Web3 May Flip ‘Content Consumption on its Head,’ but Still Needs Traditional Media

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While Web3 is poised to revolutionize existing businesses and entire industries—from finance to film—MyCo’s co-founder Phil McKenzie believes matrimony is more meaningful than making a martyr out of Web2 and its associated business models.

“It's about marrying the two together and bridging them,” McKenzie told Decrypt at the inaugural MetaCannes Festival in France, which he helped co-organize. “Web3 is fantastic, and it has a lot of promise and opportunity—don't just discount everything.”

When it comes to Web3, the pitch is often an evolution of the internet, where applications built using blockchain technology can offer users more control in areas like asset and data ownership than is provided by today’s tech giants.

“This has the potential to solve a lot of problems that we face in the entertainment sector, and potentially open up all sorts of other doors,” McKenzie said.

MyCo, a Dubai-based streaming platform that lets users earn crypto by viewing content, is “flipping the whole idea of content consumption on its head,” said McKenzie, as it builds out its roster to include content like live sports, podcasts, and short-form content.

The company also devotes substantial resources to producing, acquiring, and financing projects featured on its platform, like movies, short films, and TV series. And, at the end of the day, McKenzie said this process mirrors traditional media during events like MetaCannes, which coincided with this year’s Festival de Cannes.

“Web3 is still not mainstream,” he said. “We want to be here and interacting with all the other people that are on the ground—whether that's producers, sales agents, distributors, [or] financiers.”

Partnerships with established media players are key to MyCo’s growth, said McKenzie, adding that its platform is in a unique position to serve as a bridge, helping traditional media organizations “dip their toe” into an emerging era of content distribution.

“We are kind of interacting in a very traditional way,” McKenzie conceded. “We've got to onboard people.”

McKenzie said that MyCo’s Web3 elements are leveraged primarily by its users, as opposed to how the company produces and procures content for the streaming platform. But McKenzie signaled that separation might fade in the future. 

“The Web3 element is very much audience-facing for us at the moment,” he said. “Although we do have some plans up our sleeve for maybe using the platform in order to help generate funding for projects going forward as well.”

Revenue generated through the streaming platform is split between its users and creators: 35% goes to viewers while 65% goes to those that hold the content’s license, said McKenzie. And he noted that MyCo recently surpassed its 2 millionth user, signaling more users are earning crypto by watching content on MyCo’s platform.

“The watch-and-earn model is really catching fire,” McKenzie said. “It feels like a modern and innovative representation of what content streaming and consumption should look like.”