Memeing For Profit: How Funny Images Could Bring In Serious Bucks

If you’ve been an Early Chirp subscriber for a while, you already know that we’re pretty fond of memes. These images and captions are wildly popular in our internet culture and have a unique ability to deliver a pithy and relatable message on just about any topic imaginable.

But is there more to the meme than meets the eye? That’s what one serial entrepreneur thinks.

The rise of “memetech”

According to Alex Taub, memes are a lot more than silly pictures. They’ve become a way for modern humans to communicate and, like previous forms of communication, he predicts they could be profitable. In fact, he’s comparing this unrealized revenue stream to industries with a long track record of revenue.

“I have this big thesis that memetech is going to be the next big category,” Taub recently said. “Like, there’s healthtech, there’s proptech, there’s adtech, there’s fintech. … I think memetech is about to have a big moment.”

But it takes a lot more than just a theory to start making money, so he’s putting a lot of effort into revolutionizing the meme-verse. And it starts by creating a platform that will allow smartphones and other devices to effectively find a meme from within a vast collection.

Expanding capabilities

To be sure, the notion of a meme database in itself is nothing new. Sites like Tumblr, Cheezburger, and even Reddit have offered some variation of this service for years. But Taub said these are generally media-first companies and he sees “an opportunity here for meme management.”

Looking beyond the uncertainty regarding who should profit directly from the meme’s creation, he’s injecting crypto into the equation in hopes of essentially creating an entirely new meme-related revenue source.

“People can monetize the community around the meme without monetizing the meme itself,” he theorized.

Chris Agee May 30th, 2024

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