Social Tokenization: How Web3 is Changing Online Social and Business Models?
Speculative social or SocialFi can become the beginning of "real-world assets" that we have never thought of before.Original Author: Matti
Original Title: 《The Future Of OwnyFans》
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Anti-Social Media and Web3 Business
I have always believed that social media is becoming more anti-social. The short video trend spawned by TikTok has no core sociality; an algorithm gathers user-generated content (UGC) and recommends it to people. It is the algorithm and random strangers optimizing attention.
Given that Web 3 aims to fundamentally change the social media game, it is worth considering to what extent it fits into the thriving non-social trends online. Although these applications were initially designed for convenient social interaction, they have fostered anti-social behaviors such as anger culture, conflict, and excessive idolization.
I initially set out to find out how social media became anti-social and how Web3 fits into the future of anti-social media. But in the process, I realized that Web3 is the present and future of online social and business interactions in the new era.
From Social to Anti-Social
Facebook led to the mass adoption of social media. Its success began with the launch of the news feed, initially a chat between friends, which later turned into a battleground for keyboard warriors worldwide.
The design of social media platforms is essentially a competition for likes, followers, subscribers, and other engagement metrics, which indirectly measure personal social capital. Over the years, these platforms have excelled at converting social capital into financial capital, giving rise to a class of content creators, namely influencers.
Eugene Wei described a transformative moment for Twitter when he mentioned the introduction of ranking tweets by performance in "The Hunger Games":
"We are now in the late era of Twitter, where almost every tweet is desperate to be liked and retweeted, and everyone is a trained commentator or comedian. It is filled with opinion-driven content and aphorisms."
While it is still not the ultimate zero-sum game like The Hunger Games, the ability to gain status and potentially monetize it is largely anti-social. Think of the dull life updates from the early days of social media, posted without the intent of gaining likes. People said what they wanted to say; now they say what they think others want to hear or what the algorithm captures.
Why are these anti-social elements?
It is largely a game of extracting financial capital.
It is a mimetic game designed to provoke conflict or anger, thus attracting more attention.
It is governed by non-human elements (algorithms).
Performance is not a social activity—there is a clear distinction between performer and audience (at best, it is simulated social interaction).
Over time, the followers and performers on social media platforms have become increasingly isolated from the social aspect, often unaware, primarily locked in a self-desire feedback loop. Rene Girard would say that social media is designed to propagate infinite desires. Social media has allowed for new behavioral patterns that we may not have predicted before.
This is why social media has facilitated the shift from a hippie culture to a culture of ostentation.
"The authenticity-driven ironic culture that emerged in the early 2000s has given way to an era where people are genuinely willing to be influenced and sincerely participate, even if it feels daunting."
TikTok introduced a next-level anti-social dimension. It has almost no social elements, consisting solely of random user-generated content and algorithms that maximize dopamine from the screen. There is almost no intention in purpose discovery, just the dopamine stimulation generated by the next clip, potentially designating the next purchase task—shoes, watches, casual relationships, or other items.
We are relentlessly moving towards a more anti-social, financialized mirror culture, a computer screen that creates a trap in a rich world of escapism. As Toby Shorin said:
"Class mobility may no longer exist, but at least we can have nice things."
In crypto culture, we are perpetuating a grand myth of wealth across generations—the idea of rapid class mobility. Imagine if we could only create a product that combines both—satisfying anti-social desires while offering hope for rapid class mobility.
The quick-rich TikTok has already ventured into the crypto space through tokens and NFTs. With the emergence of friend.tech, this Ponzi-like social structure, Web3 will turn the prospects of influencers into reality.
Integrating Culture
"Volatility as a service" positions crypto products (and culture) as relevant only through volatility. The most important realization is that volatility is a characteristic of cryptocurrency, not a flaw.
While it expresses hope for speculation as a transitional characteristic, because crypto culture relies on capital flow, it will almost never abandon speculation (at least as a user acquisition strategy). This is why I define Web3 as a mindset for internet users—"Come for the volatility, stay for the technology."
