Who creates huge profits for social platforms?
In today's technological Internet age, Internet social networking has become an indispensable part of people's lives. According to data surveys, people spend an average of 2-4 hours a day on social media and use nearly 7 different social platforms every month. This is enough to prove the profound impact of social platforms on us.
Due to the huge base of social groups and their addictive nature, several large social companies have been created around the world, such as WeChat, TikTok (Douyin, Toutiao), Facebook, Youtube, etc. These social platforms not only meet the needs of users in terms of entertainment, but also play an important role in information dissemination, business promotion and other fields.
For example, many companies use WeChat official accounts to conduct brand promotion and product marketing, and lock in user attention through social platforms. The WeChat platform has imported its 1 billion users into its various ecosystems, such as JD.com, Pinduoduo and other platforms, creating an e-commerce platform with a market value of over 100 billion yuan.
Internet celebrities on TikTok can also drive sales of goods with their own influence. Excellent live streaming Internet celebrities can make hundreds of millions of yuan in sales a day through live streaming sales on platforms such as TikTok. The business miracles brought by these social platforms have not only brought huge profits to companies and individuals, but also changed the traditional business marketing model.
WeChat's market value is as high as HK$7 trillion, TikTok's valuation exceeds US$300 billion, the world's largest video site Youtube's market value exceeds US$100 billion, and Facebook exceeds US$1.5 trillion. Have you ever wondered who is behind these platforms with market values of hundreds of billions of dollars? Who made these platforms successful?
It is every user who uses the platform and contributes social content to these platforms that makes these giant technologies possible. We create, share, interact and give feedback on them, forming a social network effect, gathering a large amount of user traffic, and then attracting various commercial value realizations.
Have you ever thought about this question! The content and transactions of social platforms are basically created and contributed by users. When the founding team and capital of the platform make a lot of money, why can't we who participate in the platform get any benefits? Maybe you will say that you have gained happiness and killed boring time. Of course, capital also says so.
This is the business rule of social platforms now, we call it centralized social platforms. Centralized social platforms are the product of the Internet era and the best business model at the time, but centralized social platforms have several natural pain points, which I believe you must have deeply experienced. For example, your privacy is not protected, your data is misused, and the platform uses algorithms to manipulate the content you want to see. The most important thing is that the benefits are unevenly distributed, only a small number of people make money, and the user group that contributes the most gets nothing.
Without the birth of blockchain technology and the concept of Web3, this model might have lasted for a long time and would not have changed. Now, we may see the emergence of a new business model in the foreseeable future. It is called decentralized social networking, or Web3 social networking. It is a new business model driven by blockchain technology that can well solve the pain points of centralized social networking.
Pain points of Web2 centralized social platforms
Let's analyze the pain points of centralized social platforms in detail. The first is the user's data privacy and security issues: centralized social platforms usually collect users' personal data, including but not limited to users' interests, behaviors, geographic locations, etc. This data is easily abused, leaked, or accessed by unauthorized third parties, resulting in the violation of user privacy.
The first is the use of our data within the platform to understand our interests and hobbies and to push advertisements to us.
The second is the resale of data; the most well-known case is the data of 50 million Facebook users, which was accessed by an APP and then sold to Cambridge Analytica. The data of these 50 million people were not stolen through a hack, but were taken away by someone who walked in through the door in a swagger.
Finally, there is the issue of data leakage, which no company wants to deal with. However, due to the current storage architecture and technical methods, such bugs exist in themselves, and it is not a question of whether or not to want to. Data leakage incidents are numerous. In June 2012, Yahoo services were hacked and 165 million user data were leaked, followed by another 3 billion user data leaked in 2013. In October 2013, Adobe's server was hacked and 153 million customers' credit card records and login data were stolen. In 2014, Marriott International's 500 million customer data was stolen by hackers. In June 2016, LinkedIn's 7.7 billion user data was captured by hackers using APIs and sold on the Dark Web. In July 2018, the database of Singapore's SingHealth Group suffered a serious cyber attack, resulting in the theft of personal data of 1.5 million patients in the group's hospitals, including Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and many other politicians.
