WEB3 has been widely concerned in the past two years. Everyone knows that it has a broad market prospect, but most people are still confused about how to do it and how to implement it. Based on some actual cases, the author of this article analyzes how to achieve explosive growth of WEB3 projects from 0 to 1, hoping to be helpful to you.
1. Core Values of WEB3
Allow each individual to contribute his or her own strength to maximize his or her own interests and achieve fair distribution of benefits and efforts.
WEB3 is a new type of internet conceived by some technologists to use decentralized blockchains, the shared ledger systems used by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In the traditional WEB2 era, the ownership of projects and data is in the hands of companies. Companies have absolute say in how a project is carried out, how profits are distributed, and what information is disclosed. The role played by users is more of a participant or promoter.
However, WEB3 redefines the above concepts. It returns the project planning rights, profit distribution rights, and data ownership to the users. Everyone is the owner of the project and has the right to contribute to project planning, data authorization, and contribution pricing.
This change not only means a change in rights, but also reflects a deeper change in incentive relationships, which in turn triggers the true core value of WEB3 - decentralized stimulation of the participation of everyone interested in the project, allowing everyone to contribute their own strength to maximize their own interests, and of course, they can also fairly obtain the profits that belong entirely to them.
This is what makes WEB3 really attractive. It can inspire everyone to devote themselves to a project to the greatest extent in order to maximize their own interests, beliefs and benefits, thereby maximizing the success of the project.
Of course, because WEB3 is decentralized and everyone can participate, the WEB3 project is destined to be global and borderless.
Now that we understand the concept of WEB3, a key question arises: What problems can a WEB3 project help me solve? Why should I do a WEB3 project?
In fact, countless people around me have asked me this question in 2022, including those who work in the game industry, the Internet industry, IP cultural and creative industries, e-commerce, etc.; everyone's starting points can be classified into two types: one is that they are really optimistic about the future of WEB3 and hope to make arrangements in advance and become the leader when new trends come; the other is that their main business growth has encountered a bottleneck, and they hope to find a second growth curve with the help of WEB3.
However, no matter what the purpose is, we must think about how WEB3 can specifically help our existing business/current world to improve efficiency and reduce costs?
2. Integration model of WEB3 and existing business
1. Use decentralized rights confirmation and fair distribution of benefits to improve efficiency and reduce costs
Take the example of improving efficiency and reducing costs through WEB3. In terms of the current secondary incentives for creators, the current contributions of creators are based on their own interests and beliefs, and the material and even spiritual rewards they can obtain from them are very few, which also greatly limits the quantity and quality of creators' participation.
However, if the WEB3 method is used to allow creators to obtain fair material rewards from their own creations (based on decentralized user preference, such as browsing, forwarding, liking, etc.), and their secondary creations can be permanently engraved on the blockchain, with their own names engraved so that everyone can see it and cannot tamper with it, then this will greatly stimulate the participation of more creators, and they will optimize the quality of their own creations in order to maximize their own interests, which will in turn have a positive impact on the entire content industry.
2. Use emotional value (entertainment, sociality, added value) to achieve the effect of 1+1>2
If you already have a business layout and hope to find a second growth curve, then we have to think about how to combine it with the existing business to achieve the effect of 1+1>2.
For example, if your business is related to physical entities, the traditional way of promotion is through online advertising and offline physical word-of-mouth promotion. However, such a method is often centralized, and not only has limited coverage, but it is also relatively difficult to find the precise target audience, which in turn affects ROI.
However, if we use WEB3 to turn physical products into NFTs or scenes in the metaverse, then the value they possess is not just the use value of physical goods, but also the emotional value (entertainment, sociality, and added value) brought by physical extension.
For example, if a new energy vehicle is made into an NFT and bound one to the physical car, then every car buyer will own a unique car. The car buyer can decorate, optimize and modify elements based on the NFT car he owns, and receive communication, attention and love from users across the entire network on the chain.
A good NFT can not only bring reputation and attention to the NFT owner, but also guide car companies to obtain first-hand popular business information and grasp consumer interests more keenly and accurately. At the same time, the publicity of the NFT owner itself also brings traffic and brand exposure to the car company, achieving decentralized growth and accurately finding the target audience (who is discussing and communicating what).
