SocialFi is a web3 industry attempt at solving the problem of monetizing digital content—the genuine issue affecting millions of talented creators worldwide.

From the perspective of daily users, it might be hard to see creators struggling. However, despite producing quality content daily, the overwhelming majority do not make any money at all. Many SocialFi projects have been launched in the last couple of years, aiming to solve this very monetization part by rewarding every digital interaction for both creators and users. Unfortunately, most seem to have missed the mark by leaning too heavily on aspects of decentralization rather than offering real-world solutions to existing problems.

The origins of mass interest in this space occurred during the pandemic lockdowns. With the idea of pursuing a passion-based career becoming more mainstream, the future of social monetization was catapulted into a new growth phase. This was also a time when the crypto industry saw a mass influx of retail investors, with industry narratives steering towards building pragmatic, real-world solutions. This led to significant advancement in the SocialFi movement, and plenty has been achieved since then in terms of on-chain innovation, tokenized community governance, integration of NFTs, and other DeFi products that authentically bridge issues around creator monetization and user rewards.

Yet, as a sector claiming to be the future of the trillion-dollar creator and freelancer economy, the modest market cap of SocialFi tokens is over $2 billion. This indicates that the sector has a long way to go in establishing itself into a global financial ecosystem. Contrast this with DeFi’s market cap (around $70 billion) or even of NFTs (around $62 billion), and it’s clear that SocialFi has a long road ahead.

Thankfully, there are signs that SocialFi platforms and the utility tokens that power them have a bright future. This is seen in the significant volume of new users willing to join a newly launched SocialFi platform. Sure, many of these users are only there for the free rewards, but that’s the current norm for web3, whether they like it or not.

The benefits of SocialFi

To benefit from such early user traction, builders in SocialFi must be real with themselves when designing a product. The reality is that very few creators care about (or will even benefit from) decentralized content ownership or on-chain proof of IP rights. Although this is a USP widely marketed in web3, it only benefits the top 1% of celebrity creators in the world.

What about the masses? What USP will win their attention and loyalty? The answer to this holds the solution for how SocialFi platforms can finally win market share from Big Tech’s platforms, and central to this is building hybrid ecosystems. This means fusing blockchain features (such as tokenization) with non-blockchain architecture, providing an intuitive and seamless user experience for the masses.

While DeFi and blockchain technologies have a variety of clear benefits and value, mass adoption won’t happen if web2 users are required to get past the web3 wall of creating a digital wallet, store a 20-word seed phrase, and interact with an unfamiliar user experience. If creating an account is harder than starting an Instagram account, you’ve already lost 95% of all potential users. From a user experience standpoint, people cannot be held back by the intimidating web3 gates.

Appealing to the masses

The winners in this space will focus on the narrative that appeals to the masses, building a community of real creators, empowering them with web3 education, and implementing real-world token utility into a seamless user experience. That’s the formula for SocialFi’s success.

Without a doubt, the SocialFi community is tackling these challenges, and 2024 remains a crucial year for projects in this space. The current wave of innovation is the most exciting one, as projects roll out user-centric features that focus on user experience and build upon the value that traditional platforms have already created for the creator community. Tokens matter, but as a secondary driver of growth, and should only exist as a medium to enhance the user experience. This realization will shape the sector moving forward.