Medium, well-noted as the next “WordPress” of our generation, has recently brought upon a 180 degree change to their underlying business and revenue model by moving away from ads (Ads is the leading revenue vertical for majority of content creation/consumption/aggregation platforms out there; think Pandora/Spotify, Google, Yahoo etc.) This illustrates implications beyond just the company themselves but also the whole online content creation and consumption platform providers. Many venture out there to build their underlying business model on the inspirations and successes of successful online publishers; Amazon for books or Netflix for video content, but truth is, no one will pay a monthly subscription for online publishing content.
Medium is by far one of favorite platforms to discover ideas, concepts and self-discoveries. Per Medium’s 2016 annual summary email, I consumed close to almost 4000 Medium articles in 2016, but the question here is how much of that number is actually real value (value in the eye of the specific content consumer). Neil from Above Avalon recently wrote something that really resonates the current landscape blog content creation and consumption industry:
“We believe people who write and share ideas should be rewarded on their ability to enlighten and inform, not simply their ability to attract a few seconds of attention…we believe that a better system – one that serves people – is possible. In fact, it’s imperative.”
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures noted that it would be interesting to rebuild Medium and other content publishers business model on that of Steem, a blockchain-based social network.
“The thing about token based business models is that the token captures the value of the network as it grows and it is the only business model that exists for the network. You can buy tokens if you want to speculate on the value of the network (or invest in the online publication business, as it were). You can earn tokens by participating in the network (or by publishing content on the online publishing network, as it were). You can spend tokens to participate in the network (or by engaging in or curating the online publishing network, as it were).” This underlying challenges that Medium and other online content publishers face is creating a balance between the value (both monetary and intangible value) provided by content publishers and content consumers. Utilizing a token-based business model will allow both parties to walk close to that equilibrium.
*Credit to Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures
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