If car companies can also combine NFT with some offline fixed rights and interests and guide some hot topics, it will have a more effective effect. Of course, the above are just examples of rights and interests for some WEB3 projects. There are many contents that can be designed and combined.
For example, the reason why the Bored Ape Club has become popular on the entire Internet is that in addition to the above-mentioned online entertainment attributes and offline physical rights and interests, it also has a very important right: that is, one can join the Bored Ape Yacht Club with the identity certificate of the Bored Ape NFT. The members of the club are all financially free people and even celebrities. Therefore, the psychological expectation that joining the club may lead to financial freedom is also an important reason for the high market popularity.
Therefore, how to combine the project's own rights and interests with WEB3 to achieve the effect of 1+1>2 is also something we need to focus on. There are many points of combination: entertainment, sociality, and added value; but how to combine existing resources to maximize emotional value and asset value is the issue we need to focus on.
We will analyze this issue in detail below.
Next, we will focus on analyzing the above questions: How can WEB3 projects achieve effective global growth from 0 to 1?
3. Product positioning of WEB3 project
1. Create a double helix complementary and increasing structure of practical value and emotional value
When it comes to this topic, the first thing we cannot avoid is the issue of product positioning.
From the perspective of value classification, product value can be divided into practical value, emotional value and asset value. Whether your WEB3 has practical value, asset value and emotional value is the key consideration for your project.
If your project itself is a physical project with practical value, then the double helix structure of practical value and emotional value is an effective structure for complementary enhancement. Emotional value can make your physical project more valuable, and the gradually increasing value of the physical project itself has asset value, which can make the emotional value more fully utilized.
For example, taking the example of new energy vehicles just mentioned, a good NFT design that is recognized by everyone will make its corresponding physical car model more popular and more valuable. The gradually increasing value of the physical car model will prompt more people to buy it to realize asset appreciation, thereby forming FOMO emotions to maximize the emotional value.
If NFT itself also has rights and interests closely related to physical car models, for example, if NFT reaches a certain level of recognition, it can enjoy car maintenance and other services at half price, and the NFT platform that is most recognized by the entire network will also name its products after it and have certain dividends, etc. (practical value), then the entire process: users participate in NFT design in order to become famous/increase the value of their cars - NFT popularity helps offline sales - offline FOMO buying creates scarce assets - corporate brand exposure and cash flow growth, and start the next round of circulation based on the data of the entire network (such as producing popular models for the entire network), such a growth flywheel will automatically start to operate.
2. Use asset value to create scarce assets
Of course, if your original project is not a physical project, but a virtual product that focuses on emotional value, such as games/cultural creations, then making your WEB3 have asset value is a good choice.
For example, the props in the game can be NFTized. The props themselves have price fluctuations in the NFT market based on the supply and demand relationship. The scarcer the props (demand exceeds supply), the higher the price. In this way, users who play the game can not only participate in the game itself, but also make money by collecting and PKing props. The increase in randomness and scarcity can also maximize the entertainment and sociality of the game.
Of course, just like the example of new energy vehicles, good NFTs themselves also come with dissemination and social topics. Those who want to own them and those who already own them will spread and promote them for the sake of maximizing their own interests, allowing the game itself to gain brand exposure and achieve user growth.
Of course, the NFTization of props is just an example. There are many other parts in the game that can have asset value, such as in-game currencies such as points, value-added gameplay (PK, gambling, etc.), and the re-creation of a new type of scarce asset. The core is to design and create it in combination with the attributes and resources of your product itself.
3. Use emotional value to make assets more valuable and scarce
If your main business is products that focus on asset value, such as finance, collectibles, etc., then it is crucial to let your WEB3 play its asset value and emotional value at the same time.
For example, if you are a financial product for public welfare, and you issue a public welfare NFT to users who own the financial product as a certificate for the user's public welfare, then all users on the entire network chain can know that xx user did xx public welfare at xx time, and use this as a certificate for showing off to attract more users to join. In this way, the NFT itself has emotional value and becomes a capital for users to show off.
