How blockchain can help content creators on social media

Photo credit: Tero

Content creators are facing a problem on social media, as many of them struggle to profit from their work.

For example, WeChat has 3.5 million monthly active official accounts, but not many of them earn from the platform. On Instagram, users complained about the new algorithm that was rolled out in 2016, where the platform scrapped the chronological order of posts. Content creators across the world noticed that their posts were declining in visibility and engagement.

Other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have similar algorithms as well.

Social media platforms are benefiting at the expense of small content creators. Those who are not big enough like the Kardashians have to struggle to increase their content’s visibility. And top influencers, who often make up a small percentage of active users on most of these platforms, have little to worry about.

There is a clear imbalance within the ecosystem and it needs to change.

Fancier exploitation

I reached out to Dr. Wallace Lynch, founder and CEO of Alpha Token, to discuss this problem and the solutions. Built on blockchain, their product, the Alpha Browser, promises to accurately value digital content.

According to Lynch, content creators are struggling to make money for their work due to the fact that many social media platforms are not rewarding them. He refers to the platforms’ methods as a “fancier form of exploitation,” where content creators have little to no rights over their content.

This was made evident when users of Toutiao and Weibo were majorly affected by the dispute between the two companies’ war over content ownership. Further dissent was caused when Sina Weibo released a notice, prohibiting their users from allowing any third party to quote what they post on the platform without the company’s written approval. (Imagine having to seek permission from a third-party platform to share your own content!)

In order to gain followers on WeChat, content creators need to create top-quality content on a regular basis. A content creator needs up to millions of fans before they can become eligible to earn from sponsored posts. They also have no say over what types of ads are used—the platform decides.

Readers are also short-changed, as they have to deal with commercials for which they are not compensated. Most readers think the commercials are annoying because they interfere with their reading experience and serve little to no purpose in their lives.

Advertisers, especially smaller ones, experience a lot of challenges as well. Many of them spend a lot of money only to reap pitiful results. In order to access their target users, advertisers have to go through PR companies and the media. But this is not an option for many who only have limited funds. The slow responsiveness within the process also adds to the frustrations that advertisers have to deal with.

An ideal ecosystem

As it stands, the only party benefiting in the social media ecosystem are the platforms themselves. They make substantial profit from content created by their users, viewership, and advertisements. But they do not compensate their users for their work, and this is a problem.

An ideal ecosystem would be one where all parties are rewarded for their efforts.

The blockchain