Several decentralised social media projects in the past have tried to provide a viable challenge to Web2 social giants like Facebook and Twitter. Yet, these attempts have seen limited success. Now, a new major Web3 social media project – Friend.tech on the fast-growing Base Layer 2 platform – tries to mount another challenge. And it has a concept rarely used before.
Decentralised Social Media State of Affairs
Web3 decentralised platforms hold massive potential to attract social media users. However, past attempts have seen limited success. Projects like Steem (STEEM) and Decentralised Social (DESO) started out with big ambitions but have seen limited uptake. Now, a new Web3 social media platform has just emerged and intends to make a major breakthrough for the entire niche. Friend.tech is a decentralised social media app launched just a week ago. The platform has since experienced massive growth in user numbers. It’s now being billed as the project that will finally make decentralised social media a serious competitor to Web2 social platforms.
What is Friend.tech?
Friend.tech is a decentralised app that allows users to create tokenised “shares” of their account/profile and then sell these shares to their “friends” – essentially, to their social media followers or anyone willing to invest in the shares of this user. The platform’s concept directly targets social media influencers. Holding a significant amount of an influencer’s shares allows a user to interact directly with the said influencer.
For influencers, this is a great opportunity to turbocharge their value on social media. Ordinary users might also benefit if their chosen influencer gains more shares. If the influencer implements any revenue sharing programs aimed at their followers, the followers might benefit monetarily. Of course, this will only happen if the influencer continues to gain shares/popularity and if such revenue distribution campaigns are indeed on the menu. We believe such arrangements are going to be very common on the platform.
Friend.tech’s concept might also ignite a bidding war between influencers. They’ll want to offer ever more generous revenue sharing models to their followers in order to grow their follower bases.
Undoubtedly, followers will also be immersed in a world of bidding wars and auctions, with other followers vying for the chance to directly communicate with their preferred influencers.
Friend.tech was launched on a Layer 2 chain, Base. Base itself launched its mainnet earlier this month and has since experienced a rapid rise in user numbers and DApps. The Base platform is supported by Coinbase, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange. The support from the well-resourced Coinbase will undoubtedly help the Layer 2 network’s growth.
Will Friend.tech Become Viable Competitor to Web2 Giants?
Friend.tech has embarked on an aggressive communication campaign to promote the platform and its unique concept. Will it be able to become the first Web3 platform to provide meaningful competition to Web2 behemoths like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? Can it even grow into a dominant force within the modest Web3 social media niche?
Potential Success Factors
Let’s first consider factors that point to the possibility of a significant success for the platform:
1. Friend.tech offers a novel concept that targets social media influencers. Influencers hold massive sway on social media and are the driving forces behind social media trends. Undoubtedly, this project will attract the interest of at least some proportion of the influencer community. In turn, the influencers will lead the crowds of their followers towards the platform.
2. Friend.tech offers a cheap and scalable hosting environment – the Base Layer 2 protocol. As a Layer 2 solution, Base has significant advantages in terms of costs and scalability over apps operating directly on Ethereum. The low costs and scalability can encourage and support more active use of the Friend.tech platform.
3. Friend.tech might be able to capitalise on the Coinbase-supported Base’s strong growth and popularity. The app is now the largest social media solution on Base. If Base grows to rival big blockchain platforms like Ethereum, Friend.tech might leverage that popularity. Of course, this will happen only if Base manages to take off in a big way, something that Coinbase will try to ensure.
Potential Limitations
Friend.tech is embarking on a very challenging mission that many projects in the past have failed – establishing a big presence in social media via a decentralised platform. The key limiting factors for the project are:
1. Many users on social media platforms like Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) have already voiced their distaste at Friend.tech’s key tenet – buying and selling shares of friends. Some have commented that the platform might lead to influencers running pump-and-dump schemes by amassing shares and then selling them on. There are also concerns about users engaging in price wars in order to buy the right to directly interact with influencers. Some sections of friend.tech might then become nothing other than “OnlyFans on steroids”.
2. While an attractive concept for influencers, Friend.tech might eventually make many ordinary users see the platform as exploitative toward them.
3. There are already concerns about the origins of the project and the data privacy mechanisms employed by it. The project’s developer is a pseudonymous online character known only as “Racer”. It’s not uncommon for decentralised projects to be launched by anonymous or pseudonymous individuals. However, the nature of the project involves processing a great deal of users’ personal data. Questions are being asked about how Friend.tech will handle the data. These questions, coupled with Racer’s pseudonymous status, create concerns that might limit the app’s wider adoption.
