Luffa Appoints Esra Ozturk as Head of Product to Advance Fan Loyalty Infrastructure

Luffa, a decentralized messaging platform built for the fan economy, has appointed Esra Ozturk as its new Head of Product to lead the company's transition from secure messaging to comprehensive fan loyalty technology. Ozturk brings extensive experience from major technology companies including Meta, Uber, Zillow, and Instacart, where she built global consumer products across social, marketplace, and commerce platforms.

At Meta, Ozturk played a key role in taking Instagram Reels from early experiments to global launch, demonstrating her ability to scale consumer products to massive audiences. Her work at Uber focused on safety and quality initiatives that strengthened marketplace integrity, improving driver earnings while reducing cancellations and building trust across the platform. She later developed tools at Zillow that helped agents and loan officers convert more buyers into funded loans, and led machine learning initiatives at Instacart to detect fraud and reduce unnecessary refunds. Her product career began during college when she contributed to Snapchat's story search feature, which became the foundation for Snap Maps.

Luffa is designed with end-to-end encryption and creator-first privacy, establishing what the company describes as a universal loyalty infrastructure that will connect creators, brands, and fans across digital and real-world experiences. The platform starts with direct messaging at launch to create trusted, high-frequency interactions that form the basis for long-term loyalty. Luffa's upcoming loyalty features, currently in beta testing, will expand this foundation into a connected rewards ecosystem for creators and fans.

The next generation of loyalty won't be owned by any single platform, according to Ozturk. Today, loyalty spans creators, brands, live experiences, and digital communities, but it remains fragmented. At Luffa, we're starting with secure, decentralized messaging as the backbone, and building toward a portable identity and reward layer that travels wherever fans go, Ozturk explained. We're laying the infrastructure that turns engagement into value for creators, brands, and their communities alike.

Yu Xiong, founding advisor of Luffa, emphasized that Ozturk's track record of building products people love at global scale, and navigating the complexity of multi-stakeholder platforms, is exactly what we envisioned for this next stage of Luffa's growth. As we expand from encrypted messaging into loyalty and rewards, her leadership will help evolve Luffa into the connective infrastructure linking creators, brands, and fans.

Luffa recently demonstrated its platform capabilities at CreatorHub Madrid in September 2025, an event that united over 50 global creators and local influencers reaching more than five billion monthly impressions. In partnership with UMusic Hotel Madrid, the experience brought together industry leaders, fans, and artists including Grammy Award-winning artist Joaquina, AI digital artist Tata, and influencers McKenzi Brooke and Adley Kinsman for a three-day exploration of how technology and culture intersect. The activation marked one of the first public demonstrations of Luffa's decentralized messaging layer, giving creators a secure channel to connect and collaborate while previewing the company's upcoming loyalty features.

Under Ozturk's leadership, Luffa's product roadmap includes scaling its secure messaging infrastructure, introducing its loyalty and rewards layer, and expanding partnerships across entertainment, hospitality, and live events. This strategic direction positions Luffa to address the growing need for secure, decentralized platforms in the fan economy, where privacy concerns and fragmented loyalty systems have created challenges for creators seeking to build sustainable relationships with their audiences.

The appointment signals Luffa's commitment to building robust infrastructure for the evolving fan economy, where secure communication and portable loyalty systems could redefine how creators and brands engage with their communities. As digital platforms face increasing scrutiny around data privacy and platform control, Luffa's decentralized approach with end-to-end encryption offers an alternative model that prioritizes user security while enabling new forms of value exchange between creators and their fans.