Before NFT, how did traditional platforms help creators monetize?

Foreword: Blockchain technology represented by NFT has broad prospects in the field of art trading, but many art trading platforms have appeared before. We review the development history and business models of these platforms, hoping to find a direction for the commercialization of NFT . Patreon Patreon is a crowdfunding website, founded in 2013, the founders are Sam Yam and Jack Conte, the former graduated from Stanford University majoring in computer science, a serial entrepreneur, had founded AdWhirl before founding Patreon (later acquired by Google) , the latter is a musician whose group Pomplamoose sold about 100,000 songs online in 2009. The establishment of Patreon was originally a crowdfunding platform to solve the problem of musicians' creation and income conversion, and later developed to face all artistic creations, including photography (video), music, writing, illustration, animation, podcasts, games, etc. wait. He received his first financing in 2013 with a financing amount of $2.1 million, and then received further financing in 2014 and 2016, with a financing amount of $15 million and $30 million respectively. As of April 2021, Patreon has 200,000 active-zce creators and 6 million paying users. The platform has accumulatively generated more than US$2 billion in revenue for creators. Among them, Patreon draws 5% of the revenue from creators based on service content. 8% and 12% of the income are used as platform fees, and there are also some value-added services on data. Pateron's review of users is weak, and you can become a creator after registering your personal information, but you need to fill in Pateron's W-8BEN form in terms of withdrawal. Korean Toms Coffee will integrate the Chainlink price feed function in the NFT market: On November 28, according to official news, the Korean coffee brand Toms Coffee will integrate the Chainlink price feed function in the NFT market HEYST on its Polygon chain, and will initially provide ETH /USD, KRW/USD, KLAY/USD, SOL/USD trading pair information. [2022/11/28 21:08:05] From the perspective of artistic content, the content-zce covered by Patreon mainly includes podcasts (podcasts), videos, games, cosplay, comics, novels, music, and adult-oriented content. In terms of popularity, the thresholds for the top 100 subscribers in the total list are the total list (6999), podcasts (2754), videos (3704), games (940), cosplay (36), comics (464), novels (588), music ( 684), adult games (1481), adult photos (99), adult videos (741), top1 From the overall list, adult content-zce accounts for about 20% of the top100, and about 30% of the top1000, Among them, podcasts, games, videos and the corresponding adult content-zce have relatively high popularity, and also have a strong head effect. The number of subscribers of the top 5 is about 5-10 times the threshold of top100. From the perspective of user payment, creators can set different payment levels according to their own content, and stipulate the content-zce that users of different levels can obtain. Among them, users with higher payment grades can have more exchanges with creators, and even control the creation of content. For example, some fanartists can determine the characters they will draw in the future according to the preferences of high-paying users. Golf star Poulter becomes the new brand ambassador of OKX. The two will cooperate in the field of NFT and Metaverse: According to official news, Ian James Poulter, a British golf star with 2.244 million Twitter fans, officially announced to become OKX's new brand ambassador. According to the plan, Ian Poulter will try to cooperate with OKX in the following three areas in the Web3 field: to carry out popular science education on digital asset transactions for his personal fans; jointly issue exclusive NFT and digital tokens for fans; Create a metaverse space exclusive to them, and create a virtual golf entertainment scene. It is reported that Ian Poulter has won 5 championships in the European Golf Tour (European Tour, PGA), and has also won many championships in events such as the Nordic Open. [2022/7/15 2:15:33] In terms of specific payment methods, Patreon’s payment is mainly through subscription. The subscription period is monthly, and the minimum subscription fee is $1/month. Only USD, EUR, GBP are supported , Canadian dollar and Australian dollar. Aidan & Chongya Aidan is similar to the domestic version of Patreon. According to Tianyancha, its company was established in 2016 and its website was filed in 2018. In addition to the web page, it also has IOS and Android mobile terminals. Among them, games, podcasts, videos and paintings are the main subscription sources. The main subscribing content-zce on iDaifa is independent game creators, and through the iDaiDai platform to finance game development, 6 of its top 10 projects are games, 2 podcasts, 1 painting and the platform itself. Look, although crowdfunding is carried out on the Aidan platform, most of them have tap links. Judging from the number of comments, taking the top fitness girl as an example, her tap comments are 2000+, while the Aidan platform only has 20 comments about. Therefore, on the whole, although Aidan itself and the Patreon