Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
I can’t say with 100% certainty that the nineteen-year-old Justin Jin it’s not like he’s pulling me off. In my defense, Jin’s company To laugh – which he describes as “putting a marketing app and TikTok together” – started as a joke.
“This was around 2023, when TikTok was rumored to be banned, and people were trying to find social media,” Jin told TechCrunch. “So I started this meme for an app called Giggles, and it wasn’t real at the time, but it went viral on TikTok.”
The name is a joke on an existing joke – people on TikTok see someone posting an old meme and reply, “bro banned from google giggles.” It’s supposed to be the kind of place you send a millennial cringe to (like Threads), only it’s not real. But then Jin really did.
Jin said he created a fake app landing page and logo that made it look like a real Google app. The site had a section where people could sign up for a waiting list. The site had 100,000 hits in one day, so Jin called his friend Edwin Wang to create an app.
Jin and Wang weren’t roommates at Stanford, or colleagues at McKinsey, or friends from a startup incubator — no, Jin met his co-founder when he was a YouTuber running a dubious Minecraft marketplace that was eventually shut down for violating the platform’s monetization rules.
The new company that Jin will end up creating is something that could only come from a Minecraft YouTuber who collects NFTs: a TikTok-meets-Kalshi marketplace where users can post “brainrot” videos and put “aura points” in the videos. Soon, the app will allow users to invest in real cryptocurrencies instead of aura. If you put the initial money into a meme and it pays off, you get paid. While it’s still an invite-only beta, Jin says 450,000 users have signed up.
“Our goal is to be the first crypto app where people spend more than 30 minutes a day,” Jin said. “I think we can be a doomscroll feed that’s well-designed, it’s focused on people’s dopamine system, and we think that’s going to keep users.”
A crypto-based meme marketing app that boosts people’s dopamine cycle? Minecraft YouTuber co-founder? Collecting exactly $1,234,567? When I was working on this article, I became frustrated – my brain rotted while writing about brainrot, I was shaking under the weight of AI-generated fakes and it was impossible to know if everything on the Internet is real.
I know, it seems crazy to think that someone could make an entire program as a joke, but we’re in the era of vibe coding, and people are always trying to trick the media. If they’ve already played a joke on Google, what if TechCrunch is the next target of this incredible shame, little shame? What if I’m known as a writer who took Giggles too seriously, ruining my career because I depended on a nineteen-year-old who told me he sold fidget spinners at the playground?
My suspicions were not entirely unfounded. When I researched Jin’s previous company – Mediababy, formerly Poybo – the references and articles on the site were questionable. I asked the journalist mentioned on the Mediababy website if their testimony was real, and he had no idea what I was talking about. This is probably a sign of young growth causing them to tear a little closer to the sun, but it rubbed me the wrong way.
(I started to feel that way Pepe Silvia meme, and driving myself crazy, finding clues that I can link to prove a point. Although a start a video it has a small piece of Rickroll meme – could that be a sign?
Giggles ‘$1,234,567 fundraising’ was led by 1k(x)so I reached out to 1k(x) other investors to confirm their participation, even though I had already sent emails with the company’s sales title. Some have fraudulently done so hacked TechCrunch’s domain targeting the founders – what if Jin did the same? At this point, I didn’t trust anyone!)
I got confirmation from 1k(x) that the deal is real. I had dinner again and went outside. And then I felt really stupid sending LinkedIn DMs. (You have to admit, those fake testimonials are amazing, though.)
Often times, I would not be happy to satisfy myself by devoting half an article about the basics to my endless worries. But in the case of Giggles, it makes sense. It reminded me of what Jin told me when we were talking.
“I have a feeling that bots are taking over these social networks, and because our current marketing model for them is getting likes and views… I think botting is going to be a big problem,” he said. “I think that people in the market and just thinking about what’s infected is going to lead to a decline in the number of prepared products.”
The next generation of social media must be built knowing that it will be full of AI-generated content and bot-like behavior. The promise of social media is to use the internet to bring people together, yet we are approaching a time when we cannot find each other amidst all the challenges. It is not surprising that Jin’s generation has adopted a more interesting method of humor and reference to his creations. brain damage.
“Anyone can easily create content, and people are right, because you can be anonymous – like, with Facebook or whatever, you’re not going to post brain rot,” he said. And to be honest, I think a lot of young people are scared.
Giggles – which I’m, like, 99% sure is a real company at this point – has eight employees, ranging in age from 19 to 38. Jin himself is the youngest.
“It’s a very risky thing, starting a company,” he said. You are just gambling, you just want to bet on yourself and think that you will win the job.”
I asked him if he considered Giggles a gamble.
“I wouldn’t consider it gambling. I think lottery tickets are gambling. I think lucky things are gambling. This is a plus,” he said.
However, at the same time, they admit that they are also releasing memecoins – cryptocurrencies based on useless memes, which are often persuasive stimuli.
“A lot of people say meme money is zero-sum, and right now, honestly, it probably is,” Jin said. “But you see them processing information and providing a lot of entertainment, and I think we can be a platform that provides a lot of information around the world.”
I can’t tell you that Giggles will solve the bot problem and make the internet feel human by betting crypto on brainrot memes. But I can tell you that Jin will be a fun starter to watch, and that he’s (probably) not going to laugh at you.
