We hear a great deal about what social media companies are doing. For now, since they are Big Tech, the focus is mostly upon Large language Models (LLMs) and chatbots. Google, Meta, and X are all involved in this.
Elon Musk sent waves through the industry with his purchase of Twitter. He has already added a lot to the platform, including long form posting.
Not to be left behind, Mark Zuckerberg added microblogging, a feature that was monopolized by Twitter.
All of this is changing the landscape of the industry. That said, I am not of the viewpoint the industry is going to be standalone. We are seeing the merging of many industries, one of them being finance.
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Social Media Blending With Finance
This is an idea that Musk was very open about.
He is in the process of getting approvals from the different states in the U.S. to become a money transfer agent. This will allow him to incorporate a digital wallet system and facilitate financial transactions, similar to PayPal.
We can be assured that this is not the end goal for Musk. He stated that his aim is to make X the largest financial institution in the world. Many will naturally laugh at this notion yet it is something that goes back to his days with the PayPal mafia. That was his plan with it, something that was overruled by the other partners.
Musk has no barriers with X in that regard. It is his call to make.
Of course, this is still Web 2.0 stuff. When it comes to Web 3.0, there is no need to integrate payments or finance in. It already exists.
Blockchain offers the ability to seamlessly establish cryptocurrency as the foundation currency for the application. When it is tied to a blockchain, there is the basis for money transfer instantly. The second someone opens up a Hive account, as an example, they are able to send and receive funds.
No licensing or government approval necessary.
Digital Platforms
I focused this article on two industries. There is actually a third I can add: broadcast media.
This is another realm that is being severely disrupted. Since there is little regulation, technology is free to cause havoc. That is exactly what it is doing.
All of this is tied to the idea of the digital platform. It is the core of everything going forward.
When we look at many companies, they lack this. Social media entities, naturally, are operating in this manner. Banks have their digital applications but it is far from a platform. The same is true for other financial institutions such as brokerage firms.
We have to look at how things are shaping up. If digital platforms are so powerful, who is going to win in the future? Obviously, it will be those entities that have this.
This is why the financial sector is under attack. It cannot compete with FinTech. This makes Musk very dangerous to their business because it is easier for him to incorporate financial services than it would be for financial institutions to create a digital platform.
Musk is working on this; I haven't heard of a bank trying to build a social media platform.
Web 3.0 is a completely different realm. Here we see the ability to do that, all tied to a digital platform. Adding broadcast media into the mix, we can see how the attention economy feeds upon itself.
There will be no separation of TikTok, Bank of America, and YouTube. They will all be available on the same digital platform.
Of course, we can then go one step further and mention commerce. We see the natural tie to payments so this isn't a stretch. What it does, however, is start to stress another player such as Amazon. By the way, notice how that company has its Amazon Prime Video.
The Model For Web 3.0
All of this is the model for Web 3.0.
We see what is taking place within Web 2.0. That is the future. These industries are going to consolidate simply because the moats are being eliminated. Traditional avenues are being eradicated with new ones formed.
It is a situation that Web 3.0 needs to take advantage of.
The age of silos and focusing upon specific niches is dying. The future is one where the digital platform offers a wide array of services, penetrating many different industries. We see the early forms of this now.
Technology companies have an advantage: they can be in any business they want. If there is a way to tech it out, they will do it. This is especially true in the digital world which, by default, is technology.
Web 3.0 encapsulates this precisely. It was never designed in another realm. This is 100% digital. There is even a monetary system with money that never operated in any other form. It was designed in and for the digital world.
Social media without finance is not going to be around by the end of the decade. The question is whether it will still be ruled by Web 2.0 or will Web 3.0 step up and grab market share?
Time will tell on this one since development is required.