By Cointime Lu Tian

In 1996, Bill Gates published an influential article titled "Content is King," in which he attempted to predict the future of the internet over the next two decades.

In this article, he wrote:

"Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting. The broad opportunities for most companies involve supplying information or entertainment. No company is too small to participate.

One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. In a sense, the Internet is the multimedia equivalent of the photocopier. It allows material to be duplicated at low cost, no matter the size of the audience."

The internet has fostered a democratized world. Over the past two decades, we have evolved from Web 1.0's read-only model to Web 2.0's read-write paradigm. This shift has transformed us from mere content consumers to content creators, with more and more users exploring monetization of self-expression, fueling the boom of the Creator Economy.

The rise of the creator economy is closely tied to the robust development of various platforms. At present, internet content creators primarily rely on social media and specialized UGC platforms to publish content, accumulate followers, and generate revenue through brand sponsorships, advertising shares, and paid subscriptions. Internationally, creators favor social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as streaming platforms such as YouTube and Spotify. The popularity of live video platforms has also surged.

The transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 has led to a "Read-Write-Own" model. In Web 3.0, a new type of network co-built, co-governed, and shared by all users, everyone becomes a creator and owner of content. Decentralization is reshaping the way content creators interact with audiences and monetize their work. According to a report by The Influencer's Club, as of December 2022, the total asset value of the Web 3.0 content creation market has exceeded $100 billion and continues to grow.

  What challenges have Web3 creator platforms faced?

The Web3 creator economy discussion would be incomplete without mentioning Mirror, a prominent decentralized writing tool in the Web3 space.

Founded by former a16z partner Denis Nazarov, Mirror aims to revolutionize the content creation economy through a Web3 approach. The platform caters to ordinary users and creators, offering built-in features such as content publishing, payment, and data analysis. Individuals, institutions, and organizations can create and monetize content on Mirror. In 2022, Mirror. xyz recorded over 27 million visits, making it one of the most popular and high-quality applications in the entire Web3 creator economy.

Mirror targets Web2 content publishing and paid subscription platforms like Substack and Medium. Its primary objectives are threefold: enable decentralized content publishing, ensure creators' ownership of content, and assist creators in monetizing their content.

Decentralized content publishing is straightforward: all content on Mirror is published on the blockchain network rather than a centralized server.

To ensure content ownership, Mirror employs two types of Web3 components: Arweave blockchain for permanent article storage and the Ethereum mainnet as an NFT minting platform for verifying and trading articles. Creators' published content, along with all related changes and information needed to authenticate the author's identity, will be stored permanently on the Arweave chain. Simultaneously, users can mint articles as NFT assets to establish rights to the stored content.

For content monetization, Mirror provides creators with a suite of tools for managing capital and revenue functions, including Crowdfunds, Auctions, and Writing NFTs that facilitate crowdfunding and auctions; Splits that assist in revenue sharing; and wallet-based subscription features.

Despite Mirror's position as a leading product in the Web3 creator economy, its data performance is not optimal. By the end of 2022, fewer than 20,000 users have sponsored/donated on the Mirror platform, and the total economic benefits for creators amounted to 11,069 ETH. One reason is the limited content type on the platform. Mirror currently supports only graphic content publication, and the quality of articles is inconsistent. If it becomes difficult to expand the audience and monetize effectively, creators may lose motivation to produce content. This further contributes to the scarcity of high-quality content on the platform, a common issue faced by many Web3 content platforms.

Audius, a decentralized music streaming platform hosted on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, launched in late 2019 and officially released its mainnet in October 2020. The platform utilizes blockchain technology to enable decentralized storage solutions and revenue distribution for audio and metadata. Its goal is to transfer the ownership, control, and governance of music from centralized record companies or streaming platforms to musicians and fans, allowing creators to directly interact with fans and monetize content without third-party intermediaries.

With the native token $AUDIO, Audius provides a more transparent and equitable income distribution mechanism for music creators. Creators can earn $AUDIO tokens through content creation, while users can acquire tokens by listening to music. In contrast to traditional streaming platforms, Audius offers a fairer revenue distribution. For instance, on Spotify, platforms and labels take 88% of music revenue, leaving creators with a mere 12% share. Meanwhile, on Audius, musicians receive 90% of the income.

Moreover, the Audius platform is operated by a community of token holders rather than a centralized entity. In this self-governing community platform, all members can participate in the creation, storage, and distribution of music.

However, Audius has its shortcomings. Due to the unique nature of music content, the platform has significant limitations in verifying content rights. Currently, Audius can only ensure traceability and authentication of music content on the blockchain but cannot perform copyright certification before uploading to the blockchain. Users can modify existing songs, upload them to the platform, and earn tokens from listens. Yet, the platform cannot delete infringing music based on its decentralized storage feature. Lastly, like other Web3 content platforms, Audius also faces a common issue: a lack of high-quality content. The copyrights for a substantial amount of top-tier music content are controlled by record companies and traditional streaming platforms. Audius primarily focuses on content produced by independent musicians, resulting in a limited audience market and increased difficulty in user content discovery.

In February of this year, a social networking app called Damus made its debut on the App Store. Within a day, it climbed to the top ten download charts in the social media category. Damus is a Web3 social product based on the distributed social media protocol Nostr, launched by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey.

