User Owned Social Networks:  Creators’ Unrealistic Fantasy, or Inevitable Evolution?

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

Is the post-pandemic inflation hitting your wallet?  Does it seem like it’s getting harder and harder to pay your basic expenses?  If so, here are some facts that may cheer you up.  Despite higher inflation and companies saying that “times are tough”, corporate profits are at 70-year record highs.  Doesn’t help you personally?  Maybe an 18% raise will help!  Oh, but only if you are a CEO; that’s what they made in 2021, making their salary 324 times that of the average worker.  I guess if you aren’t an executive that might actually be bad news.  Are you a content creator?  If so you’ll be happy to know that social media platforms are seeing new records too, like TikTok tripling revenue to $12 Billion.  Oh, you didn’t see your creator revenue triple?  Maybe these facts weren’t so cheerful after all.

Rising Tension

How is it that we can see so much positive news at the corporate level, and yet see countless news stories about a hurting economy, inflation outpacing wage increases, and people struggling to keep up?  Perhaps because there is a strong separation between the corporate level and your “average” person. This can be frustrating, and nowhere as much as creator-based platforms. There is something especially disheartening about seeing an artist pour out their creative talents, work hard to present them to others, and see a platform take the vast majority of the money earned.  Yes, the platform helps artists to find an audience, but who created the content worth watching?  The artist.

If you are feeling this tension, you aren’t alone. In the creator-driven industry, creators have few avenues to make a living wage.  Social media platforms held the promise of finding artists a market.  But the percentages have been skewing the wrong way in terms of who is earning the revenue, and creators either have to get a “normal” job (or more likely, a second or third job), which leaves less time and energy available for the creative process.  For those who want to pursue their passion, they need to find a new solution.

Ideally, this solution should have a few key elements.  

• First, it should offer percentages that facilitate a living wage for many creators, not just the top 1-2%.  
• Second, it should provide artists with the ability to express themselves; this means no censorship, but it also means that creators should not be “slaves to the algorithm”.
• Third, the creators should have a say in the future of the platform, since they are a key part of it.

Yes, this is certainly a tall order compared to the social media platforms of today.  But why shouldn’t it be possible?  If creators had a stake in the company and collectively owned the platform, this type of “artist utopia” could become a reality.

How likely is this to happen?  Well, there’s good news and bad news.  The bad news is that under the current social media platform model, this is not going to happen.  Not unless a group of creators can, for example, raise the $44 billion it would take to buy Twitter.  The good news?  The evolution of Web3 platforms are making platforms—even social media platforms—community owned and driven. 

Welcome to the Evolution

So how is it that the Web3 architecture is what could enable creator-owned social media?  There are a few key drivers:

• Web3 allows the creation of native tokens, which act as both a platform currency and a way to stake ownership.  Staking is similar to being a shareholder, which makes community ownership very efficient.  
• This token-as-currency helps reduce costs for transactions and cross-border fees, allowing creators to keep more of what they own.
• The Web3’s smart contract aspect allows a platform to be created with very clear mechanics in place, so creators know how they can participate and how they can earn revenue with their audience.  It also allows for more ways for creators to interact with their audience and set prices on ways to connect, whether it be a private member area, a one-on-one, merchandise, or more.  In this sense, Web3 incorporates all the benefits of the Patreon-style platform.
• One more amazing aspect of Web3 is the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization).  While a developer team continues to build features, those features are driven by proposals and votes of the DAO, who uses the platform’s treasury (the small fees they collect for transactions) to build community-driven features.  The DAO can be composed of token owners, those who have staked, or others who are in some way invested in the platform.

Sounds great, right?  So when can we see this happen?  Thankfully, the list above are actual, live features in Web3 social media platforms.  The industry leader, Taki, has these elements as its core and is quickly growing its community of passionate fans.  Both creators and consumers have been amazed at the difference in a creator-owned platform, with closer interactions between the two, living earnings for more creators, and a sense of excitement around what comes next for the platform, with community-based proposals considered.

Looking Ahead

In a rare example of “the people have spoken”, we might be looking at a change in the corporate-first mentality of today’s economy.  And who knows?  If creator-owned and driven platforms are successful, who knows what might be next? 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice