Hassan Maishera
Web3 is a term that refers to the third generation of the World Wide Web, which is focused on providing users with more control and ownership over their online experiences. It aims to do this by incorporating blockchain, decentralized networks, and smart contracts.
Blockchain proponents claim that Web3 puts the consumer at the center by rewarding their time, efforts, and loyalty. While it still needs to be made clear how this will play out in practice, emerging Web3 projects like Snapmuse.io are most certainly spearheading the efforts to create a balance between the creator economy and the consumer economy.
For instance, Snapmuse.io has devised a solution wherein creators and consumers interlink through actual value. The platform focuses on the consumer economy as much as it supports the creator economy by enabling content creators to embed a share of their ad revenue in NFTs.
Since each NFT is embedded with a portion of the creator’s ad revenue, it implies that consumers who buy these NFTs are also able to claim rewards based on the channel’s performance.
In Snapmuse.io’s context, the creator’s success is amplified by the NFT owners. Accordingly, NFT owners become more than just fans. They become partners where each partner shares a common goal: helping the creator’s channel reach more engagement and growing the community.
Consumer Exploitation Is Rampant in Web2
While Web2 has its fair share of shortcomings, one can’t deny that most Web2 platforms tend to look out for creators. In fact, most prominent social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, to name a few, even have dedicated creator monetization programs. Unfortunately, the Web2 ecosystem doesn’t have any similar concepts for the average consumer.
Web3 drastically changes the stakes. By decentralizing the ownership and operation of platforms, the balance of power automatically shifts in favor of all stakeholders of a product and service, opening up both sides, both consumers and creators, to newfound opportunities.
It’s a fact that the Web2 ecosystem’s over-dependence on centralized organizations has enabled monopoly and oligarchy while at the same time invading the elementary rights of users. Besides putting user data at risk of being compromised, it also creates a situation whereby consumers are left out of the stakeholder conversation, despite their valuable contribution to these platforms.
Let’s consider the creator monetization model of YouTube as an example to better understand consumers' plight. Most of us are already aware of how content monetization works: a creator becomes eligible for monetization on YouTube once they achieve 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time. Other content-sharing platforms like TikTok, Reels, and dozens more employ similar models.
In this context, it is important to realize how content creators achieve these numbers. Simple: every creator has their fanbase. These fans are the main reason content creators are able to monetize their content. Without fans and communities, the entire concept of the “creator economy” won’t even yield results. The more fans a creator has, the higher their watch time. The higher their watch time, the more ad revenue they earn. It’s a cycle where consumers are the main catalyst, yet the consumers are the ones who are totally overlooked.
As you can see, the platform (YouTube) and the content creators on the platform both rely on consumers to generate revenue. But what do the consumers receive in return?
Consumers’ personal data is harvested and commercialized, and corporations generate substantial returns without letting consumers control what’s rightfully theirs. These centralized platforms don’t share their revenue with consumers even if they make money using consumer data.
Unfortunately, users who spend countless hours on these platforms, supporting their favorite creators, and staying loyal to the communities and platforms despite the ups and downs, aren’t a part of the value proposition. The consumer doesn’t gain anything in the broken Web2 one-sided approach that works only in favor of the platforms, not the consumers.
Consumers Share The Spotlight In Web3
Web3 intends to break the cycle whereby users and their data are the product by introducing novel approaches that aren’t just creator-centric. It effectively provides content consumers with incentives that reward their time and loyalty. Moreover, the latest developments in the Web3 realm go beyond providing data ownership to consumers.
For instance, Snapmuse.io’s NFT-driven model creates a distinct value proposition for consumers and creators alike. Instead of the creator-fan model, where the creator benefits from their fans, Snapmuse.io’s model adds another dimension to YouTube. The rebalancing of benefits enables Snapmuse.io to deliver yield-bearing opportunities for the entire community.
It is also important to understand that, unlike other NFT-focused projects where the only way for consumers to generate value (revenue) is by reselling the NFTs at a higher price, which seems more of a high-risk gamble from a consumer’s perspective. In contrast, Snapmuse.io’s approach drives its value from community and utility.
Or take the example of Brave browser, which provides a similar user experience to Google Chrome. Yet, unlike its centralized counterpart, Brave is a Web3 browser that rewards users for using its platform. It also grants users full control over data privacy, control, and sharing. From a consumer perspective, this is a win-win approach because not only are they rewarded for using the browser, but also exert greater control over valuable personal data that no centralized organization can use commercially.
Another similar consumer-centric use case is that of the Web3 publishing platform Publish0x. While Web2 publishing platforms, be it Medium, Quora, or any other platform, are more focused on helping content creators unlock monetization opportunities, Publish0x revises this model by rewarding content consumers. Users can earn rewards by using the platform - reading publications, sharing, commenting, etc. They also have full control over how and what they want to tip their favorite publishers.
In essence, Web3 has the necessary tech stack in place to create a more inclusive and rewarding ecosystem for everyone. Platforms like Snapmuse.io, Publish0x, and Brave have started scratching the surface, leading the way for other ecosystem developers to experiment with novel approaches to place consumers where they belong: at the center of everything.
