Yesterday, Dubai-based property developer Emaar said it plans to launch a blockchain referral and loyalty platform later this year. Dubbed as EMR, the platform will reward tokens to Emaar customers for their loyalty and business referrals. Emaar owns the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall and has annual revenues of $7 billion.
The EMR tokens will be offered to Emaar customers using a mobile app. Customers can redeem the tokens at Emaar’s real estate, hotels, e-commerce operations and malls. The unique aspect of these tokens is that they also represent a monetary value and not just loyalty points, which makes the tokens tradable.
The token and platform were developed on enterprise blockchain protocol Quorum, JPMorgan’s version of Ethereum. Because this is a private platform, the EMR tokens are native to the EMR platform. And the property developer hired Bitcoin Suisse AG to conduct a sale of token rights.
“We have an existing ecosystem and a large customer base, as well as millions of further potential users globally who have yet to discover Emaar. Our blockchain token platform positions us to grow our user engagement with today’s digital-native, mobile-first generation who expect a fairer internet and want to be part of the conversation,” said Hadi Kabalan, Director of Tokenisation at Emaar.
Earlier this year, the Burj Khalifa owner had announced plans of launching the Emaar community token with Swiss-based blockchain firm Lykke. It’s unclear whether Lykke is still involved with the project and there was no response by the time of publication.
Tokenization for loyalty programs has a lot of potential for customer retention, as pointed out by a recent KPMG report. Singapore Airlines, AirAsia and Cathay Pacific already have blockchain loyalty projects in place.
Another big name experimenting with blockchain loyalty is payments company American Express. It has developed a blockchain solution using Hyperledger Fabric which is integrated with the existing loyalty system.
Last year, Japanese messaging company LINE launched its crypto LINK, which mainly serves as a rewards system. Recently, LINE subsidiary Unblock Ventures, Recruit and Monex invested in blockchain rewards company Loyyal.