Of course, this alone is far from enough to attract users who participate in financial management, after all, the purpose of investment is to make money. Therefore, it is best for NFTs to have asset value. For example, users who hold NFTs can draw extra financial interests or prizes, or NFTs themselves can be used as a certificate for financial competition to win more interests from other users, etc.
In this way, users who participate in financial management will have both fame and benefits, and their willingness to participate will be much stronger. At the same time, NFT itself can also be used as a medium of publicity, allowing users to actively spread it for their own reputation, thereby increasing the exposure and influence of financial management.
4. Organizational Structure of WEB3 Project
Let experts take control of the overall situation, while allowing users to give full play to their own power.
Of course, product positioning is only the first step in solving the product problem. Since WEB3 projects are often globalized, we must take into account both the consistency of global growth and the differences between countries and regions in the promotion process, and focus on the project priorities.
For example, in the promotion phase, NFT can be airdropped to designated users on the chain, which means that we can select our target users in advance (based on the user's assets, activity, and other attributes) for point-to-point airdrops. At the same time, in order to motivate users to actively share in order to maximize their own interests, we can also set relevant organizational forms from the user's perspective.
In WEB3, the better organizational form is mainly the DAO form, that is, the job setting, personnel division of labor, issue discussion, and profit distribution of the team organization are decided by voting of each user participating in the project. If there are many users, node voting is used to select representatives to participate in the project operation on their behalf.
In such an organizational relationship, the founder of the project is only a member of the DAO, and the control over the project also comes from the majority of members in the organization voting to agree with your plan. If the project founder leaves the project, the project can still run normally.
Of course, such an organizational relationship is still difficult to implement in the current WEB3 stage. The efficiency of completely decentralized operations is too low, and the departure of project founders often has a relatively large impact on the project. Few projects can continue to achieve rapid growth without the departure of their founders.
Therefore, most organizations currently still adopt a centralized form in terms of organizational form, leaving the right to participate in the project and the fair distribution of benefits to the community to jointly participate in decision-making. However, important decisions, project development goals and plans are still decided by the project's founding team and experts in various fields among the project's participating users. This can better balance the efficiency and professional issues of centralization with the incentive and supervision issues of decentralization, thereby maximizing the project's effectiveness.
5. Global Characteristics of the WEB3 Project
Learn to adapt to local conditions and redefine "necessities" and "value-added services" in combination with local culture
The third point that needs to be considered is to adapt to local conditions.
Because WEB3 projects are often globalized, the culture and preferences of users in different countries and regions are somewhat different. For example, Indonesian users are very taboo about red, and death is generally taboo in Asian countries. However, in European and American countries, if you can package death as something cool and interesting, it will attract everyone's attention and increase word of mouth, such as some interesting decorations for Halloween.
So if you are planning a global Halloween event (Asian countries also like to celebrate foreign festivals), you need to plan two events under the same theme in Europe, America and Southeast Asia, or take an intermediate element that does not touch the concept of death. Choosing the former or the latter often depends on which country and region your strategic center is in, which requires you to have a deep understanding of the essence of your business.
For example, the traditional concept is that users in Europe and the United States are generally mature, have higher monetization efficiency, and have higher requirements for product quality; Southeast Asian users are more sensitive to interests and entertainment, have average monetization capabilities, and have a higher tolerance for quality.
But if you are engaged in e-commerce business, you will find that the above understanding is broken to some extent. The proportion of Southeast Asian users' payment on e-commerce is increasing year by year, and the growth rate of online shopping in some regions is three digits per year. E-commerce companies such as Lazada and Shein have all benefited from this wave of dividends. At the same time, brands such as Temu that entered the United States with the concept of low-cost e-commerce have grown rapidly and are sought after by American users.
If you analyze the above differences carefully, you will find that the biggest problem here is that e-commerce and other platforms sell necessities in people's daily lives. Users in all countries need such products, so cost-effectiveness is often commonly pursued by users in Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. Products with low prices and good quality are of course needed by everyone. If the price is relatively low and the quality is relatively good, it is also a generally better choice for users in all countries. If the price is low and the quality is average, or the price is high and the quality is high, then we need to focus on it. This is the rule for necessities.
