Cryptocurrency prices are falling as the macroeconomy weakens. Under the background of the bear market which makes a cold development environment, Web3 as a representative of the future of Internet innovation still attracts the attention of the Web3-oriented project and the traditional Internet industry, eager for transformation. For projects, whether it can onboard mass users to enter Web3 application as part of the ecology is an issue with great concern when the application layer develops to a certain stage, which is also necessary for the blockchain technology’s mass adoption. In this period, it would be beneficial for advantages in user cognition and user experience to make the clearer user elements in the economic model, optimize user marketing strategies and deeply cultivate product experience, thus the project can better dig the market value and build up brand voice for Web3 in the bear market.
On Jun 29, Blocklike held a panel roundtable themed “Web2 to Web3: Principle of utility” to focus on the industry appeal & user awareness of Web3, product development strategy & planning, and Web3 value orientation development. Leaders of six Web3-oriented projects GEMS, Soul Meta, Encentive, Valerian NFT, SkyArk, Stone DAO were invited to join the live. The panel was on both Binance Live and Mars Finance, attracting viewers as many as 37,000. Here are some excerpts from the discussion.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/pkPoezkKagA
- Web3: Value network involved with user
In the age of information, users have become the top priority for any industry’s development to overcome obstacles and expand the economic volume. As a result, the concepts in traditional Internet such as user, operation and business logic are also applicable to Web3. Web3, built on the innovative blockchain technology of bottom layer, combines with Web2 as the complementary solutions to solve Web2’s problems. They have a core element in common — empowering users with value.
The primary purpose of Web3 is to solve the problem of user ownership and redefine it to give back to users complete right of self-control over their own data and behavior. Meanwhile, a series of incentives surrounding the reallocation of value in the Web3 world can be generated, bringing about gameplay with unique interests or benefits to Web3 users as well as the more vividly interactive scenarios, and as a whole making the utility of decentralization deeply impressed the public.
In Andy Koh, CEO of GEMS’ opinion, quality GameFi should have both the fun part and the profitability in economy. Compared to tech giants who are moving the ecosystem from Web2 to Web3 in a form of expressway, natural blockchain projects have to strive more to migrate Web2 users into the Web3 world, for they need to literally own the users first. There are only 80M users right now in the blockchain field, and it will be a long way before we achieve the long-standing goal of mass adoption, and help users grasp fundamental spirit around consensus, integration, security and trust, etc.
In the view of Kai Zhou, CMO North America of Soul Meta, the onboarding to Web3 is kind of the fight for user value on the Internet, under the well-known perception of the industry that user attention has its value and it should be back to the users to create more value. The regulation is another main pressure on Web3 mass adoption, leading to misunderstanding of the crypto stuff and a bad reputation from the general public, not to mention embracing the advanced technology concepts including the block, the blockchain or its transparency potential. KOL marketing can make a difference, just like what BAYC and Azuki do prior the booming development of PFP NFT, creating a unique promotion effect.
- Build more perfect Web3 products & increase popularity
As the changed fundamental architecture of Web3 brings little difference to user experience compared with Web2, the future market performance of Web3 applications depends more on the product’s user experience and the ability to meet their demands. Therefore, Web3 project can focus on the precise positioning of market segments to match them perfectly, so as to prepare for the ecological explosion exclusive to Web3.
At present, the mobile terminal experience has become mainstream. Driven by this consumption trend, common things in Web2 world, such as App, App store, payment system and QR code, can be integrated to Web3 in the future to provide easier access for Web2 users.
Steven Taylor, CEO of Stone DAO, thinks that Web3 represents a chance to reimagine the Internet and to rebuild platforms on fresh principles, and some of the strategies that can be implemented are to create platform products with easy access and multiple profits for the economic model to allow more people join in. Besides, I think Web3 is struggling with its credibility, and we need to collaborate with famous blockchain influencers, participate in various marketing events and share project development in time with the public to tackle the trust problem and increase the whole industry awareness.
