Social networking app AppZaloot soft launches with Miss Puiyi as first brand ambassador

Social networking app, AppZaloot, has brought on board Malaysian influencer Miss Puiyi as its first brand ambassador for 12 months. This is in line with the app's soft launch today after being in the making for five years. Aside from sharing content about AppZaloot and its business partnerships on her social media channels, Miss Puiyi will also post once a week on the app itself.

While the founder of AppZaloot, Max Thomas, declined to share the monetary value of the partnership, he told A+M in an interview that the company will also involve Miss Puiyi in its quarterly board meetings to get opinions and ideas on new features and improvements. This involvement will also extend to other brand ambassadors it works with in the future.

"What big social media company goes out to people and asks them to be involved in management decisions? We've got a lot of things that we're doing differently so this is another cool aspect about our partnership," he said. 

Miss Puiyi has a huge online following, with 19.5 million Instagram followers, a million Facebook followers, and 52.5k YouTube subscribers. She also has her own skincare brand Kiseki Skincare and is the first Malaysian to make the cover of Penthouse magazine, an American men's magazine featuring scantily clad women. Miss Puiyi has been a controversial figure online and is known for her risque images. Earlier this year, for example, she sparked social madia chatter, for wearing an ao dai in a revealing manner, with several netizens deeming it offensive.

Despite her online reputation, AppZaloot was drawn to her personal story. According to the South China Morning Post, Miss Puiyi grew up in a lower-middle-class family. Her mother was a hawker while her father was a regular salesperson. Her mother took on the sole responsibility of providing for the family when her father went bankrupt when she was younger.

"When I did some research into Miss Puiyi and how she became an influencer, that was when I understood her story. She took adversity, where somebody was blackmailing her, and turned it around by taking control of her life and eventually turned it into a business," Thomas explained. He added that she made her challenging life story into an empowering learning lesson for women. 

At the same time, AppZaloot was seeking a key opinion leader that had a good reach. According to Thomas, four million of Miss Puiyi's Instagram followers are from the US. "My job is to get out and reach people. She is not only an influential person, but she also shows so much empathy towards her followers and spends time talking about mental health issues, women empowerment and turning adversity into an advantage," he explained. Thomas said that while Miss Puiyi's target audience are mainly males aged between 20 to 50 years old, there are still plenty of women who follow her. 

When asked if he is concerned about her reputation impacting AppZaloot's brand image, Thomas said:

I do expect it to impact my brand image but in a positive way. What we're doing with AppZaloot is a little bit different. My philosophy is to not always follow the pack or do what is normal.

Instead, it is to do what is right and make changes to improve things, he said. "I'm not scared of [her online reputation impacting the brand]. We are a platform. You could have a radical cleric next to Miss Puiyi and other influencers that do cooking shows as well as comedians all on the same platform. I don't want to go out there at the beginning and say: 'I can't work with this person because they had a bad article. That's not my job. My job is to do all of the things that AppZaloot was created for - to fix problems. I'm a really positive person and I choose to celebrate what Miss Puiyi does positively rather than the odd article that might be a little negative," Thomas explained. 

Another thing about AppZaloot, Thomas said, is that the platform wants strong opinions. "We want people to debate and sharpen up," he added. When asked how AppZaloot is preparing for the potential social media chatter surrounding the partnership with Miss Puiyi, Thomas said: "Well, at least they're talking about us now. Yesterday, they weren't."

With Miss Puiyi kickstarting the partnership as AppZaloot's first brand ambassador, the platform expects to work with other celebrity influencers as well moving forward, along with comedians, musicians, food bloggers, and travel writers.

Why "AppZaloot" as a name?

The app was founded in 2016 and the name came about during a discussion Thomas had with his son. Names such as "Mega App" came about during the brainstorm session until they landed on the word "absolutely". "We were having a conversation about the different features and my son said we should do this and that and I said 'Absolutely'. He then looked at me and said that was a really good name and we should name the app that," Thomas explained. 

But Thomas decided to put a twist to "absolute", eventually turning it into "AppZaloot". Earlier this year, it appointed GO Communications to manage PR, digital and influencer engagements for 12 months. Thomas said during the interview that the agency's remit will now also cover social media.

The app is said to combine social interaction with a loyalty and rewards programme, which will utilise blockchain and crypto technology, benefitting individual users and businesses. It also includes a Friends feed, connecting users anywhere in the world with no ads and an uncluttered user interface. Meanwhile, local businesses will be able to connect with the surrounding community, based on users’ interests, from shopping, F&B and entertainment to accommodation and trade services.

When fully operational, the AppZaloot platform will include features and uses such as a location-based local feed, connecting users to current happenings up to 25 kilometres around them. The app has undergone a testing phase in Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines and currently has approximately 5,000 users. Thomas is eyeing approximately 20,000 users in the next few weeks following the soft launch.

AppZaloot is also has a four-tier referral rewards system, allowing users to earn rewards from the initial friend they invited and also earning a smaller reward from all the connection that the initial friend invites.

"It's not just about the big guys [earning revenue], it's about everybody earning something out of being on the app by referring new users," Thomas said. 

They will also earn additional rewards if they remain an active AppZaloot user for the next two years. Meanwhile, when its loyalty programme is eventually up and running, users can convert the points into cryptocurrency tokens called Zaloots at a 10% discount on the trading price. As part of the partnership with Miss Puiyi, AppZaloot is offering a special presale for her followers to buy the tokens at a discount for a limited period after they launch in October. "So if you've got US$100 worth of points in your wallet, you can convert them into Zaloots and only pay US$90 for US$100 worth," he said. 

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