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Remaking the Joyous World of Beauty and Wellness for the Global Digital Age You may not have heard of the Joy platform…yet. But you soon will as the beauty industry is set to receive a much-needed make over. Vladislav Kiselev, CEO and founder, explains all.

Courtesy of Stankevicius MGM

Could you please explain the business idea behind The Joy?

The business idea behind The Joy is to build a wellness and beauty ecosystem where customers will be able to fast and conveniently book and get treatments they want either in salon or at home. Salon owners and freelance practitioners will be able to increase their profits by getting more bookings. Marketing and administrative costs will decrease because they will be marketed on The Joy while a booking system will cut out time-wasting in the day-to-day routine. On top of that practitioners will get a logistic system with navigation and parking analysis that will decrease transportation time, increasing the number of bookings each day. Finally, advertisers and players from the wellness and beauty industry will be able to integrate into the ecosystem and use it for marketing, research, PR and sponsorship distribution.

When you launch in Berlin what benchmarks do you have as measures of success?

Well, there are not so many decent marketplaces that offer beauty and wellness treatments in Europe. There is Treatwell which is worth mentioning as a European market leader at the moment. Even though they have a lot of technical and business issues they still hold their position and have high valuations. Should we overcome them in Germany, we will be able to do the same in every other country, so this will be success from my point of view.

The market for beauty and wellness treatments is almost untamed and this is why even after we surpass Treatwell we will still be at the beginning of our journey. If we generalize the question a little bit, I think Uber is another great benchmark for us. If people start to call us the "Uber of beauty", I would define that as a success. I hope, though, that it will be other way round and in 10 years they will call Uber "The Joy of carsharing".

Are you confident that The Joy will eventually become a global success and if so why?

I am. If I wasn't I wouldn't have started this two years ago. Just look at the modern world, all the things around are becoming increasingly digitalized: food delivery, taxi, post. People have been trying to digitalize the wellness and beauty treatments sector since 2012. But six years have passed and no one has even come close to the point when booking a treatment through an app is as common as ordering a ride in Uber or renting an overnight Airbnb stay.

What would you say to potential investors who are considering participating in the ICO?

We position ourselves as a real sector company that conducts an ICO to raise funds for the project. We are not another decentralized blockchain platform for cloud computing or cloud storage which you see popping up almost every week. We are not a blockchain platform (even though we use blockchain for secure ratings storage) but a tokenized platform, which utilizes cryptocurrency (Joycoins) as a secure and liquid form of rewarding users for their loyalty and activity on the platform. Joycoin was designed in such a way that it is not tied to Bitcoin's or Ethereum's value but only to the success of The Joy platform.

How will you attract beauty and wellness industry players to the platform and what kind of financial benefits can they expect to see?

The Joy will be a gold mine for wellness and beauty companies. First of all, we have invented a brand new targeted offline advertising concept. The Joy, and freelance practitioners that work on The Joy, will be able to get additional advertising revenue by placing the products or logos of our partners on their professional uniforms. Industry players can use information about actual trends on the platform to inform and advance their product development. They will also be able to conduct and distribute targeted surveys via a built-in survey module. For each completed survey, users receive a reward in Joycoins. Further, we have plans for a built-in sponsorship marketplace for companies interested in sponsoring freelancers and salons. Each participating company will be able to distribute their sponsorship offers to salons and practitioners according to specific targeting, thus expanding their reach. They will also save costs on sales.

What is the advantage of using a cryptocurrency on the platform when for many people who might engage with The Joy this form of currency is not something they are familiar with?

Joycoins are just air miles or bonus points from your average loyalty program, although enhanced ones. You don't need Joycoins to book a treatment on our platform, but you can use them for that and get your treatment cheaper. Every user will be rewarded with Joycoins for different actions on the platform such as registration, frequent bookings, survey responses and other activity. Moreover, the value of Joycoins grows with the growth of the project, which is something not typical with the classic air miles or bonus points. On top of that the Joycoins can be liquid and users can cash out them via third parties.

How will you sell Joycoins to them in a simple and easy way that they can understand and trust?

It is important to separate people that will participate in the ICO and many other potential users of the platform. The first group will consider Joycoins not only as a digital currency or "air miles" but also as an investment. They will examine the project, website, documents and team members as every VC or private investor would naturally do. After their research they won't have any questions regarding Joycoins. One thing to mention; we won't be selling Joycoins after the ICO again. So, afterwards, the only possibility to receive Joycoins from The Joy will be to earn them through the bonus programs on the platform.

Where do you see The Joy platform five years from now?

I see our platform as a world's leading beauty and wellness marketplace with nine fold revenue. Until that time I forecast we will also add cleaning, food delivery, pet grooming and many other services to the platform. Expansion-wise the platform will be available in all developed countries of Western Europe, North America, Eastern Asia and Middle East.