FiveGate Co., Ltd. is a media company that provides different online entertainment services, including GPT (Get-Paid-To) websites, also known as points sites.
The company’s leading product is a GPT website called Point Income, successfully operating since 2006 until today. This website is available only to Japanese users, allowing them to earn points and exchange them for cash, virtual currencies, or gift codes.
To grow and expand Point Income even further, FiveGate implemented the MyChips offerwall.
To give you an inside scoop on the company and this collaboration, we spoke to Ryota Funahashi and Yuta Iwakuni from FiveGate’s Ad Planning Section of the Points Division.
Key Insights
- High user satisfaction is the driving force behind the expansion of Point Income’s services
- Successfully introduced MyChips’ P2E ad format to enhance user experience
- Achieved stable revenue of several million yen each month since adopting MyChips
- The threshold for receiving rewards has decreased and user engagement rates have improved
Could you tell us a bit about the main services and features of Point Income?
Ryota Funahashi: Point Income is a GPT website that allows users to earn points by engaging with different online services, such as online shopping sites and mobile apps and games.
Last year, the cumulative number of members exceeded 5 million, and this number is increasing day after day. What makes Point Income different from other GPT websites is its broad range of offers, allowing users to collect points while having fun.
The website hosts a variety of campaigns, including those held monthly and seasonally. Most recently, we held the annual April Fool’s event, and the next big event to craft an acquisition plan for is Golden Week.
Some other notable features include our compensation system for any missed points, and a social media service to answer user questions. Our main goal is to create a GPT site that anyone can confidently use at any time.
With so many GPT sites on the market, how does your company manage to grow and expand its services?
Funahashi: Point Income has certain characteristics that make it stand out from other points services, and the number of people who like it and use our services is increasing.
For example, in the last couple of years, we’ve been putting effort into sending out information via social media networks. Our main social media channels are Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). These efforts are worth it, as we’ve noticed many people start using our services after viewing our official social media accounts.
Another way we attract new users is through active introductions. In other words, our service naturally spreads through word-of-mouth. While we do have a “friend introduction” system in place, I believe Point Income’s growth is mainly driven by word-of-mouth user referrals.
Is there anything you do to encourage Point Income users to continue using your service?
Yuta Iwakuni: In order to get users to continue using our services, we always try to emphasize the value for the user. To achieve this, we regularly host campaigns that are interesting and easy to understand.
Some other factors I believe contribute to our high retention rates are our special media communication and the fact that users exchange information such as how to accumulate points and recommended offers to each other online.
We always see interesting projects and campaigns happening on social media networks. What is your strategic approach to using social media networks?
Iwakuni: We aim to entertain our users with fun projects like April Fool’s Day, but also try to explain different offers we host in a simple and easy-to-understand way.
Moreover, we’ve opened a DM (direct message) option on our official social media accounts to respond to user inquiries, creating an environment where users feel free to ask questions.
We are able to achieve high user satisfaction by being close to our users.
What specific efforts are you taking to increase user satisfaction?
Iwakuni: We strive to be a GPT website that is close to its users. For example, the previously-mentioned ability to make inquiries through social media networks encourages users to contact us and strengthens the connection between the company and users.
We also invite users to participate in discussions so that we can hear their opinions and use them to improve our site.
In addition, we have also introduced an “Income funding” system to our site. It is a system that allows users to submit suggestions on how to improve our service. The requests are implemented based on the user’s donation points and how many votes each request gets. There is also a track record showing that the requested features were actually put into action.
Our efforts to minimize the distance between the site and users naturally lead to high user satisfaction.
Could you tell us about the circumstances leading up to the introduction of MyChips, including the reasons and deciding factors.
Funahashi: At Point Income, we previously hosted several app-based offerwalls, but we got particularly drawn to MyChips’ P2E ad format and decided to implement it.
With app-related campaigns, it often takes time for users to earn points. But, with P2E, users receive rewards just by actively using the advertised app.
Users enjoy this unique system because it makes earning points fun and easy at the same time.
Iwakuni: This was the first time we introduced this kind of format to your site, so I was curious about how much revenue it would lead to.
At that time, during our first conversation with MAF, we were told that it would lead to several million yen in revenue within a month, which encouraged us to integrate it into our site.
The estimations proved true — since we introduced MyChips, we have been able to generate even more revenue than anticipated, and we’re glad we made this move.
What are the reactions of users who are actively engaging with P2E?
Funahashi: The issue with classic CPE campaigns is that users don’t receive their rewards until they reach the conversion point. This can make many users give up midway or avoid interacting with such campaigns.
However, the MyChips P2E reward system has a different effect on users — they enjoy it because they can earn points simply by using an app they like.
Please tell us how the introduction of MyChips affected your business results.
Iwakuni: Since the first month we introduced MyChips, we’ve seen stable and positive revenue figures. To be exact, each month, we earn several million yen through MyChips, and this number keeps on increasing.
Generally, as we introduce more app-based campaigns, users get more opportunities to explore new apps. However, we recently noticed that many apps on other offerwalls are quite similar to each other.
With MyChips, we don’t have this issue. This offerwall provides users with many different options, allowing them to try out different apps — and they seem to be enjoying the experience.
As I mentioned earlier, since MyChips works on a Play to Earn reward system, users receive rewards by using the app and completing actions like finishing the tutorial. This lowers the threshold for receiving points, positively affecting our user engagement rates.
You are currently using multiple offerwalls at the same time. Have you had any issues with using them together?
Iwakuni: At the beginning, there were some issues with using several offerwalls at the same time.
For example, some users were confused about where to open a support ticket for a particular offerwall.
However, MyChips’ P2E ad format provides a different experience from other offerwalls. Both we and the users use it smoothly. There are fewer miscommunications compared to other offerwalls, and we were able to implement it without any issues.
Are there any improvements you have made to your offerwall management and other advertising campaigns?
Funahashi: We are careful not to show the same offers on multiple pages. Let’s say the same offer appears on both the featured section and the offerwall. If the conditions on the featured section are better, choosing the offer from the offerwall can feel like a loss.
To avoid such situations, we only post offers with the best possible conditions. We try to avoid duplicate postings so that users don’t get results under conditions they didn’t expect.
Generally, we find it very important that our campaigns don’t cause confusion or disadvantage for users.
What kinds of companies would you recommend MyChips to?
Iwakuni: I think it can be used not only for GPT sites but also for other similar online services. Since offerwalls are based on collecting points by engaging with apps and games, MyChips is a good match for similar services where users engage with apps or games.
To be honest, I like it so much that I want to have it all to myself, so I don’t recommend it to other companies. 🙂
To wrap things up, could you tell us about your future goals?
Funahashi: Our future goal is to become the number one GPT website in Japan. That’s it.
To achieve this goal, we need to dominate the number of users and sales.
However, it’s not just about reaching our sales goals. We also want as many people in Japan to know about Point Income, a site where people can earn points in a fun and safe way.
Iwakuni: Speaking of our company as a whole, we would like to put more effort into expanding overseas.
Our company’s name, FiveGate, is also symbolic — it reflects our vision to become a window that connects the five continents of the world. Through our subsidiary, aix, we offer ASO consulting services overseas, staying true to this vision.
MAF also deals with many clients all over the world, and we’re happy that it shares our management philosophy. Point Income is currently only available in Japan, but, in the future, we would like to expand this service globally. Of course, we’re counting on MAF’s support with this global expansion plan!
