Redefining Social Media: How far are we from Web3?

Original title: "Redefining Social Media: How Far Are We From Web3?" "

Original source: NFTGo

Key Takeaway

Web2 Social media has a monopoly on traffic, and Web3 brings some variables that allow users to go ahead of product development. At the same time, social media giants are entering the NFT field and trying to integrate with their own business scenarios.

NFT and social media have a "symbiotic" relationship, and NFT can also be used as an expansion weapon for social media.

In the process of Web2→Web3, information distribution and organizational structure will change, and the social product functions of Web3 will be upgraded based on this: for example: SBT-based personal Social base station, SocialFi customization.

Web3 brings a decentralized information distribution model and immersive interactive experience, and people will rethink the nature of social interaction.

1. Web3, the new outlet of social media

Web2 Social media occupies a dominant position in data traffic. From Facebook, YouTube to Twitter, TikTok, different information flow distribution models have given birth to new industries, commerce, and occupations, triggering consumption upgrades again and again, and at the same time, huge amounts of money flow to social media giant.

Social media user data (source: datareportal)

So far, the main competitiveness of social media has changed from "product optimization" to "content is king". The model has gradually solidified into "information flow advertisements", which are products of the era that use users' attention and behavior data as bargaining chips to monetize. However, this model also inspires some contradictions, how to balance the commercial use of users, data security and attention? For creators, in the era when content is king, they have to live parasitic on the platform-this is somewhat unreasonable.

The development of blockchain and NFT has brought some more interesting concepts: such as SocialFi, NFT, DAO, etc., relying on data autonomy and decentralization The Crypto industry has gradually cultivated a new user awareness, which is a Web3 user culture characterized by information disclosure, cultural freedom, and community autonomy.

For these traditional social media, they also understand that Web3 is the next outlet, and traditional social media giants cannot easily speed up due to "the boat is too big", " In the face of problems such as "supervision", we can only try to advance gradually, and stop after a little taste.

This time, we put Web3 users ahead of the product.

Let's take a look, what attempts have Web2 companies made?

2. The fight of the big companies

Explore Social Media in the NFT field

2.1 Twitter

I have to say that most of the current information about NFT is still based on Twitter. Since Jack Dorsey, Twitter intends to incorporate Crypto into the main business sector in the future. Therefore, last year, he established a professional team for NFT to conduct business exploration. Twitter has also become the first social media to allow users to display their NFTs in the form of profile pictures and support multiple encrypted wallets.

It is worth mentioning that Twitter also tried to issue its own NFT last year, but failed for various reasons. According to relevant personnel, Twitter will strengthen the influence of the NFT community in the next step.

2.2 Meta

After Facebook changed its name to Meta, the goal is to create the world's largest social media meta The universe, its movements are also very fast. Following Twitter, Meta announced that it will build its own NFT ecosystem, launching the ability to display NFT avatars on its flagship product Facebook and Instagram accounts. In addition, Meta hopes to simplify the cumbersomeness of buying and selling digital assets, and use its payment infrastructure to build a trading market that includes NFT.

2.3 Instagram

Instagram has recently launched the function of NFT display, including connecting digital wallets , NFT work identification, and NFT holder certification functions. Zuckerberg also said that in the next few months, Instagram will allow users to bring their own NFTs to social platforms, and Instagram will further explore the possibility of minting NFTs. It can be seen that its main audience is creators and collectors.

2.4 TikTok

TikTok cooperated with ImmutableX as early as last year to launch TikTok Top Moments , this series of NFTs is aimed at influential creators and their popular videos, making and distributing their wonderful moments as NFTs, and the sales revenue will flow to content producers and NFT artists.

In addition, we have cooperated with the music NFT platform Audius to develop a new function of TikTok Sounds, which allows Audius users to export the music NFT they make to TikTok. Officials expressed the hope that in the future TikTok can become a social platform that rewards creators in innovative ways.

2.5 YouTube

As the world's largest video website, YouTube has been researching NFT and creation Colin Fitzpatrick, CEO of Animal Concerts, described Youtube’s possible NFT integration as “a great way for creators to monetize their channels without relying on advertising revenue,” and CEO Susan Wojcicki also said that “it will leverage Technologies like NFTs continue to enhance and elevate the experience for creators and fans on YouTube."

