Burger King is set to launch Whoppercoins. Customers will be able to get this virtual money after they buy a Whopper. The initial launch will take place in Russia. Will we be able to see this soon in the U.S? This is possible because there could be a lot of competition in the future.
The Whopper Severance
According to The Business Insider, the US fast-food chain is also giving free burgers to people who have been fired. In this new deal, Whopper Severance, you get a free gift card and in exchange, you just have to acknowledge in public that you were fired.
You just have to go to LinkedIn and post a message related to this.Burger King plans to give 2,500 Whoppers completely free through the Whopper Severance deal.
More details about currency
Other companies are likely to launch their own currencies to compete with the American fast-food chain. Burger King will launch its Android and Apple apps soon so people will be able to trade, share, and save virtual coins. Burger King has associated with the company Waves to develop all that is related to virtual money. Fortune cited an article in New York magazine saying that Waves has already generated 1 billion Whoppercoins which will be used in the loyalty scheme. Customers will be able to get a free Whopper after buying five or six with real money.
Customers will be able to claim the Whoppercoins by scanning the receipts. This currency is similar to Bitcoin, but not equal to it.
Burger King is leading, but there are risks too
Burger King is the first big company to issue its own virtual money. It is expected that this scheme will increase loyalty from the customers because they will be able to exchange the virtual money.
Prof Emin Gun Sirer, from Cornell University, stated that other companies will probably launch similar schemes to compete against Burger King. The academic, who is also the director of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts, stated that virtual money involves risks too. It will be used for ransomware payments and money laundering.
An innovation
There are many traditional loyalty schemes that have a limited range such as airline miles. Trading of virtual money is very easy, so, it could be a great benefit. You can change virtual money by national currencies or assets. Nevertheless, there will also be challenges. For example, a competitor like McDonald's won't accept it so easily and would prefer to accept a currency like Bitcoin. The virtual economy is growing so this is defining a new era in transactions, savings, and other economic activities.
