Zuck is about to get Zuck'd. The Battle to Become the Instagram of NFTs
Nifty's vs. Showtime
Yeehaw my friends,
As the migration of consumer attention shifts from web2 to web3, we’re seeing the very early stages of web3 social networks. Last year I wrote about Showtime as an emerging project to watch as a potential threat to Instagram. And just last week Mark Cuban invested in Nifty’s. The space is heating up!
Both Showtime and Nifty’s are trying to position themselves as the Instagram of NFTs.
Before you raise a red flag and say, “Facebook and Instagram will just copy anything new platforms build”, I want to outline why I think it will be borderline impossible to pursue a copy cat strategy.
Yes, Facebook took several ideas from various platforms over the years. Here are a few of the more notable Zuckings:
Digg introduced “liking” behavior with a Digg thumbs up icon to help curate content. This is where Facebook got the concept of liking posts and its own thumbs up symbol.
Tumblr popularized the news feed. Twitter was quick to follow. Facebook’s feed based approach came later.
Snap took the world by storm with “stories”. Something that was only possible at the intersection of mobile cameras and the launch of 4G. Instagram and Facebook quickly copied it and stole the momentum out of Snapchat’s product innovation.
Facebook and Instagram are in the processes of copying every feature from social commerce apps built by China based companies like Pinduoduo. The reason we don’t have any social commerce apps like those in China is for fear of Facebook just copying your features and ideas.
Web3 creates such a fundamentally different dynamic in the underlying technology that the possibility of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter being able to steal a new project’s thunder is slim to none. The best approach for a legacy tech company is to acquire a startup like Nifty’s or Showtime, and attempt their copy cat product strategy with the new entity.
An acquisition would be tough though. It would be similar to Time Inc.’s acquisition of Myspace. The legacy media company simply had no idea how to grow and nurture what they’d acquired.
Ok, time to move on and dive into Nifty’s and Showtime.
Here’s a brief description from the Nifty’s team. Keep in mind that Showtime did launch before Nifty’s so there’s no question that the claim on who is first to market has already become a ripe battle ground.
The first NFT-focused social media platform that brings together premium publishers, brands and creators with collectors, curators and fans. The innovative platform will allow members to create, collect, discover, and curate the most important digital art and other collectables from across the scattered NFT universe.
Currently, I’m more bullish on Showtime, although I do have a ton of respect for the Nifty’s team and they all have really strong backgrounds.
Showtime is led by Alex Masmej, who is no doubt an innovator and progressive thinker in the space. In his Showtime manifesto, he brings a few ideas front and center that have a lot of potential to change our relationship with social media platforms.
Online creators can’t make much money from producing social media content— let alone consumers. After onboarding billions of people, companies like Facebook, YouTube and Spotify slowly partake in rent-seeking behaviors. They maximize ad revenues and time spent on their apps at our expense. We can’t monetize well, because they do it. They profit from us.
Web2 platforms are extractive and capture the majority of value creation via ads.
Beyond voicing those problems, we can’t do anything about the status quo: it’s structural. These centralized companies are legacy networks owned by private parties. Yet, this is where public content and discourse take place. A new social platform should be publicly owned and operated by its users, as we transition to the ownership economy.
Between 2005-2020, brands needed to be able to allow their customers to become communities. This was a scary thought for large brands. It meant they couldn’t “control” the conversation.
Now, brands need to take the next step and allow community ownership, not just conversation. This concept is as important for a tech brand like Facebook, as it is for a brand like Nike.
By speculating on future popularity of online content, people could be incentivized to share it. This unlocks new social capital for everyone, on top of the existing NFT perks.
PREDICTION
I’ll keep this short and sweet.
Facebook will acquire Nifty’s but the innovation will stop and Nifty’s will not be the leader in this space.
Showtime, or some other yet to be created platform, will be the winner.
I do wish both teams the best of luck and success. I’m rooting for both to reach their goals and greatly appreciate the innovation they are bringing to the table, no matter where their projects lead.
PORTALS VS. NETWORKS
Neither Showtime nor Nifty’s represents the real web3 social network though. They are both portals. There’s certainly a mini-network of sorts inside of both, but we should start to separate the idea of portals and networks.
The new social network is free to move across portals. This is the big aha for those coming into web3.
That’s all for today. The fun is just beginning! Talk to you again soon.
-Jeff