2022 Predictions: Facebook and YouTube Go the Way of MySpace?
Even before the advent of crypto economies and new business models, there was public concern about the way that the large platforms horde our information for their own benefit.
The benefits of the new platforms like Steemit and Synereo suggest that these huge companies might get starved for attention.
It stands to reason that if you can get paid to post content and participate in a network, you will. You'll take your participation more seriously, and do it more enthusiastically.
When your information is yours, you can't be censored, and you're being compensated for your time and thought, how can you not have goodwill toward the tools and protocols that make it possible?
And furthermore, how could you not have contempt for the platforms that ask you to do those things for free.
The new economy is giving rise to a powerful new idea: your participation and your data has an inherent and tangible value.
Google and Facebook learned this and used aggregate user data to sell extremely well targeted Ad Space. In the next iteration of the internet economy, the companies will just pay you directly to have the chance to acquire you as a customer. No censorship, no middleman taking a 100% cut.
Given that generations of technology are getting shorter, we should expect this transition to happen exponentially faster than we would have expected in the past. So while it took 10+ years to build internet 2.0, it makes sense to me that internet 3.0 may only take 4-5 years to mature.
So that's why I say that by 2022, Facebook and YouTube will probably feel a lot like MySpace.
What do you think?