platform have community capabilities centered on creators, from the current point of view, they are both monetization-oriented platforms rather than community platforms. Shanghai Xuhui: Actively explore in the field of NFT digital collections: Jinse Finance reported that according to the official account of Shanghai Xuhui, "Caohejing Yuanchuang Future Metaverse Industrial Innovation Park" in Xuhui District was released as the first batch of metaverse characteristic industrial parks in Shanghai. To build Shanghai Metaverse as the industry's first choice, a talent pool, a business innovation furnace, an integrated application field, and a system pioneer area. Xuhui District took the lead in writing "Metaverse" into the government work report, combined with the "ART (art) + AI (artificial intelligence)" double A engine, and actively explored in the field of NFT digital collections. [2022/6/26 1:32:17] Chongya’s business model is similar to that of Aidan, so I won’t go into details here. The overall number of users of Chongya is relatively small, and platforms like Chongya and Aidan also have mutual transformation Possibly, for example, in the recommendation column of Chongya, some creators switched to Aidan. Breadduo Breadduo is a platform for creators who are biased towards technology sharing. The content-zce in it has more technology-oriented sharing. Its sales method is different from that of Aidan. It is mainly based on the fees charged by the works. Buyers can directly purchase and obtain the corresponding works. Viewing and usage rights without subscribing to the author. In addition, from the point of view of the payment threshold, the payment threshold of Bread Duo is lower, and there are more payment thresholds of 1 yuan or less. Mihuashi Mihuashi was established in 2016. It is a drafting service platform that focuses on art outsourcing. Unlike the previous two platforms that do all kinds of creative platforms, Mihuashi’s works are concentrated in the field of commercial painting. Most of the Mihuashi platforms The works are all commercial drafts, including various styles, and it is a website where painters and planners (users) connect. It not only matches C2C transactions, but also matches C2B transactions. Users directly contact painters through the Mihuashi platform and put forward their needs. Then the artist quotes, and after the transaction, the artist and the user trade products on the platform. Since funds and products are guaranteed to be delivered by the platform, the transaction efficiency is improved, and the platform charges mainly through transaction commissions. Mihuashi received investment from Leyou, Mihayou and Station B in 2016, 2018 and 2020 respectively. The world's first text message sold for $120,000 in NFT auction: On December 22, Vodafone's world's first text message NFT with the content-zce of "Merry Christmas" sold for 107,000 euros (approx. $121,000) for sale. Vodafone said it planned to donate the proceeds from the auction to the UN refugee agency. It is reported that the buyer is a Canadian working in the technology industry, and the specific identity information has not been disclosed. [2021/12/22 7:56:38] Specifically, in terms of platform functions, Mihuashi has no review threshold for the planning (user) side, and can be used after registering an account, but there is a stricter review system for creators. It is necessary to upload works to prove their creative identity and creative ability, so that they can receive manuscripts on the platform. The creator's schedule is also fully considered in the design of the platform. In addition, the planner can also release the drafting plan through the Mihuashi platform, waiting for the painter apply. Mihuashi’s revenue source mainly depends on the platform fee. The platform’s inherent service fee will be charged at 5% of the transaction amount after the transaction between the two parties. The more accurate enterprise-specific service fee is in the range of 15% to 20%. Judging from the drainage of websites such as Patreon, the main direction of diversion is from creators to users, and the diversion method is mainly completed outside the platform. Creators use Weibo, Twitter, Facebook, pixiv and other platforms. Promote your own products, attract users' attention, and then monetize them through platforms such as Patreon and Love Power. However, creators in the middle and lower end have relatively few subscriptions, so it is difficult to form a creator-centered community atmosphere. Therefore, although the communication between creators and paying users is relatively more frequent on Patreon, the content-zce operation and promotion of creators are still on mainstream platforms, and Patreon is more like a pure monetization channel and a place for creators to solicit the willingness of paying users. In addition, these creations tend to be more commercial in style, and there are fewer artistic works with a higher threshold for appreciation. The situation of Aidan is similar. From the perspective of Aidai’s game products, its main community communication is completed on the website TapTap. There is very little community interaction on Aidai. Canadian singer The Weeknd is about to release a new song in the NFT field: On March 27, Canadian