The Exploration and Challenges of Web3 Social: The Next Mass Application or a Flash in the Pan?

Web3 social is redefining our perception of social networks and providing a range of innovative solutions. Whether it's social finance ( SocialFi ) or decentralized social ( Desoc ), Web3 social is actively exploring the possibilities of future social networks.

Looking back at the development of social products, Web2 social products like Facebook, X, and Instagram have provided users with unprecedented convenience for sharing, interacting, and communicating. However, this convenience also hides some dilemmas. Web2 social platforms typically centralize control over user data, lacking transparency and privacy protection, and platform governance and decision-making are often controlled by a few centralized entities. Additionally, creator incentives are also a controversial point in Web2 social products.

At the same time, Web3 social is redefining social networks in a completely new way. Web3 social emphasizes decentralization, user data privacy and control, as well as incentive mechanisms from cryptocurrency economics, giving rise to protocols and products such as Lens, CyberConnect, Farcaster, Phaver, and Debox. Concepts like SocialFi integrate finance and social aspects, reshaping the landscape of social networks. Desoc, on the other hand, aims to establish a decentralized social ecosystem to eliminate many of the issues present in Web2 social networks.

Although the social track has been hoped to be the next Mass Adoption for a long time, it has not produced large-scale applications since its inception. What will the future of Web3 social look like? Are the endless social products a flash in the pan or the next mass adoption?

Why do we need social in Web3?

The essence of social interaction does not change with the development of history.

As mentioned in Tom Standage's "A History of Social Media", we often think of social media as an emerging concept born out of the development of the internet and digital technology. However, in reality, humans have always engaged in socializing and information dissemination in different forms. From ancient letters and coffeehouses to modern social networks, the essence of social media has not changed; only its forms and technological tools have continuously evolved. Social media is an extension of human characteristics, a way for us to pursue connection and communication.

It is easy to find that humans have had a social need since ancient times. However, in essence, whether it is face-to-face communication, sending messages via carrier pigeons, or carving messages onto stone tablets for others, the fundamental nature of human social needs has not changed significantly with the passage of time. The core needs can be summarized in the following four points:

1. Maintain connection and a sense of belonging: Social interactions provide people with a sense of belonging, fulfill emotional and psychological needs, establish intimate relationships, and obtain support.

2. Information learning and exchange: Through social interactions, people can share experiences, knowledge, and information, promoting learning, development, and personal growth.

3. Cooperation and Mutual Assistance: Social interactions help people collaborate, cooperate, jointly solve problems, and achieve common goals.

4. Social Identity and Self-Expression: Socializing is a way for people to showcase themselves, establish identity recognition, and gain acknowledgment.

addresses the "fast, good, and cost-effective" needs of Web2 social.

After the mid-2000s, Web 2.0 social media began to thrive. Facebook became a pioneer, offering users the ability to share information, photos, videos, status updates, and more, allowing them to build social networks. Subsequently, various social platforms such as X, YouTube, and LinkedIn emerged.

Each platform has its own unique features and functions. For example, X has become an important platform for information dissemination and discussion with its unique instant messaging and social interaction methods. Its 140-character limit allows for rapid information spread, making it a hotspot for news and topic discussions; YouTube, as a video sharing platform, has changed the way people watch and share videos, becoming a widely popular content creation and sharing platform; LinkedIn focuses on professional networking, providing a professional network that enables users to build career relationships, share work experiences, and expand their connections; Instagram, with its powerful image sharing capabilities and social interactivity, has attracted a large number of users, becoming one of the main platforms for photo and video sharing.

In the Web2 phase, the emphasis was on user participation, interaction, and content generation. Websites transitioned from static information displays to more dynamic and interactive social platforms, enabling users to create and share content, ranging from simple text and images to richer videos, blogs, and personal profiles. With the development of mobile internet and the popularity of smartphones, people can access social media platforms anytime and anywhere, facilitating the convenience and frequency of social activities.

As the user base grows, social media has gradually become the main platform for business activities and advertising promotions. Companies and brands use social media to attract users and promote products, and the market value of social projects has also climbed steadily. Among them, the leading company Meta has seen its market value soar since its IPO in 2012, surpassing 1 trillion USD in market value in 2021.