David Rutkovsky, Co-founder of Encentive, talks about how to reach out to more users, and he notes that SaaS solutions can be leveraged to attract users. Regarding crypto transactions and payment, the current payment system is mainly based on the plug-in or extension in the web browser, which cannot fulfill the user demands. If we treat users as consumers of the Web2 world, we would find it better to create something like an application store in which the users can easily proceed to make purchase with a range of payment options, making the KYC and the recharge within trading system more convenient. So it is precisely product usability and the user experience world in a carefree and convenient way.
- Web2 and Web3: Balance different needs of users
It is a long way to achieve the mass adoption of Web3, among which, the blockchain ecology has to face a long-term problem of how to get along with the Web2 industry and its users, and bring them into the blockchain world. In the future, Web3, aimed at the popularization of crypto technology, is allowing all participants to benefit from technological development by creating a healthier and more prosperous on-chain ecosystem.
Web3 is in its initial stage of application ecology, leaving Web2 users with limited choices. Currently, the attraction of DeFi, GameFi and other popular projects to crypto users mainly lies in economic benefits, which makes it difficult for traditional Internet users to understand the full landscape, utility and value of Web3 application layer. When expanding the market of non-crypto users, the project should learn to balance the game experience and economic benefits to ensure a stable product and continuous growth of users before the final realization of Web3.
Andy Koh strongly agrees that UI and UX design can play a part in the product or brand strategy because the utility principle functions across not only GameFi, but also the other application categories in the whole blockchain industry. Many on-chain websites tend to look so alienated with the mainstream ones of Web2, the action to be impressive and to add animation is far not enough. Instead, we should help people overcome the learning curve of blockchain, like it’s our job to communicate the value of Web3 products or services in an easily digestible manner, so as to migrate users.
As Medi AJ, Team Member of Valerian NFT, puts it, Web2 and Web3 users have different perceptions of NFT, games, and even the Metaverse. Web3 pays more attention to the economic benefits, while Web2 usually focuses on the experience, not absolutely but in some ways, which needs the balance between the two aspects.
It’s practical for content creator platforms to start with providing relatively simple functions to the user base to onboard Web2 creators to Web3. Until the Web3 application ecosystem is well-established, we should always focus marketing efforts on creators, one of the most vital participants in the crypto world and same as KOLs in Web2 with strong supporters, by incentive measures that leverage NFT, community governance, decision engagement and airdrops.
- Web3 User cognition: Power of long-term growth
For the whole industry, including investment institutions, projects and infrastructures and other participants, it takes several rounds of explosion to form a comprehensive and mature product system and give birth to a dApp with worldwide popularity, because it is in its initial stage of application development cycle, and has limited ecological maturity.
Currently, the realization of mainstream marketing should be a consensus for the whole industry, and the application advantages of blockchain, Web3 and decentralization should be widely communicated to form a positive image and impression for the public. On the one hand, the project can leverage the influence of DAO and the community as the forefront of blockchain technology application innovation; On the other hand, marketing strategies engaging the KOL, traditional brand or popular IP should also be made full use of to achieve sustainable growth.
As Kelvin Chua, Co-founder of SkyArk, puts it, as Web3 builders, one of our focuses is changing the Web2 user’s cognition to realize that Web3 is better than Web2. The situation of low quality and playability of GameFi is changing with the support of capital and more developers and designers shifting from the traditional gaming industry, and it takes them 10 to 20 years to become triple-A games. It is for sure that the perception or feedback of GameFi is becoming more positive, a breakthrough under the joint efforts of the GameFi community as a whole. In addition, NFT, the user value carrier in GameFi economy model and unique in ownership and interoperability, will bring more utility cases and liquidity in building a mature ecosystem.
David Rutkovsky holds the belief that although the bear market seems to last for slightly longer than many people expect, it gives the industry more time to make improvements on projects and products, educate Web2 users and give them sufficient time to understand who we are by trying out different opportunities that we made. The blockchain industry, as we know, has come a long way, and it will be bound to develop into a more flourishing market in the next bull market.
Host:
Cabin VC, Ryan Lin, Investment Manager
Speakers:
GEMS, Andy Koh, CEO
Soul Meta, Kai Zhou, CMO North America
Valerian NFT, Medi AJ, Team Member
Encentive, David Rutkovsky, Co-founder
SkyArk, Kelvin Chua, Co-founder
Stone DAO, Steven Taylor, CEO