singer The Weeknd said on Twitter that he will soon release a new song in the NFT field. [2021/3/27 19:22:08] At the same time, platforms such as Patreon and Aidan are inherently weak in community operations. Due to the division of users by sponsorship levels, the ecology of such platforms is quite different from that of mass platforms. Anyone on the platform can make interactive comments as long as they like creators, but on paid platforms, due to the low payment rate, low user base, and little community feedback, it is difficult to form a benign interactive atmosphere. Further communication is usually carried out in private domains such as QQ groups or Discord, and rarely exists on public platforms such as Patreon. Platforms with a strong demand orientation such as Mihuashi are mainly for matching transactions, and their community atmosphere is even worse. Schedule, artist style and other relevant information. From the perspective of Patreon, the platform’s customer acquisition is mainly through the income effect. From the perspective of the churn rate of creators, according to Patreon’s statistics, the churn rate of creators with a monthly income of more than $500 is less than 1%, which shows that for creators , a stable profit platform is very sticky, but at the same time, unless the user resources (fans) are brought in, the vast majority of Patreon creators have very low income. According to Patreon interviews, about 3% of creators can reach With a monthly income of $1,000, creators with a monthly income of more than $500 account for about 6%. In addition, creators at the middle and lower end have a relatively high attrition rate due to difficulty in earning income. Due to the symbiotic relationship between the platform and creators, Patreon also provides creators with various data services, some of which are charged, but its free data services cover more comprehensive, but in general, I think Patreon’s retention More depends on its own first-mover advantage. In the early days of the Internet, it was difficult for creators to monetize. Patreon earlier solved the problem of profitability for small and medium-sized creators. At the same time, creators are more willing to choose top platforms, where there are more users. The payment entrance is more convenient, and the cash withdrawal is easier. At the same time, due to the large number of creators, it is difficult for the new platform to realize the large-scale migration of creators by spending money. However, the moat of the product itself is not deep, homogeneous products are easy to form, and it is also impacted by some traditional platforms. Since platforms such as Patreon and Aidan are mainly monetization channels rather than traffic channels, when traffic platforms themselves start to pay attention to the ability to pay for knowledge, platforms such as Patreon face certain impacts. For example, Pixiv opened Fanbox, and painters can set part of their paintings Members browse through the creator's Fanbox to earn revenue, which is almost equivalent to Patreon's paid subscription. Popular platforms such as Zhihu, Bilibili, and Douyin mainly use the creator incentive plan to share the revenue of UGC content, but in general, except for Pixiv, which is a specialized artist platform, the ability of mass platforms to make profits for creators Much lower than Patreon, creators on most popular platforms need to obtain income through their own traffic, not fans of the work itself. Therefore, the impact in this regard mainly lies in creator platforms with larger traffic (such as the current Pixiv). In addition, some e-commerce companies also undertake the function of making profits for creators, but they are prone to piracy and regulatory problems. The current creator platform is essentially divided into two types, the traffic platform and the paid platform. On the traffic platform, creators get their own fans, interact with fans, and publish their works. When it comes time to pay, they will transfer to the paid platform. Platform, earning income through works, free works diverting paid works is the main form of diversion for small and medium creators at present, only exceptions are game products, the release of game products has a reasonable and fixed platform, the current payment is mainly a Alternative financing. The content-zce on the paid platform is unmarked content, which can be copied by buyers and republished at the same time, which leads to any buyer on Patreon being able to copy and spread the works they see. NFT technology can mark each distributed work through its own characteristics, so as to realize the tracking of works and the determination of outflowing works, thereby protecting the rights and interests of creators. The creator can refuse to provide paid content-zce for the corresponding account according to the corresponding information, so as to protect the rights and interests of the creator. For games and other forms of content, sponsors can obtain a certain amount of NFT tokens as a general equivalent in the creator's works, thereby improving the current simple crowdfunding for love, increasing the attractiveness of game crowdfunding, and enriching the game industry Fundraising model.

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