The art of a good unicorn | Web 3.0 and the golden age of the creator economy
The future of the WWW is making its grand entrance: Web 3.0. It’s an internet that’s more intelligent and interactive. It’s a way to create an expansive experience which also focuses on discovery engines. And yes, it’s still evolving
The old adage goes: “Content is king”. It was popularised in an essay written by William Gates of Microsoft. And there’s no time like the present to showcase how powerful content can be as an asset and a force of nature. Unfortunately, content creators may not have an idea of how compelling and impactful their work can be, especially if they’re not able to reap all its benefits.
The advent of this new WWW tilts the scales in favour of content creators. Ownership would be granted to those who create something. These creators would no longer be just a product, they would be the economy itself. (Shutterstock)
Gates had written, “The Internet allows information to be distributed worldwide at basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are remarkable and many companies are laying plans to create content for the Internet… For the Internet to thrive, content providers must be paid for their work. The long-term prospects are good, but I expect a lot of disappointment in the short term as content companies struggle to make money through advertising or subscriptions. It isn’t working yet and it may not for some time… Those who succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences and products: a marketplace of content.”
In many ways, that was quite prescient. In 2022, if you have a laptop or a mobile, your content is available on the World Wide Web. The Internet has done wonders in that manner: Providing swathes of information for anyone to create what their heart desires and for other people who have specific ideas and thoughts to find such information.
The internet continues to evolve at a rapid pace. In the beginning, the World Wide Web had basic web pages with text and images, which enabled brands and companies to have a digital presence. However, it was said to not be very inclusive: it was difficult to create individual content and specific phrases had to be inputted for searching the Web. After that came Web 2.0, also known as the ‘social web’, which emphasized web design, user-generated content, web design and social interaction to provide internet consumers with a more democratic web experience, focused on search engines. But, now, even the social web seems to be a thing of the past.
It’s fair to say that Web 2.0 disrupted the business model of media. It was called the “platform economy”, introducing blogs, videos, podcasts and more. Influencers and content creators would use Big Tech to connect with their audience. This provides easy access for consumers but these social media platforms, being mediators, keep a big chunk of the revenue. The money was diverted to the tech behemoths and platforms that aggregate and publish the content. Web 2.0 seemed to be lacking in the manner of democratization of resources from content. A lack of native monetization methods meant that the WWW was made for juggernauts, being advertising-based and closed. Content would be stored on central servers and social media goliaths would have complete control over them, with creators relinquishing their ownership. At the drop of a hat, content could be arbitrarily blocked or censored or end up at the back of the line, when it comes to search results or demonetized, all at the behest of algorithms.
So, there has been a lot of money generated from the content on the Internet, but has it really gone to content creators? Nope. For content creators to earn substantial income from what they write or be subject to tangible benefits is still something unfulfilled. This columnist has previously written about the growing phenomenon of the creator economy and how it benefits these creators. But can it be powered by the current iteration of the World Wide Web: Web 2.0? Seemingly, not. What can be done about this power disparity?
Luckily, the future of the WWW is making its grand entrance: Web 3.0.
It’s an internet that’s more intelligent and interactive. It’s a way to create an interconnected and expansive experience which also focuses on discovery engines. And yes, it’s still evolving and people are still attempting to create a universally accepted definition, but one can confidently say Web 3.0 would focus on decentralized applications and extensively use blockchain-based tech, AI and machine learning. Apps and websites would be able to handle data in a human-esque fashion. As a user or business owner, Web 3.0 would provide more understanding and context for every web page. The new wave will allow for more purposeful data collection, no matter what.
So, what would this mean for the creator economy? Information and content could be shared without worries of censorship. Here is where decentralization comes into play. Gone will be the days when content creators have to rely on Big Tech for aggregating content. Content could be created in such a manner that those who create it would get paid for it. Gone will be the days when advertising revenue models were predominant. With Web 3.0, what would be important is user engagement. With Web 2.0, a 2-minute video could go as a reel on Instagram but would not be qualified for YouTube Shorts, where it would have more room to be discovered. With Web 3.0, content can be platform-agnostic instead of platform-specific.
