Calaxy, the Web3 social marketplace co-founded by professional basketball player Spencer Dinwiddie, launched the first public version of its app on the Hedera Hashgraph blockchain last week.
Describing itself as ‘For Creators, By Creators’, the platform aims to redefine the way the creators use social media by offering new models of creator/fan relationship made possible by blockchain technology.
In essence, what this boils down to is a three-tier shop offering differing levels of engagement with individual creators.
Level one is your basic ‘Fan Club’: think Patreon or Only Fans, where subscribers pay monthly to access exclusive content. Posts marked as ‘Fan Club only’ by creators will show up as blurred to other users, giving further encouragement to subscribe.
Level two consists of ‘Standard Experiences’: these consist of six products with creators selecting which they wish to offer. Products include your standard video calls, pre-recorded messages, shoutouts, and special requests.
However, fans can also buy something called premium DMs, whereby they pay a fee to send you different kinds of messages (text, photo, video, link), and also pay to have a creator follow them on the site. There is no obligation for creators to respond to premium DMs or interact with fans who they are paid to follow.
The third level is ‘Featured Experiences’: these are custom-branded versions of the level two products. According to Calaxy, the difference is based on who is setting the context for the experience. Fans request the standard experiences (e.g. could you give me a shoutout for my birthday), whereas the creator defines the featured experience (e.g. one-hour private yoga session).
While this may not differ hugely from the offerings already available on existing creator marketplaces, the use of blockchain technology should mean that creators are able to retain more control over what they produce, and importantly, get to keep more of the money.
Each experience is represented by an NFT on the Hedera blockchain which can be purchased by fans using USDC or directly with fiat using a credit card. Creators are paid in USDC and can withdraw USD directly to a connected bank account.
According to a Goldman Sachs report, the creator economy is currently worth $250 billion but could grow to almost half a trillion dollars by 2027. It will be interesting to see whether Calaxy can market its blockchain-based advantages and gain significant traction in the market.
As we Observed yesterday, Hedera Hashgraph has also been in the news due to the Dropp micropayments service on the platform appearing in the FedNow Service Provider Showcase.
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