Sou Kawaii Zen Lounge

03/05/2018

Want to earn free dinners, new lashes or even Bubble Tea?

Try our new Social Media app, earning Zan tokens to exchange for great products and service from local businesses.

Link to Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zan.zanq

01/30/2017

Lunar New Years, catching the train home to see relatives? Mind as well get comfortable for the journey.

Enter at http://zanq.co for epic Lunar New Years candid train passengers tournament to collect free Zan points for redemption at your local businesses.

During the Lunar New Years, migrate workers employed in major cities are all looking to make it back to their families to unite once a year, usually their families are still living in their rural ancestral homes.

The migration of hundreds of millions of people during the span of a few days can be quite a challenging experience for a traveller, and the experience is often exhausting. But once they are on their way, it's natural to make themselves as comfortable as possible.

The struggle is real, check them out and vote for your favorites at http://zanq.co.

01/24/2017

Zan's demonstrating their Tournament feature on their to be released app, take a look a http://zanq.co.

Trump's Zan account.

Want more? Vote for your favorite in our 2nd weekly tournament, which will run until Saturday, Jan 28.

Zan points will be awarded for pre-registered users.

The Tournament can be found at the bottom of the page at http://zanq.co, remember to press the enter button to complete your votes.

09/27/2016

Want to show your support for Edmonton businesses? Want to get rewarded as well for doing so? This is your social media platform to raise your voice, Edmonton!

Register at:
http://www.zanq.co

ZanQ is now open for registration, signup at http://zanq.co

08/18/2016

Hey, wanna get paid for using your social media apps?

Should we get paid for using Social Media?

First off, let’s be transparent when I say, paid – I should really say, rewarded. And not just using Social Media, but actively creating content for social media, the ingredient of which social media requires to become a multi-million dollar entity.

YouTube stars is probably the most popular talked about form of social media entrepreneurship, rewarding entertainers, educators and brilliant personalities for their hard work in putting together great videos.

Turns out there are advertising companies out there that will pay you as well for the amount of followers you have, for advertising their product or their client’s product. Facebook is also starting to share advertising revenue with video content creators, much like youtube, so the ideology is gaining traction.

But what about us common content creators? Like sharing advice on topics, writing articles like this or sharing our lives with others on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Qzone? We are essentially the free labor for Social Media, rewarded only with exposure.

There was a great platform, tsū.co that rewarded all users for creating content, by sharing the advertising revenue generated directly from the content post to the author. This social media platform was adopted by megastars like 50 Cent, LeAnn Rimes, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Nicky Romero and Wu-Tang Clan. But unfortunately has gone dark (closed down) just this month.

There are reason speculations of what went wrong, but no one can argue the powerful concept behind it, get rewarded for helping building the content base, it’s only fair to people like us, right?

Borrowing the argument from Pipes to Platform, social media should only reward users if they are helping to strengthen the network effect, as in creating desirable interactions on the platform, otherwise they are just weakening the network effect, or creating spam.

And here’s where our Zan, a Social Media Network comes in. As our second objective, we believe we have an out of the box solution, and we plan on rewarding you, the social media content creator for helping us build our platform. As strong supporters of the underlying concept of tsū.co, we’d like to take a shot at this, but we’re going to need your help to test our theory.

So like our page, engage with us and be one of the first to test our early release.

Sources: platform.info, Tsu.co, mdgadvertising.com

08/15/2016

Must read for those who have or are going through rough times, and Sou Kawaii Zen Lounge's referred in the article.

How a good Social Network can help with Depression

So let’s take a step back first before beginning, Social Media is not always a proper solution for helping with depression, in fact there are studies showing instances where Social Media can lead to more severe depression, such as extreme envy, addiction leading to lack of a social life or cyberbullying.

But in this post, we’ll examine how exclusively Social Media can help.

One way of describing this silent condition is the feeling of intense sadness – to the point where you feel fatigue, helpless, hopeless and even worthless.

From my personal experience, with the loss my first business of 8 years and the equity built within it, it took time to truly accept this reality. Speaking strictly from personal experience from my own episode, Social Media aided aspects and helped me overcome it by making me realize how blessed I was to have such positive people on my list of friends, enabling me to be more transparent, and recognizing there was hope and opportunity, that “hope” being this project, “Zan”.

See, depression can be seen as a buildup of stress, where new situations arise upon existing situations that are not dealt with or released and end up staying confined, festering this mental health condition. And although sometimes we feel that it cannot be dealt with, in reality, because we’ve become so great at building walls, we choose to keep it hidden or buried, often isolating ourselves from any help out of fear of becoming being potentially judged.

Luckily, because of the sheer size of Social Media, this stigma is becoming more acceptable to share, and with there being a high probability that someone else been down that dark road with documentation of their struggles and how they overcame it, this helps others to discover the opportunity to change an emotional path. Discovering and being able to relate to someone else who has gone through what you are currently experiencing, and realizing they conquered it, provides a sense of hope.