The advent of this new WWW tilts the scales in favour of content creators. Ownership would be granted to those who create something. These creators would no longer be just a product, they would be the economy itself. Content would no longer be held hostage in some central server. It would be decentralized. Content moderation, if any, wouldn’t be done by a single entity. It would be facilitated through blockchain consensus in the form of voting rights.
So, how else can content creators be better off with Web 3.0? What’s in it for them besides the decentralized nature of this WWW?
Social tokens are a big part of the Web 3.0 creator economy. They’d enable creators to have complete control over the relationship they want to have with their fans and audience. The way fans see creators would also change: the perspective would transition from helping the artist by supporting them to making an investment in them. They’d be instrumental to the success of content creators and therefore the token’s success and finally, the returns on the investment would be profitable for those hodling (Holding On For Dear Life) the token. If Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan were to distribute ‘SRKTokens’, then Gaurav, a fan, who had watched all his movies and attended all his shows, would have enough tokens to get a one-on-one call with him and even get some additional merchandise. These social tokens would help Shahrukh Khan identify his top fans and accordingly reward them. Furthermore, based on these tokens, he’d even understand how to better build his army of fans, augment the connection he has with them and even understand what needs to be done to sharpen future content.
It’s quite easy to steal on the Internet. Web 2.0 wasn’t meant for content ownership. Here is where a smart contract comes in. It’s an immutable piece of software code that gets triggered automatically when mutual terms are agreed upon. Smart contracts would tell everybody who owns what content. Smart contracts would provide content authentication and shoo away piracy with Blockchain verifying and tracking sources. There are even concerns about not getting paid on time. Blockchain curbs delayed payments because any creator using the technology can get paid immediately when a user downloads their work and it may even be so that if the creator doesn’t get paid, the user would not be able to access their file.
You also have NFTs, which is a dominant buzzword of 2022. These non-fungible tokens turn a creator’s content into a portable digital asset that can be published on the Internet. With NFTs, an artist or a creator would always get credit and set up a royalty of up to 10% for every transaction hence. There’s an economic concept of scarcity value, where the more scarce a product is, the more valuable it may be. NFTs provide a digital scarcity for content creators that gives them their power back. Verifiable on-chain records allow creators to control who gets their content and enable them to be rewarded on a more granular level, rather than through some arbitrary manner such as likes, shares, views and comments. It also cuts out the issue of a middleperson in the form of a dealer, who may make more than the artist does for being an intermediary.
Make way for the chance for creators to truly monetize their creativity. You could even have someone wearing an NFT on their T-shirt and someone else wearing AR/VR glasses being privileged enough to enjoy them. The opportunities are endless. The release of content captors may unleash creative hurricanes. Web 3.0 can give us the golden age of content creation, where creativity is given the respect it so deserves, creators can be given their due credit and compensation and the audience can receive rightful engagement. This blockchain-enabled economy is a win-win for all stakeholders. Even society is rewarded with more innovation with people being incentivized to create quality content.
Even investors seem to be confident about the foundational tech of Web 3.0 and the innovative solutions it can generate. According to one report, funding across blockchain and cryptocurrency was more than $30 billion in 2021. Furthermore, globally, about 80% of companies are preparing for blockchain’s eventual adoption.
And so, Web 3.0 has a lot to add to the creator economy. It puts these creative entrepreneurs in the driver’s seat, allows them to possess even more individuality and gives them a financial upside commensurate with their contributions. The intersection of the creator economy and Web 3.0 may still be in its larval stages, but its potential is unbridled and will unlock a truly powerful Golden Age for these creative entrepreneurs.
Why subscribe to the future when you can also invest in it?
Shrija Agrawal is a business journalist who has covered startups and private capital markets before it was considered cool in India
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