The online publishing and advertising market is heavily reliant and dependent on mediators, third party service providers and centralized systems. As a result, like the music industry, revenue distribution has become incredibly complex and opaque, leading to a less efficient and transparent ecosystem for online content creators.
In a recent report, The Next Web named three Blockchain startups Brave, Matchpool and WildSpark that are leading the Blockchain-based online publishing and advertising market. The three startups are targeting three different sectors within the online advertising market in order to create a more fair system for online content creators.
Brave
Brave is a browser developed by the co-founder of the Mozilla project. Content creators such as media outlets and film producers are able to monetize their websites without partnering with mediators or third party servicers such as Google or Amazon ad services. Instead, Brave integrates local advertisements on the websites and based on traffic, it sends out Basic Attention Tokens (BATs) which can be exchanged through cryptocurrency exchange platforms to Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies.
Because Brave collaborates directly with advertisers, content providers will no longer be forced to take 50 to 70 percent revenue cuts which are often submitted to third party service providers as commission.
Matchpool
Matchpool also creates a unique infrastructure with which content creators can develop and monetize their content through premium memberships. For instance, on Matchpool, content creators are permitted to create pools or groups of users and impose premium membership fees. Matchpool can be best described as being similar to premium content distribution platforms such as YouTube Red, with a slight twist: content providers can freely select their monetization methods.
“I noticed that all the people in the world have a universal truth. Something that we all value and incorporate into our life. And, it doesn’t matter if we are Japanese, Chinese, American, etc...Trust is hard to gain. It’s earned. Matchpool’s currency is also trust and that trust is the cryptocurrency,” Matchpool founder Yonatan Ben Shimon.
WildSpark
Lastly, WildSpark, which operates similarly to Patreon, allows users to finance their content creators on any platforms such as YouTube with cryptocurrencies. Users on WildSpark can choose to donate to their favorite content creators without being limited to certain platforms and financial methods.
In all, the three abovementioned startups Brave, Matchpool and WildSpark provide alternative advertising and monetizing methods for content providers. Brave is an alternative to major ad service providers such as Google or Amazon, Matchpool is an alternative to premium content providers like YouTube Red or Twitch premium and WildSpark is an alternative platform to Patreon, which is vastly used by content providers on YouTube and Wordpress.
Many startups and projects are attempting to utilize the Bitcoin network and Ethereum’s smart contract protocol to create a more transparent, fair and efficient ecosystem for content providers.