A platform able to turn anyone into an influencer

Teleport aims to create a more authentic influencer experience by inviting ordinary people with small followings to earn money by promoting products they love

Spotted: Even before the Fyre Festival fiasco, the role of influencers in brand marketing was beginning to change. Companies are moving away from paid sponsorships and toward micro-influencers, who have smaller followings in niche areas. Now a new platform called Teleport is set to expand on the potential of micro-influencing by allowing almost anyone to instantly become an influencer.

Teleport members are able to create video shorts of themselves wearing or using products they love, and then sell these items to viewers, earning a cut of the sale. The idea is that these amateur influencers will offer a more personal, curated and immersive experience. In fact, the profiles on Teleport will not focus on follower count, but on the creators’ reputation, based on user engagement and purchase satisfaction.

Top-earning tastemakers can even be invited to become Teleport Partners. Initially, only 100 partners will be chosen. These will be able to earn a base rate of 1 per cent of any sales, and a five times base rate bonus for the first $1 million in sales. The company is also interested in ensuring that creators are getting paid their fair share of the Internet economy. The app has also been designed to avoid the fake review problem common on larger e-commerce platforms.

Teleport CEO and Founder Jon Choi previously worked at Ethereum and Dropbox and was inspired to build a platform that mimicked the social aspects of a night market and where people could both discover new things and earn a living. According to Choi: “We believe that an Internet community can ultimately curate a better product catalog than any single retailer. … We want to enable our users to take part in making the world’s first Internet department store based on a user-generated catalog.”

Shopping online is growing by leaps and bounds. But increasingly, consumers are looking for more social connection from their online shopping. At Springwise, we have seen this in a number of recent innovations. These include a storefront platform that creates a virtual high street and a social commerce platform that turns shopping from home into a group activity.