The Dawn of The Decentralized Creator Economy: Will It Thrive？

2022-03-14, 04:09

Summary

1. As a brand new business model, the creator economy allows everyone to create content in it.
2. The creator economy is formed after undergoing three main stages: professional companies as the main creators, ordinary users on large platforms as the main body, and decentralized content creation platforms as the principal part.
3. The current ecology of the decentralized creator economy mainly includes decentralized writing platforms (such as Mirror), decentralized streaming music platforms (such as Audius), and NFT platforms (such as OpenSea).

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As a business model developed in today's Internet era, the creator economy allows everyone to create content in it. Last year, its market cap reached tens of billions of dollars. With more than 50 million creators, this model shows that there is great potential to be tapped.

The Internet is still making continuous progress. The current Internet not only allows users to collect and store information but also provides a platform for free expression. The media is also changing. In previous years, what people read and listened to was controlled by a few mainstream media.

The developing course of the creator economy

In the first stage, professional companies like Amazon and Pixar were the main content creators. At this time, the Internet was still in its infancy. These companies could only learn the ropes by using time, funds, and rich professional expertise. Being forerunners was the only competitive edge they had. And users were also more tolerant of their mistakes.

Image: Pixar Studios

The second stage was still dominated by large companies and platforms, but the difference became that the platform was mainly utilized as a medium for content creation, while the real creators were users. As the Internet had globalized the world, information could flow more freely and the way content was distributed changed. Today, the media with individuals as the main body occupies a pivotal position in communication. However, content platforms such as WeChat Official Accounts, Weibo, Douyin, and Medium have one thing in common, that is, they are still major Internet companies operated and maintained by central agencies.

Despite its flaws, we can say that the early social media, music platforms, and video platforms laid the foundation for the vigorous development of the creator economy.

The last stage is the decentralized content creation platform that is now in full swing in the crypto space. The writing platform Mirror is a typical example. No longer being a centralized institution, this platform does not own the content created by individuals, and naturally, they cannot arbitrarily review and modify the content. Content creators are free from the constraints of companies or platforms and are able to create independently and freely. They can also publish their own works and get some income.

The ecology of the decentralized creator economy

As of 2021, the creator economy was very huge in its market size. And the ecology of the Web 3 decentralized creator economy also took shape. Creators could take advantage of Web 3 tools to create content and publish it, And earn returns.

Simply, content platforms can be categorized as follows:

The first type is the decentralized writing platform represented by Mirror. Users can freely write, publish, and disseminate any content on Mirror, while the platform does not have the authority to review and modify their content. Moreover, Mirror can tokenize user-created content and the content can be self-published on Mirror. Melon, Blog To NFT, and Beyond Mars Art are also such types of platforms.

The second category is the decentralized streaming music platform represented by Audius. With the core principle of putting music creators at the center of the industry, Audius is dedicated to making the music industry decentralized and transparent. Audius chooses to be an aggregator, using decentralized technology to bring music creators and fans together in one place. Royal, Pianity, Melos, and Opulous are also examples of this kind of platform.

The third one is the NFT platform represented by OpenSea. OpenSea is one of the world's largest marketplaces for NFT collections. Rarible, Nifty Gateway, Ephimera, Minty, and Bisket are also representatives of such platforms.

Conclusion

There are many other categories of content platforms, and we will not list them all here. Summarily, the era of the decentralized creator economy has dawned. Multiple content creation platforms, creating tools and related infrastructures are emerging one after another. And decentralization has been a crucial trend of the Internet. It is believed that we will be able to embrace a new era of a decentralized creator economy in the near future.

Author：Gate.io Researcher：Ashley H.; Translator: Cedar W.
*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
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