An Innovative Platform Connects International Buyers to Emerging Markets Artists

[mouakter13]

At TapArt, we have a built a business model from the ground up that addresses these critical shortcomings in current art marketplace models. Our digital platform not only avoids some of the fundamental weaknesses of the traditional art market, it also takes advantage of the transformational opportunities of new technologies to make a social impact. Our goal is to harness the fullest power of art – enabled by our innovative use of technology and global collaborations – to bring people and cultures together as one world community.

Fairness, equity, access and affordability are central to our business model. We purposely set out with the mission of building a global community of artists from both emerging and developed economies. To that end, we have leveraged several key innovations and strategies: building relationships with an ecosystem of partners across the developing world; engaging and recruiting new members of the TapArt team to serve as artist managers in key regions (i.e., Africa, South America, Asia); and building technology features into our online marketplace to deliver a truly immersive experience which converts curious visitors to well-informed and connected art-lovers.

Here’s how the model brings the work of artists from (often remote) towns to TapArt’s digital marketplace: We use high-quality image capturing apps that allow the physical artwork to be photographed from multiple angles, using computer vision to produce digital versions of the work that capture its rich detail. This technology allows artists to use their own smartphone cameras – which generally lack the image resolution to produce a professional-quality photo of the full artwork – to take close-up shots of separate portions of their work, with the app using artificial intelligence to combine these photos into a single high-definition image file. The artists then seamlessly upload the digitized art to our marketplace through TapArt’s proprietary artist portal. When a piece of artwork is purchased through the portal, we create a canvas or print reproduction of the image, which we deliver to the customer. We also overcome the barriers faced by unbanked communities through our use of innovative mobile payment platforms and other fintech solutions, which enable seamless brazil whatsapp number data payment to the artists when their work is purchased by customers through our online market.



Combining Digital Technology with Local Support
One key component of this model is our network of artist managers. Through partnerships with the African Leadership Group (which teaches entrepreneurial skills to empower African youth) and CARBON Group Global (a sustainable solutions holding company), we engage enterprising people with roots in local art communities across the globe. These artist managers seek out talented artists in their region, and help onboard these artists and their artwork into the TapArt platform. Their role is crucial, because some artists reside in very remote, hard-to-access areas, and would typically make the journey to town to sell their works at a local market or gallery just once every few weeks. Now these artists can rely on TapArt’s team of talented artist managers to digitize, upload and facilitate payment for their artworks as often as they produce them. To further streamline the process, our artist managers teach new artists how to use TapArt’s portal themselves during onboarding, enabling them to upload their own artwork and create and customize their own “shops,” adding or removing artworks, writing descriptions of their background and work, etc. But if the artists need support, our managers are always a text message away, maintaining the relationship and remaining in regular contact with the artists.