If you provide value-added services, the monetization rate in the European and American markets will indeed be higher. At this point, let me ask you a question: Is social entertainment a necessity or a value-added service?
If you are a user who has lived in China for a long time, I think you will answer without hesitation that social entertainment is a value-added service. So another point to note here is empathy.
In most countries and regions, entertainment and social networking are indeed value-added services, after all, they cannot be used to make a living. However, in South American countries, entertainment and social networking can actually be completely classified as necessities. Social entertainment is deeply embedded in the genes of these users and is as important as food, clothing, housing and transportation. Therefore, when judging the type of business, we also need to think from the perspective of local users in order to grasp the characteristics of the local market and avoid detours.
The above is what is shared in this article on WEB3 operational growth.
VI. Conclusion
The biggest difference between the WEB3 project and the WEB2 project is that it returns the project planning rights, profit distribution rights, and data ownership to the users, decentralizing and stimulating the participation of everyone interested in the project, allowing everyone to contribute their own strength to maximize their own interests, and of course, they can also fairly obtain the profit that belongs entirely to them.
When planning WEB3, you need to think about a key question: What problems can the WEB3 project help me solve? Why should I do a WEB3 project?
If we are optimistic about the future of the industry, then we need to think about in which areas the characteristics of WEB3 can improve efficiency and reduce costs, such as the field of secondary creation.
If you are looking for a second growth curve for your own business, you need to deeply integrate it with the existing business and see how to achieve the effect of 1+1>2 from the aspects of entertainment, sociality, and added value.
Specifically from the perspective of product positioning, if your main business is physical projects with practical value, then WEB3 can focus on emotional value. Emotional value makes your physical projects more valuable, and the gradually increasing value of physical projects themselves have asset value, which can make the emotional value more fully utilized.
If your main business is to promote emotional value, then letting your WEB3 have asset value is a multi-value curve that can complement each other. If your main business is to promote asset value, then it is important to let your WEB3 play both asset value and emotional value. The mutual advancement of asset value can achieve snowball growth of asset value, and emotional value can make the value of assets better spread and let more people participate.
WEB3 projects are often global, so during the promotion process we must take into account both the consistency of global growth and the differences between countries and regions and focus on the project priorities.
At the project architecture level, we must take into account efficiency and professionalism, allowing the founding team to play a leading role, and fully leverage user participation and supervisory responsibilities (similar to the DAO approach) to ensure that the project is highly matched to user needs and can achieve growth through decentralized user promotion.
In terms of adapting to local conditions, we need to first determine the main needs of local users and the pain points we need to solve based on the nature of our own business. In this process, we must think from the perspective of others. It is possible that the value-added needs of your market are necessary needs of the local market.
By doing all of the above, your WEB3 project will no longer be just a castle in the air, but will truly serve your existing products and company strategies and become your second growth curve.
At the end of the article, I would like to add one more point. Many people who discuss WEB3 with me always mention a question, that is, whether WEB3 is the future development trend of the industry or just another hot spot blown up by capital, because there are not many WEB3 projects that are actually implemented on the market, and even fewer that are very popular.
In fact, what I want to say is that the development of any industry requires a period of accumulation and precipitation. Just like the early days of the Internet, when WWW did not immediately produce a series of successful applications, when color TVs first entered the US market, they were despised by everyone, who thought black and white TVs were more practical.
However, in this process, many companies that have found the right direction have stood out. First of all, it is because their main business needs to be transformed or further grown at the current stage, and they need to use these new technologies to see if they can achieve the effect of 1+1>2. Through their own attempts, they have found a new concept combination method that can currently optimize the efficiency of corporate operations, and then they can persist.
Otherwise, even if you are optimistic about the future of WEB3, how long can you last if you have to provide subsidies to this business for a long time? (Except for companies with super cash flow) So based on the current situation and combining the existing business with WEB3, you may be able to see more clearly what to do next.
