Zuckerberg Wants in on the Web3 Action

Meta (fka Facebook) is stepping up its game to help creators monetize on Facebook and Instagram, before they lose them to, not only TikTok, but the Web3 world. Last month Meta had announced it will be incorporating NFTs on its platforms – which was a huge mainstream win for NFTs. They now plan on releasing their own “social tokens” and “creator coins.” These are informally being called “Zuck Bucks.” Catchy but do we like? These social tokens will only work in the Meta ecosystem (and inevitably the Metaverse) – not the decentralized ones we understand on the blockchain.

Understandably so, as they had attempted to launch their own cryptocurrency project called Diem (fka as Libra) back in 2019, which was shut down due to regulatory issues.

There has not been a formal statement issued on how these social tokens will work, but if it’s at all close to how Web3 enthusiasts envision it – that’s a closer move to a “Web2.5.”

Meta had announced it would commit to paying $1 billion to creators through 2022. This included paying for Facebook and Instagram reels views (Reels Play Bonus Program) ranging from $600 up to $35,000 – a way to compete with TikTok. It seems recently Meta made changes to the payout system, without any real explanation, increasing the views threshold, making it harder for creators to earn. Yet another reason why it’s important to never build entire businesses on rented land.

Giving Meta the benefit of the doubt on this one, and considering the timing of it all, I’m guessing they’re allocating a portion of their budget to roll-out these social tokens to creators. I’m still not convinced Zucks is a robot and think he might actually care about putting more money back in creators’ pockets.

On a recent podcast episode with Tim Ferriss, Zuckerberg briefly shared his view for the future of the creator economy:

“If you just think about how many people today basically do jobs that they – might not actually like that much, but they’re supporting themselves”

Interpretation: A lot of people today are in jobs they hate to pay the bills.

“Compared to where I think and hope that the world is going, which is just a much more robust creative economy – where way more people can do things that are intellectually or physically interesting to them. And in doing so, build up communities around that and have enough monetization and economy around that to support that”

Interpretation: The creative economy is what will propel the future of work as more people will be able to do what they love and care about. Individuals will be their own economies, driven by these communities that support their work. The “monetization” will most likely have to be these social tokens/creator coins.

“That, to me, is the modern version of how do you upgrade the way that people live and work to fulfill human potential”

Interpretation: 🙌🏻

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