Vevue: Paywalls
[Article originally published on Medium]
Vevue is the first fully operational video distribution platform built on blockchain. There are many projects addressing this area and some are even running by now (though most are still in development) but Vevue was first
Built on the Quantum blockchain, which is fast and features minimal transaction fees, Vevue makes for a smooth, natural and fun user experience
Why do we care? In his fine article 2018 is the End of Social Media as we Know It, Michael K. Spencer points to why Vevue is a prime candidate to become the next unicorn:
Teens are now hyper aware of their mobile addiction and app consumption patterns. They are trying to cut the habit. This is resulting in a great exodus from older apps such as Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram in favor of niche apps that are peer- or video-centric. YouTube and Snapchat will be big winners here.
In other words, the trend is clearly moving away from written language and static pictures, and towards video content
Watch out YouTube, Vevue is going to eat your lunch
Video is the next logical step in our progression towards capturing human attention. Video is alive — it conveys rhythm, tone, and nuance and sentiment that simply doesn’t come through in static pictures or text, and in the prevailing zeitgeist of constantly seeking novelty, it’s the brass ring
So YouTube is well positioned to capture the trend, except for one thing: the company has not embraced crypto-currency and thus has no way to monetise the content other than via the old advertising game, which no longer works
Tokenising Attention
In the old days, a guy had a story that got turned into a screenplay that was shopped around the studios in Hollywood and eventually got picked up by a bunch of investors. The casting was done, the sets were built, the footage was taken and edited, the film was released, and the theatre and syndication deals were cut
It was a big affair, and audiences across the world paid good money to sit spellbound for a couple of hours at the local theatre
Today every teenager carries equipment in her backpocket capable of taking high quality film. The set is the girl’s bedroom, or her high school, or the Grand Canyon — basically wherever she is at any point. The cast: herself — maybe a friend or two. The screenplay, there isn’t one. And there are no investors
Most importantly, the distribution network doesn’t cut deals, it quietly accepts her production, gives her nothing for it, and monetises it behind her back
But she doesn’t care because she doesn’t know what she’s missing
With Vevue that’s about to change. Blockchain allows us to monetise things we would never have thought we could, to generate revenue from the content we’ve been giving away all this time… and revenue matters — it empowers individuals
Make a 5 second video of a handstand or engage on your favourite rant for 2 minutes on film, put it behind a 2 token paywall, and if it goes viral, you may have a million tokens; not a million views that are ultimately worthless, but money, real money
Vevue pays out 100% of the income generated, keeping nothing for itself
The business model is enough to make anyone’s head spin, and represents a 180º turn in the way things are currently done. In fact, the Vevue model is one that no one can compete with
The natural conclusion is that as artists, influencers and content producers discover this new platform, the other networks will become starved of content. YouTube is nothing without the content produced by its members
So let’s do some back-of-the-envelope math: with CPM of $2, one million views generates $2,000 in revenue. YouTube takes roughly half so our teenage girl walks away thrilled with $1,000
But a million views is a lot of followers and YouTube doesn’t display ads for all of a user’s videos. So let’s ask, what income would the same million views generate for content behind a 5 token paywall? At current prices of 2¢/token that would be: $100,000
Let’s ask the question differently: How many views would it take to generate the same $1,000 our dear teenager was happy with?
The answer is 10,000 views. So there’s a 100x difference in terms of the audience required to beat YouTube, right out the gate. Clearly, that is a substantial advantage to overcome
But that’s just the beginning
What can be done with crypto economics is significantly different from what traditionally has been possible in the design of economic systems. At least one aspect owes to the lesser friction of crypto transactions where there are no middlemen. Of course, we’re also transitioning in our understanding of value
It used to be that a dollar spent was a dollar that had to be earned, and we could calculate precisely how many minutes of our lives had to be sacrificed in the service of an employer for that dollar
Today the relationship with money is not as clear. Our proverbial teenager makes a quick video putting on lipstick and pushes it out on Vevue. All her friends (and her parents) see it and in the process money changes hands — tiny amounts, but it all adds up
Was that earned? Was there the soul-sucking weariness of performing chores for an employer? There wasn’t. So the money can be spent more freely, watching videos of your friends hang out on the sofa, because the “cost” of those tokens is minimal
Welcome to the new economy
If you love what Vevue is doing, you can now buy their tokens with a credit card or bank draft, thanks to a new partnership with CryptoSpace. Simply join their Telegram group [https://t.me/VevueInvestors] and learn how!
CryptoSpace now facilitates ownership of Vevue tokens
tweet me: @ekkis
Comments or questions about this article are always most welcome and can be left here as responses on Medium. To reach me more directly please tweet @ekkis
For full disclosure, I’m currently advising Vevue (yes, I think it’s the next unicorn and want to be part of it)
This article is the first in a series. To continue reading, please see our next article: Vevue: Reverse Paywalls