This also raises the issue of data ownership and unfair constraints: on many platforms, user-generated data is often subject to the platform's terms of service and privacy policy. This means that the data generated by users on the platform may not be completely personal, but subject to restrictions and conditions imposed by the platform.
Therefore, the data generated by users on the platform may be considered to be jointly owned by both parties, rather than belonging entirely to the user. This may be difficult for people to accept, but this is the current situation, controlled by a single platform. If you don't agree, don't use it. Many people think it doesn't matter, so they default to the platform operating this way.
There is no complete law to regulate this area, but after all, the data is still yours, why should both parties own it? If both parties want to own it, then give me the money earned from this data, but no, this is unfair.
The third is the issue of single review standards and algorithm filtering: Under the centralized management model, the platform has the power to conduct single review and restriction on the content posted by users. This review standard has the potential risk of abuse of power. The most typical cases include blocking accounts, pushing content that users may be interested in, or content that the platform wants users to see, while restricting content that violates platform rules or is detrimental to the platform.
This excessive filtering or manipulation of the information that users see makes it easier for them to be exposed to content that matches their views, thus forming an information cocoon, depriving users of the right to learn about new things and limiting their horizons. On the other hand, this may also lead to restrictions on freedom of speech or unfair treatment of certain groups.
The fourth is the issue of profit distribution: In theory, a social platform is an organization composed of the founding team and users. Users have made great contributions to it and their private data is shared with the platform, so should the profits also be shared? With the support of many users and fans, an Internet celebrity makes a lot of money by bringing goods and live broadcasting, but his fans get nothing. Maybe you don’t pay attention to this issue, but it does exist.
This is the current situation of centralized platforms. A small number of people are the main beneficiaries, while the creators and users who contribute the most are not adequately rewarded. All this is like boiling a frog in warm water, which keeps boiling without you noticing.
Web3 social networking will replace Web2 social networking, an inevitable trend
Is there any alternative to this status quo and business model? Before the emergence of blockchain technology and the concept of Web3, people might have thought about it, but there was no solution. After the emergence of blockchain technology, this model will be updated and replaced, and everyone calls it Web3 social. Web3 social is also decentralized social, which seems to be the opposite of the concept of centralized social platforms. Yes, this is indeed an innovative concept and technology. To understand this model, we need to understand the core ideas and technical components of blockchain, because this model is driven by technology.
First of all, the birth of blockchain is for fairness. Anyone can participate, regardless of class, and it is not controlled by any organization, enterprise or country. On the technical level, it is decentralized. Decentralization means that its operation mode or storage architecture is not an organization or a company, but a huge network composed of tens of thousands of individuals or small groups distributed around the world using their own computers. So this is what it means to be decentralized.
The second is security: security is divided into hardware layer security and data layer security. Here we refer to hardware layer security. In the blockchain system, if the blockchain network has 10,000 nodes, 9,999 of them are broken at the same time, it will not affect its security. As long as the remaining one can be used normally, the network can guarantee normal operation. Although the possibility of 9,999 nodes breaking down at the same time is 0, this is enough to illustrate the reliability of the blockchain network, which is the hardware-level security.
The third is the consensus mechanism: the simple understanding is that most people must reach a consensus. In the blockchain, the consensus mechanism is to make the data running on all nodes the same, so that the system can be transparent enough and cannot be cheated. Let's take an example: Xiao Ming's family of 7 has a rule that all income and expenditure in the family are shared, and everyone has a small notebook to record daily expenses. Xiao Ming's father received a salary of 20,000 yuan this month. He needs to report this income to everyone in the family and synchronize it with everyone. Everyone records it in their own notebook: Xiao Ming's father received a salary of 20,000 yuan on a certain day of a certain month, and the total account balance is 20,000 yuan. In order to verify whether this message is correct, everyone must check the data with each other to ensure the consistency of the data.
