How Web3 redefines the worlds of content and media

Web3 moves us towards a world that is fully digital, and one in which I believe advertising will change fundamentally. Communities are absolutely crucial in Web3, and they, like content creators, will become more empowered. Brands will need to try to connect their products to these communities early on. In this new world, the brand value is derived from the community value. It is nothing less than a paradigm shift – a new way of thinking about business and where advertising campaigns become part of a product. The metaverse is infinite and so the possibilities are infinite too. The beauty of this new internet architecture is that you have all the high-quality data, which you can leverage to understand where the communities your brand wants to be a part of, actually are.

Content is everywhere. And if we assume – as I often do – that blockchain technology has the potential to significantly change the way business is done, then it would only be logical to assume that it can also disrupt the media industry to its core.

Is there a necessity for the media and content industry to change, you might ask? The answer is certainly yes, because value creators are not the ones benefiting the most from their content. Making them benefit more would be in the best interest of consumers, because it increases quality.

In an ideal world, the content creator would just create the content and sell it to their audience, directly, without any intermediaries involved. The reality, of course, is different. Content and the ad industry are crowded with intermediaries. Blockchain, will not eliminate them all – take the discovery of content as an example – without discovery and distribution services, it is incredibly hard for content creators to raise awareness. Existing services – some of them intermediaries – will not disappear but will change and improve, for example, recommendation engines.

But the most important thing is that currently, consumers are not rewarded for consuming. They pay in two different currencies: money and attention. And when they become a community, they become highly valuable, but they can’t leverage this value.

Blockchain technology, particularly NFTs (non-fungible tokens), allow us to redefine digital value. And this kind of value is created through the merger of creator, content and community. Introducing the concept of exclusivity and scarcity to the industry for the first time in history means there is an incentive to challenge the current logic of measuring value in the digital space. The creator, the content, and the willingness to pay by a significant number of consumers to become part of an exclusive community determines a price.

As every piece of content must be worth paying for in order to own it, then the focus can shift from selling as much as possible to providing content that is as valuable as possible. In the world of Web3 brands and communities will merge. The narratives chosen by the community define the brand. And the community defines the brand value. 

There is currently a glut of content and competition is growing. New entrants such as digital marketplace OpenSea are moving into the world of content and will compete with big music labels, book publishers, production firms and influencer houses in the future. The total transaction volume on Opensea alone, has surpassed $30 billion. However, content producers have one huge competitive advantage. They already hold existing communities. Those that cater to these communities with the best experiences will overcome the new competition, and ultimately attract some of the strongest brands. If they use the disruptive momentum to reshape the content industry, they will come out stronger than ever and reshape the industry – and it will be to the benefit of us all.

Martin Majd El-Khouri, Senior Director at Bertelsmann Investments