In the traditional Web2 social landscape, platforms have absolute ownership of users' personal and content data. Although this data generates substantial profits, it is difficult for users to receive a share. The competitive barriers of traditional social products stem from their closed architecture, while Web3 aims to enable data openness. This approach addresses the challenges of content monetization and unequal value distribution, providing creators and users with a fairer social network environment.

The core idea of Damus is decentralization. Decentralizing social networks means moving away from models similar to Facebook or Twitter, where centralized platforms control content distribution and user participation rights. Damus shifts the social focus to users and returns data sovereignty to them. Numerous ideas and creations emerge on the internet every minute. In a decentralized social network, these contents can be freely presented to the audience without permission, generating economic value that is entirely owned by the creator.

However, Damus quickly transitioned from being a sensation to being overlooked. Initially, the endorsement of Twitter's former CEO and public curiosity propelled Damus to instant success. In less than two weeks since its launch, Damus was praised as a "milestone of an open protocol" but was soon reduced to an "internet junkyard" filled with pornographic and gambling advertisements. Its founder, Jack Dorsey, acknowledged that Damus has not yet found a suitable commercialization model. He does not want to rely on advertising revenue like traditional internet platforms but has not yet discovered a new path to commercial success. Low-quality content, a lack of monetization channels, and decentralization that allows users to control their data but does not help them create economic value have all contributed to Damus's challenges.

Whether it's graphics, music, or social media, various content platforms still face difficulties and challenges in the creator economy. Nail, a knowledge-based platform for Web3 industry, has identified potential opportunities and the key to overcoming these obstacles.

Nail: The Web3 Version of "Get"

Nail is a Web3 industry knowledge-based platform, focusing on turning knowledge into products and services to realize commercial value. The online knowledge content product app "Get" by Luoji Thinking serves as a representative of knowledge payment platforms. Nail can be considered the Web3 version of "Get," emphasizing creator and user empowerment.

For creators, content, audience, and business model are the three crucial elements in monetizing content. Content serves as the foundation of the creator economy, determining whether the platform can consistently deliver high-quality content to users; the audience assigns value to the content, as works lacking an audience cannot generate revenue; the business model affects the sustainability of the creator economy and influences creators' motivation. Nail supports creators by offering content creation tools, traffic acquisition methods, community-building resources, value realization strategies, and more, establishing a comprehensive value chain.

The scarcity of high-quality content is a prevalent and fundamental challenge faced by Web3 content platforms, such as Mirror for graphics and Audius for music. At present, the quality of Web3 content varies significantly, with media forms primarily focusing on graphics and music, while diverse media content remains limited.

Rather than confining itself to traditional graphic formats, Nail opted to start with the currently popular live-streaming format. The platform provides two unique live-streaming formats—voice/graphic and text—and supports interaction among multiple participants. Its official live broadcast segment, "Blocknow Big Coffee Interview," has showcased online live interviews with prominent figures from various industries, such as Jiang Changjian, associate professor at Fudan University and well-known host; Wu Ming, CTO of Conflux, the only compliant public chain in China; Yu Jianing, honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Blockchain Association; and Zhang Qiang, the Disco Queen.

As a vast number of works flood the market and professional perspectives become scarce, users face increasing difficulties in discovering high-quality content. The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools, such as AIGC, has lowered the barriers to content creation, leading to a surge in content production but without guaranteeing content quality. In the face of massive content influx, improper platform management can result in low-quality content overshadowing high-value content, causing valuable content to be lost continually.

Nail brings together industry experts and KOLs to offer users professional knowledge and information across various domains. The platform employs algorithms to determine resource allocation and content exposure frequency, ensuring a fair, just, and open learning environment where truly valuable content can continue to circulate. Simultaneously, Nail provides intelligent content suggestion and search tools, helping users find content that matches their personal preferences from the vast content pool. The platform supports multi-channel content promotion, advance reservations, and targeted outreach, promoting more refined operations.

Furthermore, Nail recognizes the strong social aspects of the creator economy. Users who subscribe to KOLs directly join the creator's fan base, providing creators the opportunity to communicate directly with users. This feature fosters mutual interaction and enhances audience retention, assisting creators in cultivating and engaging loyal fans.

In today's landscape where anyone can become a content creator, many individuals lack professional training. Nail offers an all-inclusive range of services for content creation, learning, and monetization. This includes helping creators become acquainted with the platform and tools, as well as mastering content creation and community management skills. At the same time, the official Nail platform supports content monetization through both online and offline channels, expanding revenue opportunities and enhancing monetization efforts.

This comprehensive solution allows Nail to attract a greater number of high-quality creators, ensuring a steady and ongoing supply of exceptional content. Consequently, the platform consistently engages audiences, boosts traffic growth, and creates a reliable, sustainable revenue stream. This, in turn, stimulates further content creation, promoting a positive cycle and growth within the platform ecosystem.

Currently, the Nail platform is undergoing pre-beta testing. Both users and KOLs can earn bonus points by taking part in the platform's beta testing. These points can be redeemed for rewards, used in lucky draws, subscribed to premium courses, or applied toward value-added services. As the Nail platform continues to evolve, its ecosystem points will further empower users and broaden application scenarios and membership advantages.