From video game enthusiasts monetizing their passions as screaming artists to fashion influencers supercharging their careers on e-commerce platforms to livestreamers, the maker economy has flourished, evolved and matured over the past year . Largely catalyzed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, contemporary creators benefited from a gradual shift in consumer behavior as more people around the world came online. Now valued at over $100 billion, the maker economy is seeing astonishing growth as the worlds of e-commerce, social media and online communities converge.
With increasing opportunities in the metaverse such as social tokens and related virtual playgrounds, the year ahead appears to be filled with a lot of promise. What’s next for creators in an increasingly digital and decentralized 2022?
a more equitable dynamic
From fans-only to TikTok, social networks can give creators access to communities, but these creators drive traffic to these platforms because of the power of their content. Whether they are artists, musicians, writers, photographers or influencers of all kinds, they are the real revenue drivers on these platforms. However, the relationship between a creator and their community is ultimately mediated by a third party – the platform – which can affect the extent to which a creator is fully rewarded and compensated for their work. goes. Sometimes this manifests itself as a reduction in revenue and can even affect the type of content created and what it may contain.
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Imagine if you can create without limits. This is the benefit that social tokens provide. Blockchain-powered fan tokens can serve a number of functions: for one, they can be used to reward fans for their engagement, and encourage them to engage with the universe of content. Not only does this help one’s community grow, but social tokens can also be used as a medium of exchange – fans can directly compensate creators for their work, powering a mini economy. which effectively cuts middlemen out of the equation. By essentially tokenizing themselves, creators invite their fans to take a stake in all of their work – consider the example of 23-year-old entrepreneur Alex Massage, who flew to San Francisco to launch his startup. Launched Alex to raise enough money.
Social tokens essentially represent the ethos of Web3, connecting creators and consumers of content directly and enabling them to benefit from value exchange. However, there are philosophical questions that deserve some consideration. What does it mean to tokenize yourself? Do you risk raising the bar and performance pressure? After all, there are long-standing incidents of social media influencers struggling to meet the demands of their followers. But as the maker economy continues to grow, social tokens are still a valuable step towards leveling the financial playing field in what is rapidly becoming a legitimate career path.
reviving the meaning of engagement
Like social tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are another innovation shaping the maker economy. Consider that the NFT-based crypto art market is now worth $2.3 billion (as of mid-February 2022), pointing to a lucrative opportunity for artists’ work to access new monetization streams.
Meanwhile, NFTs can also be used to engineer a new model of fan engagement as they reconcile virtual assets with real-world experiences. Enter the physical experience – a mix of the physical and the digital. NFTs can be combined with real-world benefits – if you’re a musician, this could mean a lifetime supply of concert tickets or VIP meets and greets and, as an artist, a select number of prints in the collection – it Ensuring that these properties belong to a verifiable form of a fan, attesting to their ownership and authenticity. As economies gradually reopen and we continue to see the eventual normalization of social activity, experiential NFTs as a tool for long-term fan engagement are likely to grow in popularity.
Let’s not stop here, though: enter interactive NFTs. These properties may change over time based on the fan’s modifications to the content. Consider a digital collectible like a player card issued by an athlete – a fan can request a digital autograph embellished on the item, effectively adding and replacing NFTs, adding to its lack. Is. For artists, this can mean creating collaborative digital artworks that their fans can add to, making the two-way fan-producer relationship more active.
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Celebrating the rise of Asia
Much has been said about the era of Asia, and this phenomenon certainly extends to the continent’s producer economy. In 2021, the number of influencers across the region increased by 66 percent, especially in markets such as Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. While the influence of Western social networks is certainly widespread across the continent – with the likes of Indonesia’s growing population of digital natives ranking fourth in the world for Instagram use – localized home options continue to proliferate. From China’s Sina Weibo to Japan’s line, creators need to master strategies to best navigate the cultural and communal nuances specific to each market.
Although most Asian nations are still growing, China has cemented its position as a leader in the maker economy, backed by a mature, professional network of e-commerce platforms that have made live streaming popular as a career. Has helped create – a market estimated to be worth $60 billion every year. The model is rapidly repeating itself in other Asian markets, particularly in Southeast Asia by e-commerce marketplaces such as Lazada and Shopee.
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Meanwhile, a digital-savvy approach to dealing with the physical restrictions imposed by the coronavirus has been actively employed by Asian composers – to see this, one needs to look no further than K-pop musicians, Those who have transitioned seamlessly to offer virtual experiences. For its fans and has entered the world of NFTs to mold audio-visual digital collectibles that their fans can buy, sell and trade.
Asia is poised to host this development given the legalization and formalization of the continental producer economy. Whether it is a traditional figure or an entrepreneur who has become a livestreamer, opportunities are firmly in their hands to rally a community of loyal fans and shoppers. But in light of the unique nuances to navigate in each culture, local firms must take a uniquely localized approach to celebrate the differences that add to the challenge of mastering Asia’s maker landscape. A decentralized community seeks to put power back in the hands of creators with a model that is built specifically for Asia in Asia. As the continent’s maker economy flourishes, only time will tell how both fans and creators will adapt to the coming wave of decentralization.
value of options
Contemporary creators are burdened with choice – forced with an increasing number of platforms and access points to develop new and existing communities of fans. With the era of web3 before us, it is indeed an exciting time to become a creator. What we can expect to see is a producer economy that is no longer dependent on a segregated landscape of channels, but rather a distributed, interoperable network that maximizes opportunities for meaningfully engaging all touchpoints and . Meanwhile, Asia’s astonishing rise and its dominant position in creating cultural products and developing new platforms that have the potential to shape many industries is poised to redefine the maker economy and its participants as we know it. Huh.
As we look to 2022, creators are now, more than ever, equipped with innovations to differentiate their offerings – from virtual worlds to collectibles growing in sophistication. In addition, they now have new avenues to explore, which may ultimately promise a more equitable, level playing field as they turn their passions into careers. The opportunities on the horizon are clear: the dawn of decentralization is the next step in taking the maker economy to new heights.
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The views, opinions and opinions expressed here are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
weiwei gengo He is the CEO of Unite, a maker ecosystem built in Asia for Asia that puts power in the hands of the continent’s creative communities. In addition to his role at Unite, Weiwei is also a co-founder of Rally and serves as a member of the Executive Board of the RLY Network Association. Prior to this, Weiwei served as China Managing Director at Gen.G, a leading esports organization with top teams in China, South Korea and the United States.
