YouTube is Contemplating the Introduction of NFTs
There have been many trends in the crypto space over the years, from CryptoKitties to decentralized finance (DeFi). But never has there been the trend so widely popular and all-encompassing as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the solution that has proven to be the biggest instigator of blockchain adoption by the biggest corporations in the world.
Table of contents:
- YouTube CEO hints at the possible launch of NFTs.
- Clear intention, but no clear date.
YouTube CEO hints at the possible launch of NFTs
We have long become accustomed to the fact that the businesses of global scale have finally embraced non-fungible tokens as means of better engagement with the younger generation of customers and establishment of new revenue sources, mostly through the sale of such tokens. Nike, Adidas, and McDonald’s have already dipped their toes in NFT waters, incentivizing other corporations to follow their suit.
At the end of last month, Susan Wojcicki, the current CEO of YouTube, published a blog post titled “Letter from Susan: Our 2022 Priorities” in which she delved into such matters as the state of the creator economy and the areas in which the YouTube community can thrive. In this rather extensive text, she has briefly touched upon the matter of NFTs and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that have become the connecting dots between the creators and the consumers of their digital content. Wojcicki noted that the streaming platform has always been devoted to the ceaseless expansion of its ecosystem; and now, the expansion has reached the metaverse where content creators will be given the opportunity to “capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs.”
Clear intention, but no clear date
She also revealed that in recent times, the YouTube team has been drawing a lot of inspiration from all those incredibly interesting processes that take place in the Web3 space, which many consider to be the future of the Internet. At the moment, the platform offers ten ways to monetize the creative work, such as channel membership, Super Chat, Super Tanks, Super Stickers, sale of merch, ticketing, and YouTube Shorts, which is the feature that bears similarity with TikTok, a Chinese social networking service that boasts over 1 billion active monthly users, though it’s still no match for YouTube’s 2.3 billion active users, according to Statista.
The CEO didn’t specify when the NFTs would be made available to the creators and their followers - obviously, it must happen sometime this year - but even the prospect alone will surely have a tremendously positive effect on that particular segment of the blockchain space. The unfolding of YouTube’s plans for 2022, and its intention to give NFTs a try, came on the back of the initiative coming from other social media giants: Meta and Twitter that announced the plans to allow for NFTs to be used instead of profile pictures on the iOS version of respective social media platforms. All these developments point to the fact that non-fungible tokens are the driving force behind the development of Web3.