens used for voting will have a portion of them taken out of circulation through a burning mechanism; the remaining portion will flow back into the community fund pool for future incentives and ecosystem projects.

MEETLabs

MEETLabs is a product and series of related plans by MEET48 for building the experiential layer, expanding the MEET48 ecosystem through project incubation. The first project incubated by MEETLabs is DeFishing, a Play-to-Earn fishing game. The project's token system involves three tokens: IDOL, GFT, and GSC, with one of its core functions being a token sink for IDOL.

Future Roadmap

MEET48 2026 Grand Final

MEET48 plans to hold an annual grand final where users will vote for top idols and determine the ultimate winner. This is a significant part of the MEET48 ecosystem and crucial for the protocol's operation.

The competition is scheduled to take place in 2026, where users will have the opportunity to showcase AI idols they have created and have fans vote for their favorite idols.

Conclusion

MEET48 proposes a differentiated AI entertainment path by integrating virtual idol creation, fan engagement, and on-chain economy in the same ecosystem. The platform does not see AIUGC, social interaction, and tokenization as separate vertical businesses but integrates them through a layered architecture, aligning content creation, user interaction, and value capture within the same system.

At the ecosystem level, MEET48 leverages the IDOL token as a collaborative tool: voting, access rights, and engagement behaviors all require IDOL. Additionally, the burn mechanism and structured unlock schedule introduce deflationary pressure to IDOL. Products like Mars Protocol further expand the economic functionalities within the ecosystem, transforming community attention, gaming behaviors, and cultural momentum into measurable activities and value flow within the MEET48 ecosystem.

As MEET48 continues to expand, its ability to truly establish a new AI creator economy will likely determine whether it can maintain long-term, stable engagement after the early novelty fades.