Today, Xiao Ming's father spent 500 yuan to buy a piece of clothing. After returning home, he still needs to synchronize and say that he spent 500 yuan on the clothing. Everyone takes out their own notebooks and records: Xiao Ming's father spent 500 yuan on the clothing, and the total account is subtracted by 500, leaving 19,500 yuan. So no matter how big or small the expenses are, everyone in the family keeps the same account. There are several benefits to doing this:
First: The accounts are extremely transparent and there is no room for cheating. This is because everyone records all income and expenditure, and everyone reconciles each other's accounts for each transaction to ensure that the accounts are consistent.
Second, it is tamper-proof. Everyone records the same account book. If one person or a few people modify their own account book, others will not agree. Because there is another rule in the blockchain, the minority obeys the majority, and more than 51% of the people must agree to execute it. If Xiao Ming's father is sure that he can convince 51% of the family to modify the account book, then it is OK, because the minority obeys the majority principle, and the majority of people agree with his behavior, that is, consensus is reached. But this does not work in the blockchain network. Xiao Ming's father cannot convince tens of thousands of strangers distributed all over the world to modify the account book, so the blockchain can be tamper-proof.
The third is data security at the data level. Blockchain uses advanced encryption algorithms to ensure data confidentiality. Data is encrypted during transmission and storage, making it impossible for unauthorized visitors to read or understand the data content. Technologies such as public key encryption, symmetric encryption, and hash functions are widely used in blockchain. If a supercomputer is used to crack a blockchain private key, it will take about 100 trillion years, which is enough to show how high its security is.
Therefore, you can control your own data on the platform. You can authorize it to others for a fee or not. Others cannot view this set of data because the private key is in your hands.
The fourth is smart contract: This is an execution system running on the blockchain system. With it, you can run the rules you set on the basis of the blockchain, or automatically execute the contract. It is a contract system that combines all the attributes of the blockchain. The last concept is DAO.
The Chinese translation of DAO is: decentralized autonomous organization. Its core vision is community participation, democratic governance, trustlessness, decentralized decision-making and autonomy. This is a governance structure that is different from all current enterprises or companies. The vision of DAO is to allow community members to participate in the decision-making of the organization in a decentralized manner. Through blockchain technology, each participant has an equal voice and can participate in the governance and decision-making of the organization.
The design concept of DAO is based on smart contracts, eliminating the need for intermediaries and trust. This allows the organization to operate more transparently and fairly. The rules of the organization are specified in the code, including voting decisions, member joining and exiting, financial management, community governance, rule changes, etc., allowing the organization to operate automatically without a centralized management structure.
At this point, everyone should gradually understand why those big guys say that blockchain can change production relations and social structure. Why is Web3 social networking bound to replace Web2 social networking? At present, the traditional Internet social market is already very large, but our analysis shows that it is actually less than 1% of the minority who create value. For ordinary users, it is just contributing data, and the benefits have nothing to do with you. If the blockchain method is used, everyone not only contributes data, but also receives dividends, then this market share will be at least 10 times the current market, reaching a market share of more than 10 trillion US dollars. After all, the difference between 100 people making money and 1 person making money is not an order of magnitude, so this is a very potential innovation market.
Web3 social application cases and opportunities
With the development of Web3 Internet, Web3 social networking has gradually emerged, and some representative application examples have emerged. For example, INTO Web3 social networking is a highly integrated and comprehensive infrastructure built specifically for Web3, integrating cross-chain encrypted wallets, Web3 social networking and multi-functional mini-program ecosystems, aiming to provide users and developers with stable and efficient digital solutions.