Looking back at the development history of Web2 social networking, the essence of social needs has not changed; the core change is the provision of faster, more convenient, and cheaper services. Facebook allows people to make friends and share information more quickly, X enables faster access to trending news and interactive discussions, and LinkedIn transforms workplace networking from offline introductions to quick online professional connections... Essentially, Web2 social products address the social needs of "speed, quality, and cost-effectiveness."

The Dilemma of Traditional Social Industry

However, Web2 social also brings some issues, which can be summarized in two aspects: data ownership and centralization:

1. Data Ownership: In Web2 social products, users do not own their data; it belongs to the platform, which can lead to many issues.

• Privacy Leakage: User data is collected and utilized extensively, leading to the risk of personal privacy leakage. The platform may abuse user data or sell it to third parties, resulting in privacy leakage and data abuse issues.

• Value does not benefit users: Users' data enables social platforms to conduct targeted marketing and advertising activities, yet users are unable to benefit from the income, leading to the platform taking users' data for free.

• Cannot cross platforms: Because the user's data belongs to the platform rather than themselves, registering on different social media often requires starting from scratch. Personal information such as social business cards cannot circulate across various social platforms, making each social platform an island.

In the Web2 social environment, many creators report that after creating the majority of the value, they receive little to no compensation or only a very small part. They can build their own IP on social media platforms, but they have no ownership or control over the data and value of the content they create. Once X or YouTube deletes their profile, they lose all accumulated content data.

2. Centralization: In Web2 social products, platforms have unlimited rights to use the content.

• Weak censorship resistance: As information in Web2 is stored on centralized servers, freedom of speech cannot be realized in many countries' apps due to the influence of political, cultural, and other factors, effectively depriving individuals of their right to express themselves. Whether it is the ever-changing rules of X, account bans, or platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and WeChat, there are too many centralized restrictions and constraints that force users to dance with shackles.

Although applications like Mammoth are making efforts in decentralization, there are still many unavoidable issues. Overall, it is decentralized, but in specific servers, users still face the risk of being subjected to the tyranny of the server provider, being abandoned, and being prohibited from others.

Analysis of Web3 Social Industry Products

Facing various issues in Web2 social interactions, Web3 products are beginning to explore from multiple aspects. From the protocol layer to the application layer, Web3 social projects are flourishing to address different pain points found in Web2 social interactions.

From the perspective of the entire Web3 social industry, the Web3 social industry can be roughly divided into four parts: application layer, protocol layer, blockchain layer, and storage layer. Among them, social-specific chains provide customized L1 for social apps to better meet the needs of social apps, as social applications require more information exchange than financial Dapps, thus having higher demands for faster TPS as well as storage and indexing functions; the storage layer is used to store social-related data; the protocol layer provides public development components to help teams build products; the application layer targets a specific sub-scenario based on specific requirements.

Since the entire Web3 social track is still in the value verification stage, this study chooses to analyze Web3 social projects from different demand points of social interaction, aiming to comprehensively dissect the current development status of various projects.

Data value feeds back to users

In traditional social products, user data is regarded as platform assets rather than the user's own property. In this case, social platforms can utilize the data provided by users to implement precise advertising targeting and personalized marketing. However, unfortunately, the value of this data has not received reasonable feedback and returns, making it difficult for users to benefit from the value of their own data. In fact, user data contributions are seen as a form of unpaid supply, freely used by the platform, leading to a situation where data is "freeloaded".

In this model, whether it is the value of the content created by creators or the personal data provided by users, most of the profits generated are monopolized by social platforms. This centralized control results in negligible earnings for users and creators in terms of data value sharing.

However, the new type of Web3 social product attempts to subvert this model by solving this dilemma through various means such as token incentives and data NFTization.

Lens Protocal

Lens Protocol is a decentralized social graph protocol, founded by the team of the DeFi lending project Aave on February 8, 2022, on the Polygon chain. Its biggest feature is that all users' social graph data, including profiles, content publication and sharing, comments, and social relationships, will be stored in the form of NFTs.

Lens, as a representative protocol in the Web3 social track, has over 200 applications built on it, with the total number of users in the ecosystem reaching 370,000. Among them, the number of monthly active users peaked at over 60,000 in March of this year, and the current monthly active users are maintained at 3,000.

Lens Protocol has