Today, it seems like everyone wants to be an influencer on social media. With the rise of the gig-economy and the shift to working remotely in the post-pandemic world, the dream of achieving financial freedom by producing and posting photographs, videos, or blogs is very attractive. And the potential is huge.
For individuals, creating media content that can be streamed over mobile networks presents the biggest opportunity to earn revenue. In a survey conducted by Financial Express, 78% of media outlets identified mobile streaming media as one of the biggest opportunities, while a Streaming Media Analysis Report from GVR states that this is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.0% from 2021 to 2028.
However, whether creators are looking to completely cut the cord with their employer or just generate some additional income, they still face one problem. Regardless of how successful they are in attracting followers, they are still beholden to the platforms that host their work.
In order to make money from content, it’s necessary to rack up a large number of views, and today the only way to do this is by posting it on one of the Big Tech social media platforms, which have a virtual monopoly in this area. However, this is far from an equal partnership. While these corporate giants rake in huge advertising revenues from the content viewed on their sites, they generally return only a little more than half of it to the people that actually created it.
For example, according to Business Insider, YouTube takes 45% of the ad revenue generated from views of videos on its platform. With TikTok, the situation is even worse. While the platform has set up a ‘Creators Fund’ to share revenue, the requirements to qualify for monetization are very steep, and you’re only eligible if you live in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, or Italy.
Furthermore, TikTok keeps its revenue sharing formula completely under wraps, so creators have no idea how much money to expect, if they see any at all.
Another big problem for creators is the algorithms that these platforms use to determine what content will be displayed for users. Have you ever noticed that you don’t see a lot of the content from pages that you follow on Facebook? This is because Meta decides what you will and will not see in your feed, and its algorithms for deciding this are a classified black box.
Social media platforms can also shadow ban content or prevent it from appearing in search results, depending on their agenda. You may have noticed that YouTube always suggests certain videos that are either of no interest to you at all, or that reflect a specific point of view on current events.
This is because YouTube’s algorithms are not set solely to propose the most popular or relevant content, but content that meets the approval of Alphabet’s top executives. All of these potential restrictions will naturally affect the number of people that see a creator’s content and, consequently, the amount of revenue they earn from it.
Furthermore, these companies can unilaterally block, restrict, or demonetize content at any time and even delete entire accounts, leaving creators with little or no recourse to protest the ban.
The reason for this is simple: all content is stored on these platforms’ central servers, so they essentially own it and can do whatever they please with it. This puts creators at a great disadvantage, as they essentially lose control of their work and have no say as to how much revenue they can earn from it.
But things are changing. Innovations in blockchain technology and the introduction of Web 3.0 are poised to turn this situation on its head. This is because these technologies are based on decentralized peer-to-peer networks, where content isn’t stored on just one server, but distributed over a P2P (peer-to-peer) network, in which each computer serves as a node.
This arrangement essentially returns ownership of content to its creators, while eliminating the monopoly held by Big Tech platforms.
To cite an example, a media-streaming platform called FavorTube now makes it possible to post video content on a decentralized Web 3.0-based network and immediately start making money from it. And you don’t need to have a certain number of followers or views to qualify.
With FavorTube, content creators immediately receive revenue via smart contracts when consumers subscribe to their channels or content, while revenue from consumer views of ads is automatically distributed among creators, the platform, and viewers, with creators receiving the lion’s share.
Multiple forms of NFTs for permanent memberships or crowdfunding can be issued with one click, and revenue from channels or content is automatically distributed to NTF holders. Access to content is authorized on the P2P network, which protects the rights and interests of commercial videos.
FavorTube uses its own its own protocol stack, dubbed FavorX, which completely decentralized file storage, content distribution, data retrieval, and purchase transactions. Its out-of-the-box desktop and mobile applications are directly connected to the blockchain on mobile terminals via P2P networks whose performance increase as the scale of the network expands.
Thus, FavorTube provides full lifecycle services, from early crowdfunding to revenue realization, while connecting content creators, consumers, and fans on one decentralized, high-yield, platform. This essentially eliminates the major problems faced by content creators today in terms of monetization and censorship because it allows them to take back control of their work and earn maximum income from their creations without fear of third-party interference.
There is little doubt that as Web 3.0 moves into the mainstream that content creators will seek to throw off the shackles of Big Tech and turn to platforms like FavorTube to realize their dream of financial independence.