And while sharing your situation on Social Media may leave you feeling vulnerable. However, if not all your friends are depressed or completely unsupportive, then quickly you will find this creates a ripple of support, friendship and education. Assuring you, the author, a renewed sense of self worth.

So find a good community to join and continue to Zan one another.

If you find this post helpful, click like on our Zan page, feel free to share our articles, and engage with us.

Sources: Huffington Post, JoyceMeyer, lifeisthefight.

08/13/2016

Like us, Share us, Join our Grassroots Movement!

What is Zan?

Zan is derived from the Chinese word “赞”, which means “To Support”. Other translations of the word include “To Commend” and “To Praise”.

If we ever needed to explain the concept of which our platform is intended for, this very word would define it. We are a Social networking platform built around supporting each other, and our local businesses. It is only up to our imagination what is possible with a community willing to buy into this concept.

And what better community than ours to conceive this? From overcoming Black Friday in Edmonton, to the response of the Alberta Floods in High River, Calgary and the Siksika First Nations and the most recent collective unity shown while in a recession to support the Fort McMurray wildfire.

Our entire startup team consists of former and current Edmonton residents.

Zan us and our grassroots movement by hitting that like button and stay up to date with our latest development, articles and news.

08/07/2016

Zen Lounge use to be a hotspot for the local Edmontonians anime fans to gather around, we had 3 large display cases full of anime figurines to prove it.

So naturally as an anime fan myself (Peter), here's some advice from me as Pokemon Go player for anyone here who currently owns businesses onto how to they capitalize on this latest craze.

https://www.facebook.com/ZanInitiative/photos/a.1755828051369812.1073741828.1755010621451555/1756739854611965/?type=3&theater

How businesses can cash in on the Pokemon Go Craze!

Being in business means you’re regularly looking for ways to attract new customers and implementing promotions that coincide with special occasions and latest trends. That latest craze is Pokemon Go.

We’re going to assume you know what Pokemon Go is, so to make this short here are some things you can do to capitalize on this craze.

1) Promote your PokeStop:

Pokemon Stops are key to this form of promotion, so if you have one, promote it on your page. Use social media or signage to engage users to come to your spot and take advantage of the PokeStop, set up times where your business will sponsor lures on your PokeStop.

If you don’t have one, rumours are Niantic; the company that created Pokemon Go is looking to open sponsorship PokeStops soon, which is a way for them to monetize their game further. They have done this with their previous game, Ingress.

2) Free Wifi and Charging Stations

Pokemon Go uses up a lot of data as well as consumes a lot of battery life from devices. So along with sponsored lure module activations, offer and promote free wifi and charging stations.

3) Rare Pokemon

Do you or do you know anyone who has managed to sn**ch a rare
Pokemon at your business?

If so, post that image on Social Media with AR mode on to authenticate your location with that sought after Charizard or Dragonite. Your spot could be a nest for where these Pokemon spawn, so it will naturally attract a lot of attention.

Refer to this image for classification of rare Pokemon:
http://images.eurogamer.net/2015/articles/1/8/4/6/8/3/5/146980686935.jpg/EG11/resize/600x-1/quality/80/format/jpg

4) Pokemon Specials

Be part of the craze, whip up a new Pokemon related dish or drink, brainstorm on merchandise ideas, décor or dress up to stand out from your competitors.

Offer incentives to customers with deals and discounts if they’re willing to help promote your Pokemon inspired business with images through Social Media to help you gain exposure.

With about a week or so to go before Niantic updates Pokemon Go to allow for player trading, you may want to include this app into your marketing strategy sooner rather than later. With over 75 million downloads worldwide, chances are this game is going to be around for a while.

08/05/2016

Zen Lounge is closed, the doors to one opportunity has led myself (Peter) to seek another socially rewarding startup, Zan.

Zan is a social media networking platform that aims to help stimulate and give local businesses an advantageous playing field in efforts to help combat the downturn the local economy is surviving though.

Support this initiative and together we can make a difference in our local economy.

https://www.facebook.com/ZanInitiative/

Stories worth sharing

06/03/2016

Zen Lounge is now officially closed for now and the future.

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us throughout the years and shared their memories with us through our time together.

We cherish every minute throughout our past 8 years, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Thank You.

05/13/2016

Half price Sake and Alcoholic Bubble Tea tonight at Zen Lounge, with DJ open decks!

Also for those who haven't done it yet, still going on for the Zebra Quilting Club of Alberta.

04/25/2016

at Zen Lounge begins this Wednesday and extends into Thursdays during regular operating hours.

The Challenge, which is set at $9.99 will test your taste buds against this fiery branded noodle from Korea.

To complete this challenge, you must be able to finish the entire contents of your bowl within 10 minutes.

If you are having trouble with the challenge, there is a relief bundle available (Glass of Milk and Lime) for $4.99 (Mostly going to Charity).

Those who would like to try to noodles without the full extent of the spice may request to limit the amount of spice upon ordering the challenge.

Portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Zebra quilting club of alberta, a non-profit organization here in Edmonton that make quilts for sexually and physically abused children.