INTO Web3 social networking is based on a decentralized network architecture, which allows users to have complete privacy and autonomous control over their data, thus truly achieving social freedom. INTO's Web3 social platform adopts a decentralized architecture to ensure that users' social activities are not interfered with or monitored by centralized institutions. Users can freely express their opinions and share content without worrying about data being leaked or abused. It can be used as a substitute for social platforms such as Telegram and WeChat.
In addition, INTO Web3 social adopts the DAO governance model and will issue its own governance tokens. When using Web3 social and contributing data to the platform, it is possible to receive airdrops of INTO governance tokens. Users can obtain these tokens as incentives through active chat interactions, publishing high-quality content creation, and other behaviors. This incentive mechanism can not only enhance the user's enthusiasm for participation, but also truly realize the feedback of the value of user data. Holders of tokens can participate in the governance decisions of the platform and determine the future development direction of the platform.
Moreover, as INTO develops, the growth of the market value of INTO tokens will also bring real economic benefits to users. These tokens can be used for consumption, trading or withdrawal within the platform, realizing the direct reflection of user value.
The current INTO is not only based on the social level, but also integrates the latest AI technology, cross-chain Web3 wallet, social applet ecology and other infrastructure. With the support of AI, INTO social networking will be more intelligent, improving the efficiency of social interaction and work. For example, during the chat process, AI will automatically translate and interpret the chat content for users, making cross-border communication smoother. And by analyzing the chat tone and emotions, it can give more intimate and appropriate reply suggestions to improve the effect and comfort of communication.
The integrated crypto wallet will support multi-chain operations and achieve a seamless experience of cross-chain asset management. INTO's wallet supports a variety of mainstream blockchains, such as Ethereum, Polkadot, SOL, etc., allowing users to freely switch and manage assets between different blockchain networks without cumbersome operations and conversion steps. Using INTO Web3 social networking, cross-chain operations can be completed in one stop. It greatly improves the efficiency and convenience of users' asset management in the blockchain field.
The integrated mini-program ecosystem provides users with a rich variety of application options, covering multiple areas such as entertainment, life, work, etc. Users can easily find and use suitable mini-programs according to their needs, further expanding the functionality and practicality of INTO Web3 social networking.
In the mini-program ecosystem of traditional social platforms, whether it is WeChat or Telegram, they are all built on centralized platforms and centralized servers, and there are still risks such as censorship mechanisms, data tampering, and user privacy leaks. However, INTO's multi-functional mini-program system breaks this centralized limitation. When using mini-programs, users no longer rely on a single centralized server, but can enjoy more fair, open and free services.
INTO has created a comprehensive business model that supports and promotes each other by integrating wallets, social platforms and mini-program ecosystems. INTO integrates Web3 instant messaging social, cross-chain encrypted wallets, and a mini-program ecosystem with rich functions, providing users with a one-stop Web3 social experience. As the Web3 Internet matures, Web3 social networking has become an important part of the Web3 Internet. INTO will use this to build the largest decentralized social platform on the Web3 Internet.
Currently, INTO has accumulated 12 million registered users in the Web3 social field, and its number of users is still growing. With the launch of the next phase of INTO, such as the launch of the mini-program ecosystem and governance token airdrops, as well as the upcoming bull market, INTO is expected to further expand its user base and influence, gradually building it into a Web3 social platform that can replace Web2 social networking.
In short, the development of Web3 social networking may face various difficulties, but the progress of the times will not stop because of difficulties, because it is driven by the tide of the times. We ordinary people may not have the ability to start a business, but we must be highly sensitive to new things, and don't miss the blockchain Kondratieff cycle in your life and the opportunity to enter Web3.
The development of Web3 social networking will not only change the way people socialize, but may also have a profound impact on society and the economy. For example, it will promote the development of the digital economy, promote the democratization of social governance, and strengthen the protection of individual rights. As an innovative social platform in the Web3 era, INTO has brought new social experience and value to users by reshaping the Internet social model and giving users data ownership. INTO is expected to lead Internet social networking into a new era that is more open, fair, secure and valuable.