The crypto industry sorely needs a major Web3 social media platform on the scale of the Facebooks of the world. Will Friend.tech be the one? While a very novel concept with great potential, the project does raise many eyebrows. Would you personally pay for a share of your “friend”?
Decentralised Social Media State of Affairs
Web3 decentralised platforms hold massive potential to attract social media users. However, past attempts have seen limited success. Projects like Steem (STEEM) and Decentralised Social (DESO) started out with big ambitions but have seen limited uptake. Now, a new Web3 social media platform has just emerged and intends to make a major breakthrough for the entire niche. Friend.tech is a decentralised social media app launched just a week ago. The platform has since experienced massive growth in user numbers. It’s now being billed as the project that will finally make decentralised social media a serious competitor to Web2 social platforms.
What is Friend.tech?
Friend.tech is a decentralised app that allows users to create tokenised “shares” of their account/profile and then sell these shares to their “friends” – essentially, to their social media followers or anyone willing to invest in the shares of this user. The platform’s concept directly targets social media influencers. Holding a significant amount of an influencer’s shares allows a user to interact directly with the said influencer.
For influencers, this is a great opportunity to turbocharge their value on social media. Ordinary users might also benefit if their chosen influencer gains more shares. If the influencer implements any revenue sharing programs aimed at their followers, the followers might benefit monetarily. Of course, this will only happen if the influencer continues to gain shares/popularity and if such revenue distribution campaigns are indeed on the menu. We believe such arrangements are going to be very common on the platform.
Friend.tech’s concept might also ignite a bidding war between influencers. They’ll want to offer ever more generous revenue sharing models to their followers in order to grow their follower bases.
Undoubtedly, followers will also be immersed in a world of bidding wars and auctions, with other followers vying for the chance to directly communicate with their preferred influencers.
Friend.tech was launched on a Layer 2 chain, Base. Base itself launched its mainnet earlier this month and has since experienced a rapid rise in user numbers and DApps. The Base platform is supported by Coinbase, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange. The support from the well-resourced Coinbase will undoubtedly help the Layer 2 network’s growth.
Will Friend.tech Become Viable Competitor to Web2 Giants?
Friend.tech has embarked on an aggressive communication campaign to promote the platform and its unique concept. Will it be able to become the first Web3 platform to provide meaningful competition to Web2 behemoths like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? Can it even grow into a dominant force within the modest Web3 social media niche?
Potential Success Factors
Let’s first consider factors that point to the possibility of a significant success for the platform:
1. Friend.tech offers a novel concept that targets social media influencers. Influencers hold massive sway on social media and are the driving forces behind social media trends. Undoubtedly, this project will attract the interest of at least some proportion of the influencer community. In turn, the influencers will lead the crowds of their followers towards the platform.
2. Friend.tech offers a cheap and scalable hosting environment – the Base Layer 2 protocol. As a Layer 2 solution, Base has significant advantages in terms of costs and scalability over apps operating directly on Ethereum. The low costs and scalability can encourage and support more active use of the Friend.tech platform.
3. Friend.tech might be able to capitalise on the Coinbase-supported Base’s strong growth and popularity. The app is now the largest social media solution on Base. If Base grows to rival big blockchain platforms like Ethereum, Friend.tech might leverage that popularity. Of course, this will happen only if Base manages to take off in a big way, something that Coinbase will try to ensure.
Potential Limitations
Friend.tech is embarking on a very challenging mission that many projects in the past have failed – establishing a big presence in social media via a decentralised platform. The key limiting factors for the project are:
1. Many users on social media platforms like Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) have already voiced their distaste at Friend.tech’s key tenet – buying and selling shares of friends. Some have commented that the platform might lead to influencers running pump-and-dump schemes by amassing shares and then selling them on. There are also concerns about users engaging in price wars in order to buy the right to directly interact with influencers. Some sections of friend.tech might then become nothing other than “OnlyFans on steroids”.
2. While an attractive concept for influencers, Friend.tech might eventually make many ordinary users see the platform as exploitative toward them.
3. There are already concerns about the origins of the project and the data privacy mechanisms employed by it. The project’s developer is a pseudonymous online character known only as “Racer”. It’s not uncommon for decentralised projects to be launched by anonymous or pseudonymous individuals. However, the nature of the project involves processing a great deal of users’ personal data. Questions are being asked about how Friend.tech will handle the data. These questions, coupled with Racer’s pseudonymous status, create concerns that might limit the app’s wider adoption.
The crypto industry sorely needs a major Web3 social media platform on the scale of the Facebooks of the world. Will Friend.tech be the one? While a very novel concept with great potential, the project does raise many eyebrows. Would you personally pay for a share of your “friend”?