This piece is part of a collaboration with MLG Blockchain Consulting, a leading global blockchain development and consulting firm headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with a distributed team across North America, Europe and Asia that is focused on building next generation applications using blockchain and smart contract technology. Emie-Claude Lamoureux PR Director at MLG Blockchain Consulting writes about a team of media,
technology and blockchain experts are building a new model where Creators and Viewers transact directly on the Blockchain, removing the need for intermediaries.
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Since the rise of YouTube in 2005, there’s been an exponential growth in online content creation and consumption. Creators were finally offered a medium through which they could easily share their videos, while consumers were gifted a never-ending supply of content. As of 2018, YouTube boasts over 1.3 billion users with hours watched daily surpassing 1 billion hours, and uploads per minutes approximated at 300 hours of video.
Creating online content has since become relatively easy and widely accessible. An increasing number of people have attempted to ‘make’ it as YouTubers, or creators on other platforms. However, according to a study,
“the reality is that 96.5% of those chasing video fame will never make enough money to crack the U.S. poverty line.”
Meanwhile, breaking into the top three percent would mean gaining advertising revenue of over $15,000 USD. This is where things get tricky.
Since the beginning, content creators have been paid by advertisers and by sponsors. In essence, the more views a video receives, the higher the pay. Platforms such as YouTube also take a percentage of the profits from the ad views, meaning that they stand to benefit from promoting only a handful of channels. As a result, YouTubers have complained that the company promotes a few stars at the expense of the others who are working for success as vloggers.
There are some businesses that are trying to bring fairer profits to content creators, such as Verasity.
What improvements will Verasity’s video sharing platform bring to content creators?
At a first glance, Verasity’s model of compensation has a few similarities to current platforms. However, on this blockchain-powered video sharing platform, creators won’t have to adopt a one-size-fits-all monetizing model, such as advertisement and sponsors.
Instead, Verasity will focus on the quality of engagements between the viewer and content creator. In other words, third-parties will have no say in valuing content.
This creates a direct connection between the viewer and the content provider by reshuffling the way in which advertisers, content producers, viewers and sponsors interact on the video sharing platform. Using Blockchain technology, content creators will be compensated fairly with the following methods:
Donations & Subscriptions
In certain cases, content viewing will be free and there will be options to donate; creators will then receive direct individual donations from followers who enjoy their content. Creators will also have the option to set an amount of VERA tokens to be paid in order to unlock a video (all payments on the platform will be made in VERA tokens which will create value within the video sharing ecosystem).
Content producers will also have the option to charge a monthly rate of VERA tokens, which will allow their viewers to access content. Think of it as an ‘add-on’ for VIP content on free-to-view channels. It could also be a flat rate that enables unrestricted access to the channel.
Advertising
Currently, ads are the main method of funding for creators and viewers on current major video sharing platforms. Content creators and viewers also have no say in whether or not they want to watch these ads. While it is commonly known that creators receive cuts of ad revenues on platforms such as YouTube, it is less widely known that creators can be paid as little as 35 cents per 1000 views.
Advertising will remain a traditional method of funding, but will be revamped utilising Verasity’s own Blockchain technology. On their video sharing platform powered by the Blockchain, ads will be offered as an option for viewers who can earn VERA tokens to be used on the platform by watching them. Therefore, rather than basing the payment model for creators on ads, Verasity is using ads as an incentive to obtain tokens, which can then be used to pay creators according to consumer value.
How can content creators get fair profit? By giving them ownership of their videos.
Decisively, Verasity will be a video sharing platform where content creators decide their preferred method of funding, allowing them to get fair profit for their hard work. Likewise, viewers will be the determining factors of success rather than advertisers. By offering a variety of methods of compensation for content producers, Verasity aims to liberate content creation and consumption through the use of the Blockchain technology.
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Oliver* 