But somewhere in between, there is a product—but it is fluid, often represented by a token.
People cannot understand crypto from the perspective of existing products, but crypto is another matter; it is highly fluid, with products changing with narratives, but ultimately—tokens are the products.
In this sense, you are purchasing culture, and the product is ancillary. This is one of the arguments I cited above, that ostentatious culture is primarily a product, with brands integrating themselves into culture through memes and influencers.
Today, we are entering a new realm where culture itself becomes a product, and tokens are the collectible cultural artifacts.
Owny Fans
As people have been able to freely create and disseminate information over the past two decades, in the future, they will be able to own and monetize culture and its fruits.
"Tokens can not only attribute social recognition through means such as recording sources and the origins of creativity but also direct financial value to those who own these ideas." (Aleksia Vujicic on co-creation)
In the past, products were the primary content, but today, (sub)culture is the product, and products are ancillary. DAVID PHELPS wrote, "Irreverent games can be very serious belief systems," and Shorin further stated:
"Compared to users, the lifetime customer value of believers may be greater. Founders can easily design a culture with various embellishments, upgrade opportunities, and permanent extraction models."
Web3 has created tools for rapid global capital formation and has the ability to confer ownership—shares of ideas or products. As new tribes or sects form online, they share a willingness to realize a shared idea. They do not have to rely on anyone to provide them with products.
Especially if they can naturally combine products with ideological loyalty through tokens. The only thing more powerful than a cult is a cult that has its own form of currency.
Whether it is OlympusDAO, BAYC, or all meme coins, these indicate a bottom-up guided culture, where participants are closely tied to its success. Volatility is a successful user acquisition strategy. The strength of culture determines the duration of the game and the sustainability of microeconomics.
Brands are a form of worship, and today they are starting to be built from the bottom up. Subcultures are products, not top-down. This indicates that subcultures are used to validate products. European football clubs are prototypes of this model (perhaps this is why more private capital seeks to enter and commercialize).
If you cannot see the product, then you might be the product. This is often true in Web3. Products are popping up everywhere, tokens rise and fall, some make a comeback, while others are forgotten forever. Meanwhile, we spend most of our time being entertained.
Web3 is Business
Ethereum itself is a brand. The brand of Ethereum is the strongest moat. At an abstract level, owning ETH is a bet on the increasingly apparent consumption of Web3. Perhaps in the future, we will understand that ETH is Nike, SOL is Adidas—this is entirely a consumer choice, not any essential difference.
friend.tech proves that we can actually tokenize almost anything without adhering to legal agreements that would formalize this open relationship. Consumer brands sell the idea that owning this product will earn you appreciation, but they never guarantee it. What buyers seek is this unspoken status promise.
The idea of selling creator shares is that you will be accepted by the inner circle of your idol, but we should not expect creators to dutifully please fans just because they own one or two shares. In other words, status is more important than utility.
Speculative social or SocialFi could be the beginning of "real-world assets" that we have never thought of before. We should not consider how to place government bonds on-chain, but rather how to introduce and develop consumer culture while providing new forms of products embedded with status through token ownership.
Perhaps we still do not recognize that Web3 is business, but a novel form composed of new products—tokens. Tokens bundle the concepts of culture and products together. Products are subjects of reflexive narratives that can change form over time. Similarly, ostentatious consumption is fundamentally a means to achieve certain goals (status, happiness, excitement, etc.), and tokens are too.
But there are also more social tribes in the market with specific goals. Today, we also see them emerging in DeSci (Degen Science), such as mission-driven brands like VitaDAO or HairDAO, where various products and future monetization flow back to token holders.
Through the simple casino of friend.tech, we have entered a new height of social interaction—we are also transforming online business into a more bottom-up attribution culture built around token networks. In my view, this challenges traditional business perspectives and transforms the meme premium of tokens into brand purchasing power.