2.6 Reddit

The product function of NFT avatar was also launched after Twitter, last year Reddit is also launching its own NFT collectibles. In addition, according to a previous Reddit recruitment announcement, it is speculated that Reddit is intending to build its own NFT market. It can be seen that Reddit is a relatively active social media for the Web3 industry.

Another interesting point is that according to Reddit's internal data for 2021/2022, 85% of Reddit users are more familiar with NFT than ordinary Internet users. The result far exceeds the 39% of Twitter users and 17% of Instagram users.

The above social media giants have all made some moves. The commonality is that starting from the main functions of their own platforms, they try to integrate NFT with their own social media business. For example, Twitter focuses on social networking and discussion of opinions, so it cuts in from the NFT avatar display function, Instagram leans on status sharing and pictures, so it cuts in from the display of NFT works, and Tik Tok and YouTube, platforms with incentive functions, have been carrying out NFT and creators. economical combination.

3. The relationship between NFT and social media

3.1 Symbiosis

Current methods of acquiring users through social media are still prevalent in Web3: community fission, KOL cooperation, and media promotion. The simple understanding of group fission is that old users take the initiative to attract new users and give point subsidies. Another example is KOL cooperation, cooperation with some video bloggers and social network celebrities for soft and wide recommendations.

Speaking of which, do you feel that part of the promotion of NFT is very similar to the above gameplay? Today's NFT project parties still build value on social media, that is, most project parties have to post content on Twitter and discord to explain to people what they have done and what they are going to do. This creates a rather strange point: the value of Web3NFT is presented on Web2 social media, which leads to the most critical issue-the value promotion of NFT cannot be separated from social media. To exaggerate, once Twitter does not recognize its formality , the value of the NFT project party will be damaged.

Of course there will be alternatives. Social media should take advantage of this to more actively bind their value to Web3, by attracting more NFT Project parties, and then realize the expansion of the territory in the Web3 field.

So how to bind your own value with Web3 to achieve expansion?

3.2 Expansion

Although NFT and social media have a symbiotic relationship, the relationship between social media It has always been a state of competition, and whoever can use NFT to form lethality and seize the high ground will become the next super giant.

The current stage can be called the start-up stage, because although some of the above-mentioned social media giants are doing tentative combinations, they are still based on their own experiments. Lord, it has not yet become lethal to competitors. In the subsequent expansion stage, social media platforms are very likely to issue their own NFT to seize users. This will be the best way to accurately identify their own user groups and the best way to retain users. Users will also hold NFT Enjoy the services of social media.

The NFT used as an expansion weapon is more lethal, and we can explore several possible directions:

(1) From social to cultural output

NFT holders pass discourse consensus Form a community organization with identity, and speak out on social media to safeguard the interests of the community. From a sociological point of view, human beings gather, communicate, and finally generate group consciousness. This is the birth of "culture" in a narrow sense. Therefore, the community culture generated by gathering will become a powerful cultural competitiveness of social media, and NFT is the totem of communication, the community culture of social media can be spread in the form of "transactions", and social media will also form a positive cycle of growth own user groups.

Community culture acquires users through NFT

(2) Enhancing the ecology through PASS

What traditional social media has been doing is to continuously acquire C-end users in various ways, and use this as a bargaining chip to negotiate advertising cooperation with B-end companies. At present, a feasible way is to issue social media's own NFT attracts project parties and community groups to settle in through the PASS gameplay. The advantage of this is that it can enable social media to quickly build their own NFT ecosystem in the Web3 field, not only to acquire users of other projects, but also to expand the rights and interests of their own users , improve user retention.

Social Media NFT network

(3) Seize content high ground (NFT copyright)

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The IP of high-quality content has always been the "battlefield" of Web2. In Web3, NFT of high-quality creators and NFT of high-quality communities will become the magic weapon for winning traffic. Whoever seizes it first will form the first Therefore, many social media platforms have been cultivating the soil for content production, that is, building NFT creation platforms and NFT markets. For community groups, they bundle interests through cooperation, such as interacting with some high-quality communities through NFT. Expand your own ecology, and at the same time get the possibility of high-quality NFT future content development, and further seize the user group through content.

4. Web3 Social Media Concept

4.1 Evolution of Information Distribution Mode

One of the bottom-level differences between Web2 and Web3 social media lies in the difference in information distribution modes. In Web2, it is the most personalized recommendation under the intelligent recommendation algorithm that we are very familiar with. **The content is generated through the PGC and UGC models, and then the centralized social media platform makes personalized recommendations based on user tags.

