Community Driven Content in Web3: Hype or the Next Big Trend?

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One of the big selling points of the Web3/Crypto movement is that of decentralization.  This can mean different things to different people, with some focusing on the security benefits of avoiding threats from within, others focusing on the trustless aspects that allow strangers to work together from across the world, and others focused on the benefits of a DAO that gives collective direction to the platform’s future.  However, there is one other selling point that can be overlooked in Web3:  Community Driven Content.

The traditional role a platform takes is to create a product or service that appeals to the user community, and that is sold to these customers.  This means that a small group of people are creating things for a large group of customers.  Social media platforms have turned this on its head when it comes to the product of consumable content.  Youtube, TikTok, and others do not make anything themselves.  Instead, they provide the platform so that anyone can create content, and then if their content is popular enough, they can monetize it.

Web3 has taken lessons from all these influences and has begun to evolve the idea of community-driven content.  How different is this from Web2 social media?  Is there a risk of over saturating this market when anyone can participate?  And what are some of the possible ways that community driven content can uniquely evolve using the benefits of Web3?  Let’s dive into each of these questions.

What Does Community Driven Content Look Like Today?

First, let’s look at how Web3 has evolved its community driven content up to this point.  There are new platforms launching every day, but in general there have been several large trends that classify as “community driven.”  First, the marketplace.  This is a very broadly scoped platform that is exactly how it’s described:  A marketplace.  Giants like OpenSea and Magic Eden create the opportunity for anyone to create and display their products, in both cases primarily visual art-based NFTs, to sell to others on the marketplace.  Web3 allows NFTs to be truly one-of-a-kind which prevents fraud and ensures the value of the NFT stays intact and in the wallet of the owner.  A very large community has built up around this type of marketplace, though the offering being so broad also prevents this community from being tight-knit.  Other than creating (on the platform or externally) and selling NFTs, there isn’t much holding the community together.

A more focused version of this model are platforms like Emojam.  Unlike the general marketplaces, this platform focuses specifically on music NFTs, which helps to create a tighter community of both creators and fans of music.  The platform has tools that can help creators to build, mint, and sell their creations to fans.

Similar to its Web2 counterpart, there are a number of Web3 social platforms that have cultivated communities of creators.  One such example is Chingari, where creators can interact with fans and sell created content and digital merchandise.  This can develop strong sub-communities on a platform.  However, the creators each have their own following and there is little opportunity for a platform-wide community.

The most developed community driven content platform is likely MixMob.  While other platforms have elements of community, platforms like MixMob build their creator community around a specific theme—a crypto card racing game, complete with unique character masks that can be purchased, but that community members can also create.  To make things interesting, members can sell their creations on the MixMob Marketplace so that other customers can use them when racing.  This creates a very interesting market economy, with higher demand showing what mask trends are becoming popular, informing other creators, and then continuing a cyclical design process that evolves with the community’s tastes.

Over Saturation Risk

What happens when these marketplaces become too saturated?  This is a real risk and is in part what caused the NFT bubble to burst for some time.  The lessons learned from this were insightful:  Don’t encourage platforms to allow non-value added NFT collections that are overly derivative, and be careful when launching many NFT collections that don’t offer additional utility.  Collectable NFTs that tie to social creators, sports teams, and other brands have staying power.  NFTs that have built in utility, for the community they are a part of (like the MixMob masks) have staying power.  As these communities grow, they need to follow these guidelines and prevent oversaturation of their marketplaces.

Evolution of Community Driven Content

Given what types of projects and communities grow in the last few years, what can we envision in the next few years?  While generalized marketplaces will continue to have a role in the larger Web3 ecosystem, it is the more focused communities that will likely continue to grow and spread into many different areas.  Communities with a common focus, whether it be a Web3 game, a unique creator or artist, or a franchise (sports, movies, etc.), will continue to thrive and build a following of like-minded members.  Anything that has inherent value, is able to be created by community members, and is focused narrowly enough that members have a common bond, will thrive as Web3 continues to gain adoption and develop new tools.  We can expect to see communities pop up around current brands, franchises, characters, and even celebrities; but we can also see new creative communities develop around unique games and ideas, with communities creating and members upvoting so that the cream rises to the top for all to appreciate.If we can accomplish this, it will be the greatest expression yet of the decentralized world that Web3 has dreamed of becoming.

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