The potential of Web 3.0 becomes clearer with each passing day.
One of the reasons to watch the media industry is we are seeing things unfolding in real time. The massive disruption that is caused by digitization is playing out on another level. This is why Web 3.0 offers so much potential.
To fully grasp this, let us take a look at the history of media in the Internet era, how things changed, and what is likely coming.
Web 3.0 : Massive Ownership Shift
The common discussion around Web 3.0 is the shift in ownership. This is something that makes sense given the options that are being presented.
It is, however, something that we witnessed before.
Pre-Internet, the world of media was basically analog. Over the last half century, mostly due to the semiconductor era, we saw the move towards digital. This was true for video, images, and audio. On its own, this caused disruption as evidenced by the plight of Kodak.
The Internet really altered things. This upset the traditional distribution channels in ways that are still unfolding. No longer did the existing media entities have full control over the content created. Since distribution came from a new source, what they spend decades constructing started to decline in relevance.
Of course, these entities hopped onto the new mediums. However, there was suddenly a lot more competition.
Ownership Started To Appear
The first foray into the world of ownership started with the website. This is often overlooked in the conversation since it is taken for granted. However, if we look at these are broadcast mediums, it was suddenly on par with any media channel.
Naturally, there were issues with quality and traffic, two things that, with time, got resolved.
With the website, for the first time, individuals could own the distribution mechanism. While there were still other factors in play, the content placed on a company's website was their own. Since the Internet was an open, anyone could view what was being presented.
This removed the need for these entities to build out elaborate, and expensive, distribution networks.
Here is where we entered the realm of Drudge Report, The Huffington Post, and Yahoo News. All were able to gain in traffic over time, becoming media alternative media entities. As the technology progressed, we saw the ability to add audio and video expand the abilities of websites.
It got to the point where there are now established stars in many different media fields who never were on broadcast networks.
Web 3.0 Taking This To Another Level
Understanding the concept of ownership through the lens of a website is something that makes sense to us. After all, we have a couple decades of experience with this.
What happens when we see this same concept advance a couple of levels?
Here is where we find the potential of Web 3.0 staring us in the face. It is also something that could massive upend the broadcast industry along with a host of others.
To delve into this, we want to focus upon platforms and networks. It is through this that we see a larger shift underway.
The Internet, aka Web 2.0, brought us social media. When discussing media, perhaps none is more appropriate than YouTube. This platform has millions of channels with people making content regarding everything under the sun.
We know most of these are nothing channels, with few viewers and no monetization. There is also serious question about what is owned. In reality, everything that occurs on there is property of Google.
It owns the platform.
Web 3.0 has the ability to change this. What happens when people posting content are no longer doing so on standalone website, which lack the ability to generate the network effects. Under the new scenario, they are tied to a platform where they have ownership stake.
That alters the concept of ownership completely. Now, any "media" entity (which is basically anyone making content) it integrated into a system whereby they can enjoy the network effects generated by the platform while also have ownership.
Try doing that with ABC or the BBC.
If this was the end of the story, it still would be a massive shift. Fortunately, Web 3.0 appears to go further.
Even if a Web 2.0 platform was designed in this manner, it could not combat thenext layer: the network. For the sake of this article, let us call it the ecosystem.
As stated in past articles, one of the issues Web 2.0 has is there is little difference between the platform and ecosystem, at least within the social media realm. Twitter is both a platform and ecosystem. The two are not separate. The front end feeds the centralized database, that is owned by the company.
With Web 3.0, the ecosystem is bigger than any single platform. Those are built on top of the decentralized network
Not only does this offer a stark difference but stake can also be gained at that level. This has now moved far beyond the ownership of a website.
This is what the present media world is going to have to compete against. Of course, when we use that term, it will apply to the distribution of all digital content, along with text. That means it is something that is going to disrupt every entity currently involved.
Digital Evolution
It is amazing how statements such as this surprise people.
What we are witnessing is nothing more than the digital evolution which started decades ago. The Internet disrupted most businesses, especially in the broadcast world. Is there one that was not affected in some form? Many went under simply because they could not adapt. Record companies, newspapers, news outlets, and other entertainment mediums were seriously affected.
Just think of the damage that Netflix did.
Web 3.0 seems to be a logical step forward as we move further into the digital realm. The metaverse is something that many discuss and we might be looking at some of the skeleton starting to be constructed.
While that has a lot of variance regarding where all of that can go, we can forecast the transition to Web 3.0 with a bit greater ease.
The Internet changed the ownership of the distribution channels. While much of this was gobbled up by major entities, these are different companies from what went previously. The "old guard" is still fighting to maintain relevancy, something that is going to start affecting the "new guard".
It will take years for this to fully unfold. This is so massive that it will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. After all, newspaper are still around even if struggling.
Web 3.0 is the future. It changes the most basic concept of business: ownership.
For this reason, it will attract a lot of attention as the infrastructure is put in place.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