In Web3, information dissemination is more inclined to social recommendation, following the law of six-dimensional space, people will become the central node of information distribution, creators have their own As the node's DAO, distribute content and NFT to fans, and in this process, Token rewards will be carried out through smart contracts.

Of course, there will be an intermediate state in the process of Web2→Web3, which is the stage we are going through now, and we will call it Web2.5 for the time being. It is an integration stage composed of social media, DAO, Web2 users, and Web3 users. The characteristic of this stage is that the role of the platform will be gradually weakened, and it will be replaced by DAO with content culture. The platform wins over creators through NFT With users, creators distribute content by holding NFT issued by the platform, and interact with fans. In the process, Token incentive design and DAO governance will be gradually introduced. Everyone can create value, distribute value, and quantify value.

The diagram below shows different information distribution patterns over time.

Social content distribution form evolution diagram

4.2 Comparison of social media features

Comparison of Web2 and Web3 social media features

In Web3 social networking, people will no longer rely on social platforms, but everyone is the center of content distribution, with a unified personal account as the mainstay, with complete freedom of personal data, When socializing with others, the interaction behavior is saved and recorded in its own ecology. We have also seen that some agreements such as Lens Protocol are trying to build social platforms based on accounts.

Lens Protocol Concept map

In addition to the changes in the protocol layer, it is in the application layer. At present, some SocialFi projects, such as: Monaco, BitClout, and oneof, can verify wallets, hold NFTs to register accounts, and give Token rewards on the website interaction, completing some basic functions of SocialFi. But there are still isolated islands of information among them, and the reward methods are also different. Perhaps, people can also build their own social platforms through SocialFi integration. Since everyone's social mode is different, users can choose a customized SocialFi solution according to their own data.

4.3 About content distribution rights

Many people think that platforms have content distribution rights and user data It’s not necessarily a bad thing, because without a platform, our efficiency in screening information will be greatly reduced, and it will be difficult for people to discover interesting content on their own. This matter has always been unresolved for users, because human beings are a contradictory body : Not only do you want to retain the largest range of free choices, but you also want to get convenient information directly from others.

After decentralization is achieved through NFT and DAO, people have to restore social attributes. For example, some DAOs based on Discord now have many meetings every day and activities. This actually restores people’s social scenes to a greater extent than social media. People need to enter the circle to communicate to obtain information, and to explore what is good content and interesting people by themselves, rather than official commercial traffic recommendations.

Bankless DAO Conference Calendar

Web3 social experience

In addition to the mechanism design, the current SocialFi and DAO projects have major problems in the cumbersome use process and crude interaction forms. In this regard, we have also seen some traditional social media companies enter Web3 from improving the social media interaction experience, such as Meta is developing an interactive 3D experience. Compared with the social experience of text, audio, and video, the development of immersive social experience will also be the main battlefield of Web3 social media.

Meta's VR application Horizon Worlds

In addition, the SocialFi concept of Web3 social media currently involves different tracks such as Metaverse, Game, and creator economy. Competitors are not only other social media, but also projects deployed in Metaverse such as The Sandbox, On the otherside, this will lead to the binding of Web3 social media interactive experience with Metaverse.

Conclusion

Today's SocialFi, DAO, and NFT provide imagination space for usage scenarios, which are opportunities for some social media dedicated to Web3, while traditional social media enters the low-speed growth period of the stock market, and is subject to Web2 business Implications can only be wait-and-see and test the water, rather than catching the wind, it is better to prepare for self-help, because with the launch of more experimental Web3 social products and the iteration of blockchain technology, they will suffer greater challenges.

The self-rescue method is to bind interests with Web3 through NFT, obtain Web3 user groups, and prevent yourself from being eliminated in the changing times. At the same time, in the war with competitors, Using NFT as a weapon will pose a threat, whether it is to issue your own NFT, use PASS to expand partners, or actively hold high-quality NFT, open up new markets, and form a first-mover advantage in Web3, so as to form a dimensionality reduction blow to competitors effect.

The content distribution model and interactive experience will change in the future. When NFT and DAO fully function and integrate into the SocialFi system, when the Metaverse scene gradually When it takes shape, when people rethink and define the word "social media", "social media" has entered the Web3 era, and the word "social media" will also become a thing of the past.

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