“In Web3, the creator gets a new role and can monetize their content in the long term. And new platforms are emerging that are built in a distributed manner so that users can participate directly,” says Web3 expert Peter Grosskopf in the Web3 study: “What’s in store for the media industry?” by XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria. The experts agree that a completely new era is dawning with Web3 for creators.
Web3 – decentralized and closer to the user
Web3 can be identified as a possible counter-proposal to the current stage of the Internet: It is intended to break up existing hierarchical structures and install decentralized mechanisms at neuralgic points that cannot be controlled by individual companies or individuals. Instead, infrastructures should be created that, in principle, anyone can provide, use, help shape and expand – and whose existence does not depend on or can be controlled by individual key authorities.
An infrastructure without middlemen means the chance for creators to establish a much more direct relationship with readers, viewers and listeners. This allows media companies and individual media professionals to use alternative or even their own channels and services to reach their target groups without losing support and revenue structures. The resulting quasi-friendly relationship is an elementary part of the creator economy.
What Web3 has in store for the Creator Economy
The creator economy stands for the commercialization of services that influencers and co. offer their audience. Creators earn money via platforms like TikTok, Instagram or YouTube and act as a kind of one-man media company: They create, distribute and monetize content.
The decentralization of Web3 and the new infrastructures emerging there offer the Creator Economy new ways of distribution and monetization. For example, donations and start-up financing without traditional intermediaries such as credit card companies, payment service providers or banks are conceivable. A connection to established, group-controlled platforms such as YouTube, Twitch or Instagram is no longer without alternative.
The power of communities
The open structure of Web3 also promotes the formation of communities and interest groups. They can form independently of the usual platforms and in the next step form their own economies, which in turn are of interest to creators.
Decentralized platforms such as Discord and Slack have been used by communities in various media industries, such as games, for years. There, communities gather around specific topics or around creators. Incentives for members via crypto tokens or NFTs inspire the expansion of these economies and make the respective creators and their content more well-known and relevant.
What does this mean for traditional media?
At the same time, the possibilities of Web3 mean that Web2 and its actors are becoming less important. Platforms like Facebook are being replaced by decentralized, self-organized platforms and are losing traction over the long term. Vendors who once held the authority to publish content are losing authority. This affects both the web publications of magazines and platforms for video and audio content.
This poses an enormous challenge for many established media companies: They have to adapt their often stiff organizational structures to the agile new structures of Web3.
Collaborations matter
Web3 will remain and will develop and establish itself over the next few years. Media companies have two options: risk losing their importance or dare to take their first steps on the Web3. If your own company structures do not have the necessary agility and the team does not yet have any know-how, there are alternatives. For example, draw on the expertise of external experts who have to take shorter decision-making paths.
The Web3 is a collaborative construct, so a lack of knowledge or manpower is no reason not to try to get started. Instead, you can put the responsibility in experienced hands, break new ground together and explore the opportunities of Web3.
You can get more insights in the complete study by XPLR: MEDIA in Bavaria, which you can download here for free.
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Source: https://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2023/04/18/web3-studie-xplr-media-in-bavaria/
